Bellator’s Rebney: Live TV Deal a Must for Next Season

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, NewsWith Bellator in the midst of promoting the biggest card in company history – Bellator 33 – which features a superfight between lightweight stars Eddie Alvarez and Roger Huerta along with a welterweight ti…

Filed under: , ,

With Bellator in the midst of promoting the biggest card in company history – Bellator 33 – which features a superfight between lightweight stars Eddie Alvarez and Roger Huerta along with a welterweight title match between unbeatens Ben Askren and Lyman Good, there have been complaints from fans about preemptions which make finding the organization’s fights difficult.

But company Bjorn Rebney recognizes that addressing the issue is a pivotal development in any future growth. Currently in the midst of negotiations for TV rights to the upcoming fourth season which will begin in February 2011, Rebney says live television is a must.

Bellator’s Bryan Baker Fighting Through Cancer and Opponents Simultaneously

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, NewsBryan Baker walked into the Bellator cage on June 24 with a sense of faith and a sense of fate. He’s a spiritual man, an optimistic man, and to him it just seemed like everything was lining up perfectly. H…

Filed under: , ,

Bryan Baker walked into the Bellator cage on June 24 with a sense of faith and a sense of fate. He’s a spiritual man, an optimistic man, and to him it just seemed like everything was lining up perfectly. He’d won each of his first two tournament matches easily to advance to the middleweight final. He was feeling better than he had in months. He was settling into his new life in a new state. And just one more win would give him a chance to fight for a championship, a goal to which he’d long aspired.

A more pessimistic, or even more practical perspective might have looked at the situation differently. Such viewpoints might have seen things as unsettled at best, unraveling at worst. But dissenting viewpoints had no access to Baker’s reality. As he entered the fight against flashy Russian Alexander Shlemenko in Louisville, Kentucky, few were privy to the details of Baker’s physical condition. In fact, so closely held was the secret that even his boss, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, was among those who’d been left in the dark.

Unbeknownst to few more than his trainer, his doctor, a few family members and friends, 24-year-old Bryan Baker was competing in the biggest match of his mixed martial arts career while in the midst of a fight with cancer.

Lombard vs. Shlemenko Bellator Title Match Likely for October 28

Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, NewsHector Lombard steps back into the Bellator cage on Thursday when he faces Herbert “Whisper” Goodman in a non-title matchup, but the Cuban middleweight will have little time to rest upon the bout’s conclus…

Filed under: , ,

Hector Lombard steps back into the Bellator cage on Thursday when he faces Herbert “Whisper” Goodman in a non-title matchup, but the Cuban middleweight will have little time to rest upon the bout’s conclusion.

The Bellator middleweight champion is likely to defend his belt against No. 1 contender Alexander Shlemenko on Oct. 28 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney told MMA Fighting.

Bellator Attorney: Zuffa Lawsuit ‘Will End Up Being Not Very Significant’

Filed under: UFC, WEC, FanHouse Exclusive, Bellator, NewsAn attorney for the Bellator Fighting Championships is confident a lawsuit filed against the promotion and MMA agent Ken Pavia by Zuffa LLC will prove to be little cause for concern – ultimately….

Filed under: , , , ,

An attorney for the Bellator Fighting Championships is confident a lawsuit filed against the promotion and MMA agent Ken Pavia by Zuffa LLC will prove to be little cause for concern – ultimately.

As first reported by Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole on Thursday, Zuffa, parent company of the UFC and WEC, filed a suit against Bellator and Pavia, as well as unnamed co-defendants, in Clark County (Nev.) District Court claiming Pavia gave proprietary documents to Bellator on request from Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney.

The suit alleges Bellator and Pavia were conspiring to essentially steal trade secrets from Zuffa through the exchange of confidential documents in e-mails. Pavia, head of the MMA Agents representation firm, handles dozens of MMA fighters, including many under the Zuffa umbrella.

Speaking to MMA Fighting on Friday, Rebney said the promotion’s attorney, Patrick English, had instructed him to not discuss the suit publicly. And Pavia, also reached Friday, said he, too, was unable to discuss the pending litigation.

But English said he believes if the two sides come together, Zuffa’s concerns will be alleviated.

Zuffa Sues Agent Ken Pavia and Bellator Over ‘Theft of Trade Secrets’

(The little guy may look sweet, but he bit a toddler’s face at a birthday party later that day. Wasn’t the first time that Pavia’s done that, either.)
Prominent MMA agent Ken Pavia — whose client roster includes such well-known fighters as Mart…

Ken Pavia puppy MMA agent
(The little guy may look sweet, but he bit a toddler’s face at a birthday party later that day. Wasn’t the first time that Pavia’s done that, either.)

Prominent MMA agent Ken Pavia — whose client roster includes such well-known fighters as Martin Kampmann, Chris Lytle, Anthony Johnson, and Cristiane "Cris Cyborg" Santos — is in serious hot water with the UFC. As first reported by Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole, Zuffa LLC has filed a suit alleging that Pavia passed along trade secrets and confidential Zuffa documents to upstart MMA promotion Bellator, which used the documents to help run its business. Bellator is named as a co-defendent in the suit, as well as other unnamed individuals and corporations that Zuffa alleges participated in breach of contract. From the Yahoo! piece:

According to the suit, filed Wednesday in Clark County District Court, Pavia delivered confidential contracts, including fighter agreements, to Bellator after being asked to do so in a July 4 email to him from Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney

An email which Zuffa’s lawsuit alleges is from Rebney to Pavia on July 4 was attached as an exhibit to the 16-page suit. In it, Rebney writes, ” … You’ve been great about sending us ‘All’ of the seminal docs from the UFC, so that we can re-do them and implement them for Bellator.”

read more

CagePotato PSA: ‘The Winnebago Man’ Is Bjorn Rebney’s Father

(Warning: Audio is very NSFW. And absolutely hilarious.)
Oh my God, you guys. MiddleEasy has confirmed that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is actually the son of Jack "Winnebago Man" Rebney, star of one of the first (and most beloved) viral v…

(Warning: Audio is very NSFW. And absolutely hilarious.)

Oh my God, you guys. MiddleEasy has confirmed that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is actually the son of Jack "Winnebago Man" Rebney, star of one of the first (and most beloved) viral videos of all time. In case you’ve never been introduced to the wonders of Winnebago Man, watch the above video and allow BusinessInsider to explain:

In August 1988, Winnebago Industries hired a video crew to shoot two 10-minute long sales videos. They tapped salesman Jack Rebney, a former broadcast news producer, to star in these commercials. They shot the videos in Forest City, Iowa – the headquarters of Winnebago Industries. Just like any other video shoot, outtakes and mistakes were to be expected, but no one could have anticipated Jack Rebney’s melt down. The RV salesman would constantly yell and curse at himself, his crew, and at the flies that were swarming him.

After the grueling two week shoot, Winnebago Industries got their commercial, but the video crew got so much more. They spliced together the outtakes of the shoot and circulated the video amongst themselves and their friends. Basically, the "Winnebago Man" was passed around on VHS tapes for around 15 years before being posted on YouTube for the world to see.

Jack Rebney currently lives in a cabin in a Northern California forest, and he’s now the subject of a new documentary about the Winnebago Man phenomenon. Until recently, he was completely unaware of his Internet notoriety. Anyway, we just wanted to share our surprise and excitement that Winnebago Man has a connection to the world of MMA. That’s your dad, Bjorn. That’s your dad.