Last month, former Strikeforce champion Muhammad Lawal was scheduled to take his next academic step towards the Bellator light-heavyweight tournament title. Sure, he had to fight someone, but no one seemed to give much credit to his opponent, Emanuel Newton.
The two had traveled and trained in the same circles, even together, but their careers couldn’t have been more different. Lawal was a former top international wrestler that entered high-level MMA with great fanfare and quickly became one of the most dangerous 205-pound fighters in the world.
Newton, instead, had toiled on mostly the regional circuits for nearly ten years. He had fought, and sometimes beaten, guys who would go on to fight and win in the UFC, but Newton’s own shot at the big time had yet to come.
Fighting in the Bellator tournament, however, gave him his chance. Both Newton and Lawal won their first-round fights in January and advanced to face one another. All the attention, including from this writer and site, was on Lawal.
With his pedigree, brash public persona, and world class skills, “King Mo” was the story. The world took for granted that he had taken a step down to fight in Bellator after being fired by Zuffa (the parent company of Strikeforce and the UFC) and that Lawal would easily stomp through every one of his opponents in the tournament, Newton included.
Last month, former Strikeforce champion Muhammad Lawal was scheduled to take his next academic step towards the Bellator light-heavyweight tournament title. Sure, he had to fight someone, but no one seemed to give much credit to his opponent, Emanuel Newton.
The two had traveled and trained in the same circles, even together, but their careers couldn’t have been more different. Lawal was a former top international wrestler that entered high-level MMA with great fanfare and quickly became one of the most dangerous 205-pound fighters in the world.
Newton, instead, had toiled on mostly the regional circuits for nearly ten years. He had fought, and sometimes beaten, guys who would go on to fight and win in the UFC, but Newton’s own shot at the big time had yet to come.
Fighting in the Bellator tournament, however, gave him his chance. Both Newton and Lawal won their first-round fights in January and advanced to face one another. All the attention, including from this writer and site, was on Lawal.
With his pedigree, brash public persona, and world class skills, “King Mo” was the story. The world took for granted that he had taken a step down to fight in Bellator after being fired by Zuffa (the parent company of Strikeforce and the UFC) and that Lawal would easily stomp through every one of his opponents in the tournament, Newton included.
For his part, Lawal insisted to us that Newton was a real fighter who posed real danger, but no one really listened. Fighting is intrinsically meritocratic when left to its own devices, however, and our expectations and prejudices have no bearing on what happens in the ring.
On February 21st, Emanuel Newton cut Muhammed Lawal’s Bellator coronation short by knocking him out cold in the first round with a spinning back fist. The punch, like Newton himself, looked to be an afterthought. But both packed more power and surprising timing than was expected, and tonight Newton finds himself in the finals of Bellator’s Season 8 light-heavyweight tournament against Mikhail Zayats.
The day before weighing in for the fight this week, Newton insisted to CagePotato that Lawal’s hype didn’t faze him leading up to their bout last month. “I didn’t feel too much, man. I didn’t let the hype, the attention for my opponent, anything, affect me. I had a fight in front of me and that was it,” he told us.
Not buying into your opponent’s hype is one thing, but being such an overlooked underdog had to have motivated “The Hardcore Kid.” Still, the plain-speaking Newton insists that he didn’t feel slighted. Rather, he was too busy training to worry about being insulted by being dismissed. He does allow that winning was sweet, though.
“Afterwards it was definitely sweet,” he said. “I liked showing what I can do.”
Predictably, Newton didn’t let his surprise KO of Bellator’s biggest star distract him from his next task — fighting Zayats in about a month’s time. “I had to move forward,” he said. “I have a tough guy in front of me.”
Indeed he does. Zayats has won his past seven fights, including a TKO over former UFC title challenger, Renato “Babalu” Sobral.
Newton may not talk trash, but his confidence is unmistakable. It is also clear that much of it comes from his faith.
“I feel like I’ve got God with me and so there’s nothing I can’t do,” Newton told us.
He doesn’t seem to mean that God wants him to win and not Zayats, necessarily. Newton just seems to believe that the higher power he believes in makes anything possible for him, if he reaches out and grabs it.
“I think Mikhail is a God-fearing man as well,” Newton ended.
You may have never heard of Brett Cooper (18-7), but chances are you know a lot of the guys he’s beaten. The middleweight has scored victories against six veterans of the UFC, Strikeforce, and WEC over the course of his eight-year career.
Tonight at Bellator 92, Cooper fights another UFC veteran – TUF 7 castmember Dan Cramer – in the semifinals of Bellator’s Season 8 Middleweight tournament, airing on Spike. The 25-year-old Southern-California native’s journey towards respect and notoriety has been long and hard since he decided he wanted to become a mixed martial arts fighter.
His interest was as it is now, simple but hard to explain. “I was always an athlete as a kid, and in all the sports I did I always wanted to be the best,” Cooper tells CagePotato.
“When I started training martial arts, I figured the way to show you’re the best at that was to fight in MMA. So, when I first walked into a gym, I told the coaches, ‘I want to be a fighter,’” he laughs.
Cooper admits that people like that often get dismissed or laughed at in serious gyms. But the kid stuck with it and threw himself into the deep end, fighting early and often. Cooper was seventeen the first time he fought as a professional, though it wasn’t until a couple years later that he says he started thinking of himself as a pro.
“I didn’t start to take it as a professional thing until I was around twenty years old,” he says. “Around that time, I fought Rory Markham, I fought [Jason] Von Flue. I started to take it more seriously and train even better, to fight those guys.”
You may have never heard of Brett Cooper (18-7), but chances are you know a lot of the guys he’s beaten. The middleweight has scored victories against six veterans of the UFC, Strikeforce, and WEC over the course of his eight-year career.
Tonight at Bellator 92, Cooper fights another UFC veteran – TUF 7 castmember Dan Cramer – in the semifinals of Bellator’s Season 8 Middleweight tournament, airing on Spike. The 25-year-old Southern-California native’s journey towards respect and notoriety has been long and hard since he decided he wanted to become a mixed martial arts fighter.
His interest was as it is now, simple but hard to explain. “I was always an athlete as a kid, and in all the sports I did I always wanted to be the best,” Cooper tells CagePotato.
“When I started training martial arts, I figured the way to show you’re the best at that was to fight in MMA. So, when I first walked into a gym, I told the coaches, ‘I want to be a fighter,’” he laughs.
Cooper admits that people like that often get dismissed or laughed at in serious gyms. But the kid stuck with it and threw himself into the deep end, fighting early and often. Cooper was seventeen the first time he fought as a professional, though it wasn’t until a couple years later that he says he started thinking of himself as a pro.
“I didn’t start to take it as a professional thing until I was around twenty years old,” he says. “Around that time, I fought Rory Markham, I fought [Jason] Von Flue. I started to take it more seriously and train even better, to fight those guys.”
Cooper’s motivation in the sport is still to become the best in the world. He looks at this Bellator tournament, with its brutal competition schedule and cable network television stage, as a chance to take his next big step in that direction.
“The stage that Bellator is providing, especially now with being on Spike, is a big opportunity,” he says. It is even worth putting himself through fighting every three or four weeks, something previously unheard of in modern MMA. “I don’t think anyone would really want to do a tournament, because it is so challenging. But, with this opportunity, I’m all for it. If I were to win this tournament, it would mean I’m among the best in the world.”
Bellator Featherweight tournament semi-finalist Mike Richman (14-2) had a different path to MMA but has a similar goal as Cooper. Richman’s fight against Alexandre Bezerra tonight in Temecula, CA — also on the Bellator 92 main card — is a bit of a homecoming for the former Marine.
In between three tours of Iraq, Richman was stationed at nearby Camp Pendleton. He’s actually spending time there with old friends and amidst familiar surroundings while speaking with us during fight week.
Richman says that after high school, with all his friends going off to college, he instead joined the Marine Corps because he “wanted to get out there, travel, and actually do something.” While Richman loves the Marine Corps and says it has become a huge part of his identity and who he is, he got out of military service because of an intense desire to once more, “do something.” This time, it was to compete in MMA professionally.
“We watched a lot of fights, a lot of UFC, out there,” he says. “We also did a lot of grappling in training.”
Richman began to think that he, in fact, could also do what he saw pro fighters do on TV. “I told my superiors and friends and they thought I was crazy,” Richman says.
“They said, ‘Richman, you’re doing great as a Sergeant, you could make a career out of this.’ But I knew I wanted to try MMA.”
While he is still struggling to break through, no one thinks Richman is crazy anymore. He’s built one of the best records out of any American featherweight prospect and is two wins away from a title shot with a major organization.
“My old Sergeant told me recently, ‘I remember you telling me you wanted to fight years ago and now we see you fighting on TV – you’re really doing it.’ Hearing that meant the world to me,” the Minnesota native admits.
Like Cooper, Richman believes that that winning the Bellator tournament will put him in elite company. “Winning would mean less financial stress in my life. I do have two kids. Winning that amount of money in that amount of time would be really great,” he says.
But as with all true fighters, the fighting isn’t done for the money alone. Two days before stepping into the cage to fight another man, but also to try and make his dreams come true, Richman reveals his perhaps his truest motivation. “Winning also means breaking into the top ten in the world, and that doesn’t have a price tag,” he says.
Lawal is back in action tonight at Bellator 90, where he and Emanuel Newton will meet in the semi-finals of the promotion’s Season 8 light-heavyweight tournament. We caught up with Mo recently to discuss getting back in the ring and his training for the peculiar tournament structure. Check out our conversation below, and be sure to tune in to the Spike TV broadcast of Bellator 90 at 10 p.m. ET, which will also feature the Season 8 welterweight tournament finals, and the delayed featherweight tournament final between Shahbulat Shamhalaev and Rad Martinez.
CagePotato: What was it like getting back in the cage last month after such a long layoff?
Muhammed Lawal: The weird thing is. It didn’t feel any different. I had [agent] Mike Kogan, my brother Bull who is fighting in Legacy Fighting Championships in April and Jeff Mayweather with me like usual. I had all my friends and family and coaches around me, so it felt normal.
But I also felt relieved and I felt rejuvenated to see blood and sweat on you, to step into the cage. Seeing my opponent on the other side made me realize what I really missed. It’s like when you are dating a girl. When she’s gone you think, ‘damn, I really miss this or that about her.’
I wanted to get a feel for things in the cage when I got in there but the dude [Mysiala] came forward with haymakers and I knew this might happen, so luckily Jeff Mayweahter trained me well. He trained me to slip, slip, catch, block and roll, and that’s what I tried to do. I hit him with a check hook while he was trying to land a big shot.
CP: Your semi-final fight is just four weeks after the last one. Do you have any injuries left over that you’ll have to fight with?
Lawal is back in action tonight at Bellator 90, where he and Emanuel Newton will meet in the semi-finals of the promotion’s Season 8 light-heavyweight tournament. We caught up with Mo recently to discuss getting back in the ring and his training for the peculiar tournament structure. Check out our conversation below, and be sure to tune in to the Spike TV broadcast of Bellator 90 at 10 p.m. ET, which will also feature the Season 8 welterweight tournament finals, and the delayed featherweight tournament final between Shahbulat Shamhalaev and Rad Martinez.
CagePotato: What was it like getting back in the cage last month after such a long layoff?
Muhammed Lawal: The weird thing is. It didn’t feel any different. I had [agent] Mike Kogan, my brother Bull who is fighting in Legacy Fighting Championships in April and Jeff Mayweather with me like usual. I had all my friends and family and coaches around me, so it felt normal.
But I also felt relieved and I felt rejuvenated to see blood and sweat on you, to step into the cage. Seeing my opponent on the other side made me realize what I really missed. It’s like when you are dating a girl. When she’s gone you think, ‘damn, I really miss this or that about her.’
I wanted to get a feel for things in the cage when I got in there but the dude [Mysiala] came forward with haymakers and I knew this might happen, so luckily Jeff Mayweahter trained me well. He trained me to slip, slip, catch, block and roll, and that’s what I tried to do. I hit him with a check hook while he was trying to land a big shot.
CP: Your semi-final fight is just four weeks after the last one. Do you have any injuries left over that you’ll have to fight with?
Lawal: I’ve got a scratch on my cauliflower ear, that’s it. So I’ve had to keep that clean to prevent staph infection but other than that I’m fine.
CP: I’m always interested in asking fighters how they try to condition themselves. As a camp winds down, you’ve got to maintain your conditioning but also taper down a bit so as not to tire out your muscles. Being a part of this Bellator tournament, though, it seems you’ve got a much different task than most high-level fighters in other organization. How have you been approaching conditioning for this tournament? Do you take each three-to-four week period as its own camp or are you trying to build on things between fights?
Lawal: I don’t really do training camps. In college I learned how to do periodization training to try and find the right time to peak. We break training and fights into phases, with the idea of peaking for the finals. My first phase, for the first fight in the tournament didn’t have a lot of strength work in it. I did a lot of rounds and technique. Then, for the next phase, this fight, I worked with my strength coach on exploding and recovering. So, I’d do a circuit and then take a thirty-second break so that if I have to explode three times in a fight, for example, I will be able to. For the finals we will be going all-out with a full-out training camp that is power-focused. We’ve been slowly adding things.
CP: Is the Bellator tournament structure similar to what you experienced during your amateur wrestling career, because of all the meets and tournaments you have to do throughout a year?
Lawal: College was similar, yeah. In college you have to peak for two things — conference championships and nationals. You have to be in peak shape but not over-train. In international wrestling, you’ve got U.S. nationals, the trials and then the world tournament. I had great coaching from Kevin Jackson. Josh Smith was my college coach. Even in high school, I had great coaching on how to do this.
CP: You’ve fought all over during your MMA career, already. You’ve fought in Japan, in the states for Strikeforce, and now for Bellator. How was the specific experience fighting for this new organization?
Lawal: It is the same because they are all professional. Things start on time. There is a set schedule. The only thing that is different is the platform.
CP: Speaking of the platform, Bellator is now a part of Viacom and your fights are perhaps on a larger platform than they have been before; it’s certainly Bellator’s largest platform. The ratings have been promising for Bellator on Spike. Are you excited about being a centerpiece to Bellator’s strategy to grow larger and become a major MMA player?
Lawal: My goal is to help bring to it to the forefront. Right now, it won’t be what it will be. But if I can help it get there and the kids now are reaping the benefits of it later, I’ll be happy.
CP: Have you studied Emanuel Newton much? When you look at him, what do you see in an opponent?
Lawal: I’ve studied him. I know him. I like him. He’s a good guy. He’s got an awkward Tae Kwon Do style of kicking and he is able to pace himself real well. He fights. I know it’s going to be a fight in there.
CAGEPOTATO: I’m here with CagePotato favorite Nick Newell, Nick how are you doing?
NICK NEWELL: Good, good, I’m glad to be on the website again. I’m a huge CagePotato fan, and you guys have always had my back, so I really love the site, and I love that I’m getting more press from you guys.
Well, we’re big fans of you. Let’s talk about Tap Cancer Out, and this organization that you’ve aligned yourself with.
Jon Thomas who runs Tap Cancer Out is a longtime training partner of mine and a good friend. He’s a great guy and he’s got a great cause going. Cancer affects a lot of people, and I’m sure everybody knows someone who’s had cancer. A former training partner of mine had cancer, and I have family members who have had it, and it’s terrible. Any way you can contribute and help people out that have it is great.
During your MMA career there have been a lot of people who just didn’t want to fight you because of your physical attributes. Talk to us about some of the challenges you’ve faced getting to where you are now, as a 9-0 fighter.
It was a crazy journey, it took a long time — a lot longer than I would have liked — but the whole time while I wasn’t fighting, I was training and getting better and better. At first I got fights, and then I started beating people and then no one wanted to fight me. And they said, “Oh, it’s because you have one hand,” or whatever, but they were just trying to duck me, I think. And now that I’m fighting for the XFC, I get to fight really top-level guys, and everybody’s calling me out, so it’s different.
So what’s next, are you going to stay with XFC, or will you start looking at bigger promotions and try to get your name out a little more?
CAGEPOTATO: I’m here with CagePotato favorite Nick Newell, Nick how are you doing?
NICK NEWELL: Good, good, I’m glad to be on the website again. I’m a huge CagePotato fan, and you guys have always had my back, so I really love the site, and I love that I’m getting more press from you guys.
Well, we’re big fans of you. Let’s talk about Tap Cancer Out, and this organization that you’ve aligned yourself with.
Jon Thomas who runs Tap Cancer Out is a longtime training partner of mine and a good friend. He’s a great guy and he’s got a great cause going. Cancer affects a lot of people, and I’m sure everybody knows someone who’s had cancer. A former training partner of mine had cancer, and I have family members who have had it, and it’s terrible. Any way you can contribute and help people out that have it is great.
During your MMA career there have been a lot of people who just didn’t want to fight you because of your physical attributes. Talk to us about some of the challenges you’ve faced getting to where you are now, as a 9-0 fighter.
It was a crazy journey, it took a long time — a lot longer than I would have liked — but the whole time while I wasn’t fighting, I was training and getting better and better. At first I got fights, and then I started beating people and then no one wanted to fight me. And they said, “Oh, it’s because you have one hand,” or whatever, but they were just trying to duck me, I think. And now that I’m fighting for the XFC, I get to fight really top-level guys, and everybody’s calling me out, so it’s different.
So what’s next, are you going to stay with XFC, or will you start looking at bigger promotions and try to get your name out a little more?
XFC has a lot of great things going on, and I’m glad to be a part of them. UFC and Bellator have great things going on too; they’re great organizations. I just want to fight the best guys in the world, so whoever’s going to give me the opportunity to do that and challenge myself, and give me a chance to cement my spot as one of the best, that’s where I want to be. I’m ready for all comers right now.
Yeah, the UFC is the biggest league in the world. If you play football, you want to play in the NFL. If you play baseball, you want to play in the MLB. The UFC is that for MMA, so of course I want to fight there. And I think I’ve done a lot more than a lot of people have that get in. I think I’ve earned my chance. But life’s not fair. He [Dana White] wants to say just because of the way I was born that he’s worried that I’m gonna get hurt, and I think that’s kind of ridiculous, because it’s a sport where people get hurt all the time. I’ve proven that I’m more than capable of competing at a very high level. I’m not invincible, anything can happen, but I can beat a lot of the guys there now, and I’m only getting better every day. If they put me in there, I would immediately establish myself as one of the better guys in the division, without a doubt.
Shifting gears a little, the Olympic wrestling controversy has dominated headlines lately. Can I get your opinion on that?
Yeah, man, I think it’s ridiculous! Wrestling is the first sport. Wrestling and track & field are the Olympics, you know? And I think it’s kind of ridiculous that they replace it with, like, golf. There are plenty of opportunities to make money in golf. The ultimate goal in golf is not to win an Olympic gold medal. But when you start wrestling, every kid’s dream is to be an Olympic gold medalist. That’s the ultimate goal, and to take that away from people who have been working so hard…
I think the Olympics are turning into a rich man’s games. The whole committee, they’re wealthy people, and they’re adding in things that definitely require hard work, but are more skills than sports. The Olympics should be about actual sports where you push your body to the physical limit, and to have these guys who ride yachts all day, and they sit and eat their caviar, and make their horses dance, and do synchronized swimming — I mean, all those things are hard, but they’re all rich people’s sports. And you have these rich guys on the committee that are getting funded by other rich people who want to see rich people’s sports, and it’s not really fair to the everyday people, you know? Wrestling is the first sport out there. The Olympics aren’t the Olympics without wrestling.
I’ve gotten to meet a lot of Olympians and train with them, and I can tell you that it’s their whole life. I dedicate myself to MMA, they dedicate themselves to wrestling. And wrestling truly is the hardest sport out there. Every year, you watch someone win a gold medal, and see their emotion — it’s especially great when they’re from the USA, but it’s cool with any country — and I can feel for all the hard work those guys put in, man. It’s really a magical thing, and to see that taken away, it’s really going to hurt the sport a lot.
CagePotato contributor Oliver Chan was on hand at this weekend’s MMA World Expo in New York City, where he got his microphone in front of a wide-range of MMA stars and personalities. We’ll be running highlights from his interviews all week. First up: A brief chat with former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who is enjoying a rare moment of peace between his last epic battle and whatever comes next…
CAGEPOTATO: You just came off a tough fight against Jose Aldo, and everybody wants to know: What’s next on the agenda for you?
FRANKIE EDGAR: Yeah, it’s two weeks out and I really haven’t made any decision on what I’m gonna do. You know, I’m gonna get back in there, but I don’t know when — not too long, I don’t like taking too long of a break. I’m already training, so we’ll just see how it goes.
Do you think you’ll jump back up to lightweight?
I think I’ll stay at ’45 for now. We’ll see what happens in the future, though.
Is there any opponent in particular you’ll be gunning for?
Nah, I don’t pick people’s names out, really. We’ll talk to Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta], Joe Silva and these guys, and my team, and we’ll figure out something out, I’m sure.
Switching gears, here, the big news from the Olympic Committee is that wrestling is possibly on the chopping block for the 2020 Games. What are your thoughts on that?
CagePotato contributor Oliver Chan was on hand at this weekend’s MMA World Expo in New York City, where he got his microphone in front of a wide-range of MMA stars and personalities. We’ll be running highlights from his interviews all week. First up: A brief chat with former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who is enjoying a rare moment of peace between his last epic battle and whatever comes next…
CAGEPOTATO: You just came off a tough fight against Jose Aldo, and everybody wants to know: What’s next on the agenda for you?
FRANKIE EDGAR: Yeah, it’s two weeks out and I really haven’t made any decision on what I’m gonna do. You know, I’m gonna get back in there, but I don’t know when — not too long, I don’t like taking too long of a break. I’m already training, so we’ll just see how it goes.
Do you think you’ll jump back up to lightweight?
I think I’ll stay at ’45 for now. We’ll see what happens in the future, though.
Is there any opponent in particular you’ll be gunning for?
Nah, I don’t pick people’s names out, really. We’ll talk to Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta], Joe Silva and these guys, and my team, and we’ll figure out something out, I’m sure.
Switching gears, here, the big news from the Olympic Committee is that wrestling is possibly on the chopping block for the 2020 Games. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah, I think the whole wrestling community worldwide is hoping to stand up and make sure that doesn’t happen. I was a wrestler myself, and wrestling is such a big part of MMA — it would be a shame to see it not as an Olympic sport. It baffles me, really, that we’re even talking about this. I’m hoping something gets done and it doesn’t happen.
I agree, it’s one of the oldest sports in the Olympics. Do you have any speculation as to why it got cut?
I don’t know. I couldn’t even tell you. I mean, they say [wrestling is] tough to understand, and this and that, but you see some of the other sports that are out there in the Olympics now, and I don’t know. Wrestling is a combat sport, and everybody gets [combat], the whole world gets it. It’s not a one-nation thing. So I really have no idea why they would boot it out.
You see Jordan Burroughs just killing it and it’s a shame — from what I hear, he wants to go set some records, win three Olympic titles, and he can only win one more in 2016. If it ends for him, it’s gonna be devastating. If he does well in 2016, I’m sure he’d want to come in 2020 and break some records, and if he doesn’t have that opportunity, that’s not fair.
If MMA wasn’t as big as it was, do you think you would have tried to make the Olympic team?
I don’t know, I mean I was a successful wrestler, but it’s a different animal trying to make the Olympics. You gotta be that #1 guy. You can’t even be the third- or fourth-best, you have to be the best, and at the right time. So when I was done with wrestling, I was happy to move onto MMA.
Now that you’re taking some time off until your next fight, are there any side projects you’re working on?
I’m still pushing the Restore the Shore thing. Obviously, being from the Shore, I’m trying to help out with the recovery from [Hurricane] Sandy. But other than that I’m just hanging out with my family and getting back into training.
Well Frank, best of luck and thank you very much for taking the time. Any final words you want to say to your fans and the CagePotato readers?
Thanks for having me, and just keep following The Kid — the story’s not over yet!
Between preparing to launch a new mixed martial arts reality television show on Spike TV, to selecting venues for 2014, Bjorn Rebney‘s time for small talk is sparse. But the Bellator MMA CEO always seems to have a moment to discuss his favorite topic — how much he loves running the second-largest MMA promotion in the world, and what the future holds in store.
Early Friday morning, just after the Bellator 87post-fight press conference concluded at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in frigid Mount Pleasant, Michigan, I had the opportunity to speak with Rebney about some of the important topics that have developed in the past few weeks, and the impact they would have going forward for the ever-expanding fight promotion.
You could tell the man was tired by the look in his sleep-deprived eyes. Sitting on stage, and probably still laughing on the inside after having watched lightweight contender Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard shave his facial hair after losing a stipulation match to David “Caveman” Rickels not more than five minutes prior to our conversation (the clippings were still on the table next to him), the most powerful man in the building finally had a fleeting moment to collect his thoughts while resting for the first time that day…
“Randy’s a great addition to the team and is known to fans everywhere. We’re excited for the role he’ll play in helping Bellator reach the next level. I know you and the other media want more info than that, but wait until Tuesday [February 5th] — that’s when we’re holding the big press conference and that’s when you’ll have all the details of what’s going on. That’s when all the questions will be answered.”
On the Controversial Stoppages Earlier in the Night:
“I have an unfair advantage; we’ve got probably the best sound team in all of MMA production. What I’m able to do is, when there’s any kind of controversial stoppage, I can go back into the truck, super slo-mo things and listen to things. I can hear the things the fighters say because our sound design inside the cage is so spectacular. You can literally hear what the fighter’s saying and what the referee is saying — you can hear everything. I think they were great stoppages. I think Dan [Mirgliotta] did an amazing job and when you see it in slow motion, for example on the knee lock, you hear him scream and then see his head go back and ultimately see one tap. Now it’s a super soft tap, but you see it. Inside the truck, in super slo-mo, you can hear the screaming and see his head go back and that’s a verbal submission. According to the Unified Rules, when your head goes back and you scream out — it’s over whether you tap or you don’t tap. But I thought he did a great job.”
Between preparing to launch a new mixed martial arts reality television show on Spike TV, to selecting venues for 2014, Bjorn Rebney‘s time for small talk is sparse. But the Bellator MMA CEO always seems to have a moment to discuss his favorite topic — how much he loves running the second-largest MMA promotion in the world, and what the future holds in store.
Early Friday morning, just after the Bellator 87post-fight press conference concluded at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in frigid Mount Pleasant, Michigan, I had the opportunity to speak with Rebney about some of the important topics that have developed in the past few weeks, and the impact they would have going forward for the ever-expanding fight promotion.
You could tell the man was tired by the look in his sleep-deprived eyes. Sitting on stage, and probably still laughing on the inside after having watched lightweight contender Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard shave his facial hair after losing a stipulation match to David “Caveman” Rickels not more than five minutes prior to our conversation (the clippings were still on the table next to him), the most powerful man in the building finally had a fleeting moment to collect his thoughts while resting for the first time that day…
“Randy’s a great addition to the team and is known to fans everywhere. We’re excited for the role he’ll play in helping Bellator reach the next level. I know you and the other media want more info than that, but wait until Tuesday [February 5th] — that’s when we’re holding the big press conference and that’s when you’ll have all the details of what’s going on. That’s when all the questions will be answered.”
On the Controversial Stoppages Earlier in the Night:
“I have an unfair advantage; we’ve got probably the best sound team in all of MMA production. What I’m able to do is, when there’s any kind of controversial stoppage, I can go back into the truck, super slo-mo things and listen to things. I can hear the things the fighters say because our sound design inside the cage is so spectacular. You can literally hear what the fighter’s saying and what the referee is saying — you can hear everything. I think they were great stoppages. I think Dan [Mirgliotta] did an amazing job and when you see it in slow motion, for example on the knee lock, you hear him scream and then see his head go back and ultimately see one tap. Now it’s a super soft tap, but you see it. Inside the truck, in super slo-mo, you can hear the screaming and see his head go back and that’s a verbal submission. According to the Unified Rules, when your head goes back and you scream out — it’s over whether you tap or you don’t tap. But I thought he did a great job.”
On Whether or Not the UFC’s Insistence That The Ultimate Fighter is the “Toughest Tournament in Sports” is an Attempt to Create Brand Confusion Among New Fans:
“[Laughing] No, I don’t think so. What we do is, we let the fighters make their next fight. You win or you go home. That’s a real sport. You won’t see anyone sitting in a chair in some luxurious office somewhere saying, “I think I can sell that fight.” No, we’ve got the tournament format — something that has been around in sports for ages — and when one fighter wins, he gets one step closer to a title shot. That’s it. You have to win to get a championship opportunity. No one here is going to be able to talk their way into a title shot. That’s how a real sport works.”
On the Latest Developments Regarding Eddie Alvarez‘s Contract Situation:
“You know, we won in court last week so that’s a step in the right direction. There’s still a lot that needs to be sorted out. We still have to meet again [in court] to see what the judge says about the rest of the case. You know, Eddie’s been with us for a long time and I’m hopeful that we can come to terms and work something out. This doesn’t have to be a lengthy process, nor do I hope it to be one. I know what we want and I know what Ed wants, it’s just a matter of getting it down on paper and signing on the dotted line. Will it happen? I’m hopeful, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”
