Despite the UFC’s legal team being among CagePotato’s most avid readers, we can’t convince them to give us any insights into the UFC’s PPV business. We can only judge a card’s interest by the PPV estimates that circulate a few weeks after an event has passed.
There’s another way to judge fans’ interest in a particular fight card though: Web traffic.
In between discussions about which IFL team was the best (I’m a huge Quad City Silverbacks fan), we at CagePotato headquarters started opining about how Bellator 120: Rampage vs. King Mo would compare to a low-level UFC PPV. Some of us said it’d bury an event like UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw in terms of traffic, some of us said it would get buried.
Now that fight week(end) is over, we can jump into AnalyticsPotato mode and see which fight card wowed the web more. And to be clear, I’m using unique page views as the primary metric to judge interest. And by “coverage” we mean articles before/during/after the card that are about the card. Seems obvious but it’s important to be clear.
Earlier in the week, we reported on the CagePotato twitter that Bellator 120 received about 34% more traffic, but that calculation was made in error. There were a couple of articles in our UFC 173 coverage that I forgot to include in the tally. However, even with these pieces added, Bellator 120 still wins out. Bellator 120’s coverage, on the whole, received 11% more traffic than UFC 173’s.
Despite the UFC’s legal team being among CagePotato’s most avid readers, we can’t convince them to give us any insights into the UFC’s PPV business. We can only judge a card’s interest by the PPV estimates that circulate a few weeks after an event has passed.
There’s another way to judge fans’ interest in a particular fight card though: Web traffic.
In between discussions about which IFL team was the best (I’m a huge Quad City Silverbacks fan), we at CagePotato headquarters started opining about how Bellator 120: Rampage vs. King Mo would compare to a low-level UFC PPV. Some of us said it’d bury an event like UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw in terms of traffic, some of us said it would get buried.
Now that fight week(end) is over, we can jump into AnalyticsPotato mode and see which fight card wowed the web more. And to be clear, I’m using unique page views as the primary metric to judge interest. And by “coverage” we mean articles before/during/after the card that are about the card. Seems obvious but it’s important to be clear.
Earlier in the week, we reported on the CagePotato twitter that Bellator 120 received about 34% more traffic, but that calculation was made in error. There were a couple of articles in our UFC 173 coverage that I forgot to include in the tally. However, even with these pieces added, Bellator 120 still wins out. Bellator 120′s coverage, on the whole, received 11% more traffic than UFC 173′s.
Other random insights:
The time spent on page, an important and overlooked metric, was “virtually identical” for both Bellator 120 and UFC 173. Referral sources, too, were identical, with much of the traffic coming from search (Google) and social (Facebook and a bit from Twitter). This isn’t terribly surprising.
What does all of this mean, then?
At a glance, people are probably saying “The best Bellator has to offer only barely edges out a lower-level UFC card!” And that’s fair to an extent. But it’s worth noting that before the card, most of our UFC 173-related content wasn’t doing too well. There was very little hype around the event. Fans had a “how dare the UFC charge us for this crap” attitude about it. Even the live-blog was sub-par during the event. Once it was updated to reflect the huge upset that was TJ Dillashaw defeating Renan Barao, however, traffic on it exploded. The massive upset could’ve definitely helped UFC 173.
Alas, web traffic means little in terms of PPV buys. It’s highly likely that many people who read our post-fight Bellator coverage wanted to see if the event was a train wreck without having to pay for it. Furthermore, we’re just one website. A sample size of one isn’t much to go on. When asked on Twitter, some sites reported that their Bellator 120 traffic was far below expectations.
So, to get a clearer picture, we ran a Google trends comparison:
Interestingly, the search term “Bellator 120″ peaked the day after the PPV, indicating our theory above about most of the traffic coming from people who didn’t watch the PPV. And UFC 173′s peak was slightly higher than Bellator 120′s.
If anything is to be taken from this, it’s that Bellator is capable of generating at least as much Internet-interest (even if it derives from schadenfreude) from the fans as the UFC. Whether that’ll hold true for their future PPV outings is impossible to tell.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney didn’t give out the gate numbers at the post-fight presser, even when asked (which probably means they were bad). And it’s still too early to know how Bellator 120 performed at the box office. So, financially, Bellator’s first PPV can’t definitively be called a success or a failure.
Regarding entertainment value, however, Bellator 120 was a success. There were some pacing issues, yes, but overall the card delivered.
In the first fight, Michael Page did his best Anderson Silva impression, knocking out Ricky Rainey (who’s name was hilariously spelled wrong at the post-fight presser) after taunting him mercilessly. In the next bout, former Bellator heavyweight champ Alexander Volkov scored an upset submission win over Blagoi Ivanov.
Then came Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko. Ortiz was the laughing stock of this card, without a doubt. He was a relic from a bygone era who hadn’t won a fight in three years. His ridiculous pre-fight promos (he promised to make Shlemenko “literally shit himself”) only made him look worse. Shlemenko, on the other hand, was Bellator’s middleweight champ and a stern Russian killer. He’d have no problem with Ortiz despite the considerable size difference, or so the world thought. But Ortiz won the fight. He submitted Shlemenko with an arm-triangle choke in the very first round. Then he gave the worst post-fight interview of all time; he pretended to be Hulk Hogan.
As crazy as Ortiz-Shlemenko was, it wasn’t the emotional high point of the PPV, nor was Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks. Chandler-Brooks was not a particularly anticipated match. In fact, the entire Bellator PPV was centered around the rubber match between Chandler and Eddie Alvarez. When Alvarez withdrew due to a concussion, many thought it meant death for Bellator 120. Will Brooks was thrown in against Chandler, but it was a squash match—or at least that’s what conventional wisdom held. But Brooks upended fans and pundits, beating Chandler via split decision. He was made of sterner stuff than we all gave him credit for.
Then we had the main event, Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo. The fight itself was banal. Mo dominated Rampage with wrestling while Rampage landed a couple of decent shots throughout the fight. It seemed like a pretty easy decision win for King Mo, but the judges didn’t see it that way; they awarded Rampage with a unanimous decision. What happened after the fight was the real draw though. King Mo and Rampage started jaw-jacking. During the Spike TV portion of the broadcast, King Mo accused Bjorn Rebney of “dick riding” Rampage. He didn’t hold in such feelings in his post-fight speech, nor did he silence himself at the post-fight presser. Him and Rampage yelled at each other while the presser stream intermittently died possibly due to the sheer volume of viewers.
So what’s the fallout?
(Because Getty had no images from last night. / Photo via Getty)
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney didn’t give out the gate numbers at the post-fight presser, even when asked (which probably means they were bad). And it’s still too early to know how Bellator 120 performed at the box office. So, financially, Bellator’s first PPV can’t definitively be called a success or a failure.
Regarding entertainment value, however, Bellator 120 was a success. There were some pacing issues, yes, but overall the card delivered.
In the first fight, Michael Page did his best Anderson Silva impression, knocking out Ricky Rainey (who’s name was hilariously spelled wrong at the post-fight presser) after taunting him mercilessly. In the next bout, former Bellator heavyweight champ Alexander Volkov scored an upset submission win over Blagoi Ivanov.
Then came Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko. Ortiz was the laughing stock of this card, without a doubt. He was a relic from a bygone era who hadn’t won a fight in three years. His ridiculous pre-fight promos (he promised to make Shlemenko “literally shit himself”) only made him look worse. Shlemenko, on the other hand, was Bellator’s middleweight champ and a stern Russian killer. He’d have no problem with Ortiz despite the considerable size difference, or so the world thought. But Ortiz won the fight. He submitted Shlemenko with an arm-triangle choke in the very first round. Then he gave the worst post-fight interview of all time; he pretended to be Hulk Hogan.
As crazy as Ortiz-Shlemenko was, it wasn’t the emotional high point of the PPV, nor was Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks. Chandler-Brooks was not a particularly anticipated match. In fact, the entire Bellator PPV was centered around the rubber match between Chandler and Eddie Alvarez. When Alvarez withdrew due to a concussion, many thought it meant death for Bellator 120. Will Brooks was thrown in against Chandler, but it was a squash match—or at least that’s what conventional wisdom held. But Brooks upended fans and pundits, beating Chandler via split decision. He was made of sterner stuff than we all gave him credit for.
Then we had the main event, Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo. The fight itself was banal. Mo dominated Rampage with wrestling while Rampage landed a couple of decent shots throughout the fight. It seemed like a pretty easy decision win for King Mo, but the judges didn’t see it that way; they awarded Rampage with a unanimous decision. What happened after the fight was the real draw though. King Mo and Rampage started jaw-jacking. During the Spike TV portion of the broadcast, King Mo accused Bjorn Rebney of “dick riding” Rampage. He didn’t hold in such feelings in his post-fight speech, nor did he silence himself at the post-fight presser. Him and Rampage yelled at each other while the presser stream intermittently died possibly due to the sheer volume of viewers.
So what’s the fallout?
It’s tough to parse this one out, Potato Nation.
Michael Page looked great, which is obviously a good thing for Bellator. And there’s not much to say about Ivanov vs. Volkov. It was a good fight. Volkov will get a title shot at Vitaly Minakov, and Ivanov will likely get placed into another heavyweight tournament sometime soon.
Ortiz-Shlemenko is tough to pass judgement on. Bellator obviously has more invested in Ortiz, so him winning his first fight under their banner is a positive thing. Now he can be featured in other fight cards. How much Ortiz’s presence will increase viewership remains to be seen. Still, it’s better than him losing, which would’ve damaged whatever remaining value his name had beyond repair. However, no good can come from your middleweight champion losing to an ancient UFC washout and has been—and looking like a total scrub while doing it.
At first, it seemed like Will Brooks defeating Michael Chandler destroyed the Bellator lightweight division. But apparently Eddie Alvarez can demand to fight Chandler anyway, meaning Brooks’ victory didn’t wreck the much-anticipated rubber match between Alvarez and Chandler. Brooks beating Chandler helps get him over as a legitimate talent. Brooks winning, while maybe not optimal, isn’t the disaster people made it out to be.
Last night’s crown jewel was Rampage vs. King Mo, and not because of what happened in the cage. It was all about the post-fight hysterics. The questionable decision and (now seemingly legitimate) beef between the two makes a rematch enticing from a promotional standpoint, something that couldn’t have been said if either man decisively finished the other.
The PPV could’ve gone much worse. Could it have been better? Maybe. There have been worse UFC PPVs that we paid more money for. Bellator 120 didn’t go bad enough to destroy Bellator, but it certainly didn’t go good enough to bring the Viacom-owned promotion to new heights of excellence. If nothing else, Bellator 120 was a perfect example of the inherent insanity that makes MMA special.
In this liveblog of Bellator’s first-ever PPV, CagePotato social media kosmonaut and weekend editor Matt Saccaro will be giving you the results for the PPV portion of the fight card, in case you’re too cheap to buy it or don’t have access to it for some reason. He’ll also be posting quick results from the rest of the event, as well as his typical analysis of commercials on the Spike TV portion of the broadcast.
The PPV begins at 10:00 pm EST. The Spike TV preliminaries start at 8:00 pm EST. We’ll start posting results after the jump shortly thereafter. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.
In this liveblog of Bellator’s first-ever PPV, CagePotato social media kosmonaut and weekend editor Matt Saccaro will be giving you the results for the PPV portion of the fight card, in case you’re too cheap to buy it or don’t have access to it for some reason. He’ll also be posting quick results from the rest of the event, as well as his typical analysis of commercials on the Spike TV portion of the broadcast.
Here are the results for the prelims:
Spike TV Preliminary Card
Cheick Kongo def. Eric Smith via TKO (strikes), 4:35 of round 2
Marcin Held def. Nate Jolly submission (arm bar), 4:20 of round 1
Fabricio Guerreiro def. Shahbulat Shamhalaev via submission (kimura), 3:29 of round 1
Goiti Yamauchi def. Mike Richman unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Spike.com Preliminary Card
Austin Lyons def. Zach Underwood via technical decision (unanimous)
Mike Wessel def. Justin Frazier via TKO (punches), 4:28 of round 1
Ben Brewer def. Andy Uhrich via KO (strikes), 2:40 of round 2
Codie Shuffield def. Andy Lemon via submission (rear naked choke), 2:15 of round 2
Brian Hall def. Cortez Phelia via TKO (punches), 0:24 of round 3
And now, the liveblog for the main card:
Michael Page vs. Ricky Rainey
Round 1: Rainey sugers forwards and misses. Page uses his footwork to escape, riding his bicycle. Rainey lands a right but it didn’t have much power. Page has his hands at his waist. Page starts landing tons of shots, then throws Rainey to the mat. Rainey gets up. Page is looking in the opposite direction while fighting Rainey and landing. he’s turning his back on Rainey now. The showmanship is great but if he loses he’ll look like a twat. Rainey clinches Page and has him against the fence now. Page separates and they reset. Page lands a left and then a front kick. Rainey is already breathing heavy. Page is shaking his ass and dancing, no joke. Page lands a jab. Rainey clinches again, pressing Page against the cage. Rainey goes for a single but Page reverses and almost lands on top of Rainey before he scrambles to his feet and they reset. Page lands a flying knee and then a spinning backfist. Rainey can’t touch page in the striking. Page looks disinterested. He lands two jabs and an uppercut. Rainey runs forwards. Page lands a huge right that floors Rainey and the referee stops the fight. Page wins via KO.
Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov
Round 1: Early striking exchanges favor nobody. Ivaonov clinches and gets Volkov against the fence. he tries a single leg but abandons it. He goes back to the body lock, leaning on Volkov. They spend some time fighting for hand positioning. Not a ton of action against the fence. Ivanov attempts a double but fails. Back to the same over-under position they’ve been in. The referee warns them; he wants action. The two fighters exchange knees. Volkov hits a knee and then a body kick but Ivanov catches it and clinches. Volkov gets double underhooks briefly but separates and lands an uppercut. Ivanov lands a right hand and clinches. Volkov lands a nice knee to the chin. The two fighters do some dirty boxing before Volkov circles out. Ivanov hits a right hand, Volkov hits a left and then a knee. Volkov has the better combinations, hitting a jab, cross, round kick to the body combo. Ivanov lands a right hand as the round ends.
Round 2: Both men miss right hands. Ivanov tries a single leg and Volkov shrugs it off. A brief, wild slugfest ensues but nobody lands anything. Ivanov attempts a throw but botches it; Volkov takes his back and has him in a rear naked choke. Ivanov taps! That was unexpected.
Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko
Round 1: Ortiz misses with two rights and a head kick. He shoots and Shlemenko shrugs it off. Shlemenko starts peppering Ortiz as the crowd chants for Tito. Shlemenko lands two punches to the head but Ortiz counters with a knee. Ortiz presses Shlemenko against the fence, finally making use of his size advantage. He lands a couple of soft knees. Ortiz gets Shlemenko down and has his back. He flattens him out but winds up on top in side control. He’s going for an arm-triangle and he might have it. He has it. Shlemenko is out cold. Holy shit.
After the fight Ortiz cuts the worst promo of all time. He pretended to be Hulk Hogan and it was honestly the most embarrassing thing I’ve seen in MMA.
Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks
Round 1: Chandler lands a jab. Brooks misses a round kick. Chandler pressures Brooks to backing up against the cage. He shoots a double on Brooks and gets it. Chandler is having a bit of trouble escaping from Brooks’ guard. Brooks gets to his feet. Chandler misses an overhand right, Brooks lands a left and then a good knee. Chandler misses an upcrut. He attempts a double leg but Brooks sprawls. Still, Chandler shoves Brooks up against the cage and keeps him there. Chandler scores a takedown with about two minutes left in the round. The fight stalls out while Chandler is in Brooks’ guard. The round ends.
Round 2: Chandler shoots a single-leg and has Brooks stymied against the cage. Brooks stops the takedown, and now they’re fighting in the clinch. Brooks separates and they reset. Chandler lands a double-leg. The rest of the round will probably be Chandler sitting in Brooks’ guard. With a minute and a half left Brooks FINALLY gets up and even manages to take Chandler down and take his back! But Brooks loses the position and is now on top of Brooks again in guard. That’s where the round ends.
Round 3: Chandler hits a sweet left hook, then shoots a double. Brooks sprawls. He hits a knee on Chandler as they rise up to their feet. Chandler clinches again and bullies Brooks against the fence, but Brooks reverses. They clinch again and Brooks lands a knee and misses an uppercut. Another clinch, Chandler tries a guillotine but winds up getting taken down. Brooks has his back now. He’s got the body triangle locked up. Chandler rolls over into full mount. He’s cut and Brooks is landing ground and pound. It’s not looking good for Chandler. He’s landing some short elbows now, and now more punches. Chandler explodes out of mount and escapes. Wow. They’re standing now. Brooks shoots and fails. Chandler drops to all fours and Brooks tries to take his back again. Chandler gets up. he goes for a head kick that lands on the jaw. He lands another and as he has Chandler wobbled he takes him down and gets the back and body triangle. Only 20 seconds left. The round comes to a close before Brooks can capitalize.
Round 4: Brooks lands a body kick and misses a head kick. Brooks hits a jab; he looks like the fresher fighter. Chandler shoots from across the cage and misses by miles. Chandler lands a nice hook but Brooks BLASTS him off his feet with a power double. He’s got Chandler’s back again now, but Chandler reverses and winds up on top in guard. Not a ton of action. The ref stands them up with 1:30 to go. Brooks lands a good right hand. Chandler shoots underneath a right hand but Brooks sprawls and lands a knee. Chandler is slower than he was last round. Brooks lands an illegal knee (or at least the ref thought so) to Chandler while a hand was on the ground. The fight resumes. Brooks lands a head kick. He stops another shot from Chandler and takes his back AGAIN. He’s going for the RNC with 10 seconds left but he can’t get it.
Round 5: Chandler shoots. Brooks sprawls. They separate and reset. Brooks is looking very fresh still. Incredible cardio. Chandler attempts a single-leg and after a while finally gets it, but Brooks scrambles immediately and escapes. Chandler goes for an ugly double-leg and brooks punishes him with knees to the ribs. Chandler is getting aggressive now, too much so. Brooks gets his back and SUPLEX. He takes Chandler’s back but was too high and slipped off. Now Chandler’s on top of him in guard. With 1:00 left, Brooks escapes to his feet. Chandler gets hyper aggressive and nearly KOs books! he floored brooks. He’s going for an arm triangle now as the seconds are winding down. Brooks escapes, but is still mounted. That’s how the round and the fight ends, with Chandler on top in mount.
The judges gave Will Brooks the split decision. Crazy fight. Crazy card. Wow.
Quinton Jackson vs. Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal
Round 1: King Mo shoots right away and successfully lands a single leg. All Rampage can do is keep Mo in his guard. The fans are booing loudly. Mo passes into side control. Rampage manages to stand back up, but Mo retains a body lock. He has Rampage against the fence. Mo goes for a double now and gets it. With about 2:30 left Rampage gets back up but gets double-legged again. He’s got zero answer for Mo’s wrestling. Rampage gets to his feet again with 1:30 to go. Rampage FINALLY manages to separate. Jackson swings big with a left hook and misses. Mo misses a big right hand and Rampage counters with a left. Mo slips while defending against a flurry from Rampage. Rampage gets a little more aggressive as the round ends but can’t connect before the bell.
Round 2: Mo lands a body kick. Rampage lands a left hand that shook Mo a bit. Mo is petrified of Rampage’s striking, it seems. Rampage loads up on right hands and lands a left too. Mo is hurt but manages to clinch. Mo shoots but Rampage throws him off. Mo flies back whenever Rampage’s strikes make contact with him. Mo tries another double leg but Rampage blocks it. They’re against the fence now, with Mo putting his weight on Rampage. He level changes and tries yet another takedown, which fails. A single leg attempt from Mo gets nowhere. Rampage separates for a moment and throws a huge hook. Mo ducks it and clinches. After some inactivity, Rampage separates. King Mo hits a big left hook that hurts Rampage bad. Then he tries the worst flying knee I’ve ever seen, which predictably fails. Afterwards, King Mo brings Rampage to the mat with a double leg. Rampage explodes and gets back up, but it’s too little too late. The round is over.
Round 3: Rampage blocks a single leg attempt from King Mo and lands a flurry of punches. Both fighters breathing heavy. Rampage lands a left hook and Mo initiates a clinch. He bullies Rampage against the fence and pulls off a single-leg takedown. The crowd is booing. There’s three minutes left and King Mo is on top of Rampage in half guard. The fight will probably end here. Rampage gets back to guard. Big John McCarthy calls for action and threatens a stand-up. Rampage turtles up and Mo takes his back. Rampage gtes back to his feet with 2:00 to go. Rampage has his right hand so cocked and loaded it’s ridiculous. Mo shoots a double and has Rampage pressed on the fence. A minute left and they’re still clinched. McCarthy separates them. 30 seconds left. Rampage lands a good uppercut and Mo lands a jab. The fight is over.
Before the decision is announced Rampage and King Mo are still jaw-jacking. Mo is getting pretty animated. They get separated but Mo is still yelling from across the cage. Ugh.
The judges awarded Rampage Jackson with a unanimous decision win. We don’t really agree. They’re yelling at each other after the decision is announced. MMA is terrible sometimes. Rampage is calling for a rematch even though he won. Looks like they’re trying to book the next PPV already. Mo is going apeshit, calling Rampage a dick-rider. Wow.
That’s the event, Potato Nation. Was it worth $50? Probably not, but we certainly had fun watching it because there were quite a few surreal moments.
Last night, Bellator 119 was held at Casino Rama in Orillia, a sleepy town about two hours north of Toronto. By some standards, the show was a success—it featured performances by a talented, well-matched card punctuated with Daniel Weichel (33-8) finishing Desmond Green (11-2) via rear naked choke in the second round of the featherweight tournament finale. It was the type of mid-level show that has proved financially sustainable in the gritty dog-eat-dog world of MMA promotions. Regardless of sweeping reports from Sherdog.com and MMAFighting.com that Eddie Alvarez is pulling out of the inaugural Bellator pay-per-view show next week (reports that Bjorn Rebney denied at the post-fight presser), the promotion’soverall prospects for expansion are limited.
On the undercard of Bellator 119, Brazilian featherweight Marlon Sandro faced London, Ontario native Chris Horodecki. Sandro controlled the pace, committing to his strikes and dominating Horodecki to earn the judge’s decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). At the post-fight presser, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney explained reasons why the bout was intentionally hidden among the untelevised preliminary bouts:
“Ran into some difficult contract situations that came to light in the last 24-48 hours before the fight…we all felt it was a better decision to keep the [Sandro-Horodecki] fight off TV and not exacerbate a bad situation,” said Rebney. “We got a lot of claims coming in from other camps that were claiming an interest in Chris Horodecki. We didn’t want to put him in a horrible spot of receiving a big lawsuit.”
Chris Horodecki has fought in three separate promotions since his last three-fight Bellator stint. If he is still under contract to another promotion, Horodecki needs to question his management for placing him in the precarious lose-lose position of limited exposure and shortchanging Bellator’s TV product.
Last night, Bellator 119 was held at Casino Rama in Orillia, a sleepy town about two hours north of Toronto. By some standards, the show was a success—it featured performances by a talented, well-matched card punctuated with Daniel Weichel (33-8) finishing Desmond Green (11-2) via rear naked choke in the second round of the featherweight tournament finale. It was the type of mid-level show that has proved financially sustainable in the gritty dog-eat-dog world of MMA promotions. Regardless of sweeping reports from Sherdog.com and MMAFighting.com that Eddie Alvarez is pulling out of the inaugural Bellator pay-per-view show next week (reports that Bjorn Rebney denied at the post-fight presser), the promotion’s overall prospects for expansion are limited.
On the undercard of Bellator 119, Brazilian featherweight Marlon Sandro faced London, Ontario native Chris Horodecki. Sandro controlled the pace, committing to his strikes and dominating Horodecki to earn the judge’s decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27). At the post-fight presser, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney explained reasons why the bout was intentionally hidden among the untelevised preliminary bouts:
“Ran into some difficult contract situations that came to light in the last 24-48 hours before the fight…we all felt it was a better decision to keep the [Sandro-Horodecki] fight off TV and not exacerbate a bad situation,” said Rebney. “We got a lot of claims coming in from other camps that were claiming an interest in Chris Horodecki. We didn’t want to put him in a horrible spot of receiving a big lawsuit.”
Chris Horodecki has fought in three separate promotions since his last three-fight Bellator stint. If he is still under contract to another promotion, Horodecki needs to question his management for placing him in the precarious lose-lose position of limited exposure and shortchanging Bellator’s TV product.
Heavyweights Raphael Butler and Nick Rossborough started with a bang and finished with both men out of gas. Butler intentionally fouled Rossborough with a head butt in the first round when Rossborough had Butler’s back. The ref took a point and restarted them on the feet; Butler took control from there onwards, clearly winning the final two rounds. After the fight, Rossborough claimed to have no memory of what transpired after the head butt; the judges scored the fight 28-27, 28-28 and 28-28 making it a majority draw.
In the other televised bouts, Marius Zaromskis low-kicked Canadian Vaughn Anderson’s leg into hamburger en route to a decision win; Canadian John Alessio used his veteran experience to outwrestle Eric Wisely and grind out a decision win.
For all the skill on display, Bellator has a ceiling in terms of how successful the promotion can become as its homegrown talent is handicapped in terms of perception and marketability. For instance, the May 17 pay per view relies heavily on UFC veterans Quinton Jackson and Tito Ortiz. If Eddie Alvarez fulfills the final fight on his Bellator contract when he recovers from his concussion and is signed to the UFC, he may prove himself equally skilled or superior to UFC lightweights; Bellator would win a moral victory but that wouldn’t necessarily translate into higher viewership for Bellator lightweights like Michael Chandler.
To become a player in the pay per view market, Bellator needs to sign UFC stars at the zenith of their popularity like Jon Jones, Ronda Rousey or Nick Diaz. Assuming Viacom would pony up the scratch, standard contractual language like the 12-month matching clause poses a tremendous problem. When Bellator attempted to acquire Gilbert Melendez, all the UFC had to do was outbid Bellator once and Melendez became UFC property once again.
“God bless Gilbert Melendez, we made him a very rich man,” claimed Rebney. “We made him an offer. The matching clause is in place, he is now the highest paid lightweight the UFC has—[and] one of the highest paid fighters the UFC has fighting in any division.”
Strategically, the UFC will continue to sign its marquee fighters to long-term contracts and match any offers made to their most marketable fighters in order to retain the dominant market position.
Still, Rebney is optimistic about Bellator’s offerings for its first pay per view show, “I think people need to look at it in the context of a fighting event, and not think about branding.”
In fact, the strength of the UFC brand is part of why the promotion remains content to offer an increasingly watered-down product with an escalating frequency of shows. However, some fans are getting wise to the game and are becoming increasingly critical; the UFC has no reason to change unless said fans vote with their pocketbooks.
If Bellator gets its first PPV card off the ground despite Alvarez’s injury and somehow manages to land near the break-even point, future shows will have to be cobbled together using a mix of former UFC fighters and homegrown talent. Throughout this, Bellator will need to stop the UFC from poaching their brightest stars, as was the strategy when Eddie Alvarez attempted to sign with the UFC and Bellator invoked their right to match the offer.
All in all, there’s a lot to be considered for the long-term health of the sport. Having a second major promotion would benefit the industry in every way imaginable, but whether Bellator can survive business forces long enough to be a contender remains a topic for debate.
Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.
In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.
(Well, in a way, MMA’s “greatest trilogy” did kind of end at Bellator 120…)
Did Dana White study voodoo from Michael Jackson or something? Because Bellator has had worse luck than nearly any promotion in the history of MMA when it comes to launching a successful PPV.
In case the headline didn’t tip you off, Eddie Alvarez is out of Bellator 120—the promotion’s second attempt to break into the PPV market. His rubber match with Michael Chandler will have to wait.
Sherdog’s Greg Savage broke the news on Twitter last night. Initially, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebneydenied the rumor, saying the fight was still on. Less than 24 hours later, Bellator hasn’t officially announced anything but mediaoutlets are accepting Alvarez’s withdrawal as fact.
What’ll they do now? Hopefully they convert it to a free card on Spike, like they did with their last ill-fated PPV. It’s unlikely Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo, Tito Ortiz vs. Alexander Shlemenko, Michael Page vs. Rick Rainey [Editor’s note: They were charging money for that fight?] and Will Brooks vs. Nate Jolly will be worth the price of admission. Regarding the last fight, Brooks vs. Jolly, it’s speculated that Brooks will be bumped into the main event against Chandler but who can say for sure.
