Chandler was the champion. Chandler had beaten Alvarez, yet his opponent was the one who had corporate giants fighting for him. I got a chance to speak with the Bellator lightweight champion as he heads into his rematch with Alvarez this Saturday at Bellator 106.
The 24-year-old fighter was philosophical as he looked back at being the overlooked champion. “Unfortunately it’s not a perfect world and fighters can’t just train and fight,” Chandler says of Alvarez’s legal battles.
“There’s all kinds of things that go around it. All that bickering…I try not to worry about all the outside stuff. People are going to say things and talk. You can read into things and they can affect you mentally. That’s no good for you at all. It’s never good to get caught up in all that. The reality and beauty of the situation is that we are professional athletes with a platform that people are going to hear and see. It’s good to be on a platform like that. It is something to keep me grounded and excited for November 2. I want to prove myself.”
Chandler was the champion. Chandler had beaten Alvarez, yet his opponent was the one who had corporate giants fighting for him. I got a chance to speak with the Bellator lightweight champion as he heads into his rematch with Alvarez this Saturday at Bellator 106.
The 24-year-old fighter was philosophical as he looked back at being the overlooked champion. “Unfortunately it’s not a perfect world and fighters can’t just train and fight,” Chandler says of Alvarez’s legal battles.
“There’s all kinds of things that go around it. All that bickering…I try not to worry about all the outside stuff. People are going to say things and talk. You can read into things and they can affect you mentally. That’s no good for you at all. It’s never good to get caught up in all that. The reality and beauty of the situation is that we are professional athletes with a platform that people are going to hear and see. It’s good to be on a platform like that. It is something to keep me grounded and excited for November 2. I want to prove myself.”
Chandler cannot deny that it would be sweet to beat his more celebrated opponent once again. “Yeah, of course I’m excited,” he admits.
“He’s been in some contract disputes and there’s bad blood with the organization. People love to talk about that stuff. I just try to stay positive and train and fight and win. That isn’t always as exciting as bad blood and contract disputes.”
Chandler is confident that he’ll finish Alvarez again, and faster than he did two years ago. He does not count out the considerable abilities of his opponent, however.
“I can’t speak on [Alvarez’s] improvement since our first fight. He’s had two great wins since we fought. He’s improved. He’s a veteran of a sport. You can’t forget he’s been in the sport for around a decade. He knows how to train and he knows how to show up and fight and come forward and put on a show,” Chandler explains.
The champion knows for a fact that he’s a better fighter than he was the first time he faced Alvarez, however. Most importantly, Chandler says he is more experienced.
“I’ve had two more years to improve,” he says.
“I was very green the first time we fought. I’ve matured as an MMA fighter. I feel more like a veteran than before, when I felt like a new guy. I’m better in every area. I’m just excited to go out there and show how how much I’ve improved.”
When Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler and former champ Eddie Alvarez face off for the second time this Saturday at Bellator 106, they will be carrying a tremendous weight of expectations on their backs. Chandler/Alvarez 1 wasn’t simply a great fight, or just another a Fight of the Year candidate — it remains the greatest bout in Bellator promotional history, by a fairly wide margin. It was a rare double-comeback fight, in which both fighters found themselves close to the brink of defeat, and both managed to storm back from the abyss. Since then, Alvarez has endured an emotionally and financially harrowing legal battle just to get to the point where he could even compete again. His rematch with Chandler can’t just be a “fun fight.” Anything short of another instant classic would be a disappointment.
To help promote the upcoming battle, Spike TV released a half-hour documentary special called “Unfinished Business” that recaps the four-round war from Bellator 58, adding commentary from Chandler and Alvarez themselves, who talk us through the most pivotal moments. Plus, the fighters’ training partners and coaches weigh-in, along with appearances from a couple of UFC fighters who have likely been chewed out by Dana White for daring to appear in a “Viacom MMA” presentation. Anyway, the show is a must-watch for Bellator fans, especially if you somehow missed Mike and Eddie’s first fight two years ago. Enjoy.
When Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler and former champ Eddie Alvarez face off for the second time this Saturday at Bellator 106, they will be carrying a tremendous weight of expectations on their backs. Chandler/Alvarez 1 wasn’t simply a great fight, or just another a Fight of the Year candidate — it remains the greatest bout in Bellator promotional history, by a fairly wide margin. It was a rare double-comeback fight, in which both fighters found themselves close to the brink of defeat, and both managed to storm back from the abyss. Since then, Alvarez has endured an emotionally and financially harrowing legal battle just to get to the point where he could even compete again. His rematch with Chandler can’t just be a “fun fight.” Anything short of another instant classic would be a disappointment.
To help promote the upcoming battle, Spike TV released a half-hour documentary special called “Unfinished Business” that recaps the four-round war from Bellator 58, adding commentary from Chandler and Alvarez themselves, who talk us through the most pivotal moments. Plus, the fighters’ training partners and coaches weigh-in, along with appearances from a couple of UFC fighters who have likely been chewed out by Dana White for daring to appear in a “Viacom MMA” presentation. Anyway, the show is a must-watch for Bellator fans, especially if you somehow missed Mike and Eddie’s first fight two years ago. Enjoy.
Officially, Bellator canceled the PPV because Tito Ortiz withdrew from the main event bout versus Rampage Jackson, and not because of the PPV’s dubious chances of success. But the result is the same as if they had just canceled it outright: Bellator saves face.
Ortiz’s injury and the resulting cancellation of the PPV were a godsend for Bellator. Why? Let’s look at the most likely scenario for what could’ve happened if Bellator went on with their PPV — both if Ortiz had gotten injured and if he hadn’t.
Scenario 1, Ortiz doesn’t get injured and the PPV goes on:
Officially, Bellator canceled the PPV because Tito Ortiz withdrew from the main event bout versus Rampage Jackson, and not because of the PPV’s dubious chances of success. But the result is the same as if they had just canceled it outright: Bellator saves face.
Ortiz’s injury and the resulting cancellation of the PPV were a godsend for Bellator. Why? Let’s look at the most likely scenario for what could’ve happened if Bellator went on with their PPV — both if Ortiz had gotten injured and if he hadn’t.
Scenario 1, Ortiz doesn’t get injured and the PPV goes on: What happens here? The show probably bombs with 10k buys or fewer. Viacom realizes that, like Dana White said, there’s no value in Bellator.
Viacom either pulls the plug outright or scales down Bellator from hopeful claimant to the UFC’s throne into something akin to the toughman contests on FX. If this happened, Viacom would keep it around because it’d get decent enough ratings for the pittance it’d cost to produce the scaled down version of the show.
Scenario 2, Ortiz does get injured and the PPV still goes on: Attila Vegh replaces Ortiz against Rampage (even though Attila Vegh was “injured” and had to pull out of a fight on this PPV previously). The PPV bombs even worse.
Those two scenarios are both terrible for Bellator. The PPV, Ortiz or no, was destined for Affliction-level failure. Making the card free on Spike was the best option (and was from the onset of Viacom’s acquisition of former UFC “stars”).
The casuals don’t know Michael Chandler (despite the fact that he’s the face of Dave & Busters). The casuals don’t know Eddie Alvarez. The casuals don’t know most of the other fighters on the card either. Putting the entirety of the Bellator PPV card on Spike will help build their profiles a little more, or at the very least stop people from forgetting about them.
Furthermore, Bellator can use Rampage like he should’ve been used: To help get more ratings on Spike to draw more eyeballs to Bellator’s stable of talented, non-UFC-washout fighters.
Bjorn Rebney said that they were going to book a fight for Rampage “literally as quickly as possible.” Hopefully for Bellator’s sake, that means it’ll be on free television (unless they’re planning on producing an ad-hoc PPV solely to showcase an old, slow, whining, lazy Rampage versus some random can). Rampage, being Bellator’s fighter with the greatest name value — yeah, I know, that’s not saying much — can draw more viewers to the younger, more talented fighters on Bellator’s roster.
Allow me to make a comparison to pro wrestling history: #2 promotion WCW hired Hulk Hogan after he had left the WWE (then WWF) because he was a star. That star brought viewers to WCW, viewers who where then wowed by some the undercard matches between young, exciting wrestlers like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio Jr, and Chris Jericho — wrestlers who many casual fans might not have ever seen if the older, established Hogan hadn’t brought attention to WCW.
Of course, Bellator Rampage Jackson is no WCW Hulk Hogan — who was still the biggest star in wrestling at the time. Nevertheless, Bellator will build greater name value for their fighters by showcasing their big UFC acquisitions Tito and Rampage on free TV alongside the young, hungry, talented fighters. Canceling the PPV has allowed them to do that.
The cloud of Bellator’s PPV cancellation doesn’t have a silver lining because the entire cloud practically is a silver lining.
(As part of their co-promotional agreement with Viacom, Alvarez and Chandler will also appear in a tag-team match against the Nasty Boys. / Photo via Getty)
Maybe it’s not the best-case scenario for Eddie, but at least he’ll be competing and earning money again, for the first time since last October. As he explained to MMAJunkie:
“I couldn’t be happier right now. We’ve been trying to settle since the very beginning of this. [Ed. note: O RLY?] We were able to compromise and put it behind us. I’m happy to put my name on the dotted line and move forward with my career…I’m not big on problems. I normally just deal with solutions. In business, there are problems just like a relationship. There’s good, there’s bad, and there’s ugly. You need to be able to compromise and not deal with problems.”
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney wouldn’t disclose terms of the settlement, but stated that his promotion was able to find “a common ground” with Alvarez. Rebney also mentioned that there will be more big-name additions to the 11/2 card.
And so, Bellator’s first pay-per-view gets a pay-per-view-caliber fight, and Eddie Alvarez likely ends up with a new contract that was considerably better than his old one. (Competition is never a bad thing in the fight game.) But can Alvarez stay competitive in the rematch, after a year-long layoff? Check out video of Alvarez vs. Chandler 1 after the jump, and let us know what you think…
(As part of their co-promotional agreement with Viacom, Alvarez and Chandler will also appear in a tag-team match against the Nasty Boys. / Photo via Getty)
Maybe it’s not the best-case scenario for Eddie, but at least he’ll be competing and earning money again, for the first time since last October. As he explained to MMAJunkie:
“I couldn’t be happier right now. We’ve been trying to settle since the very beginning of this. [Ed. note: O RLY?] We were able to compromise and put it behind us. I’m happy to put my name on the dotted line and move forward with my career…I’m not big on problems. I normally just deal with solutions. In business, there are problems just like a relationship. There’s good, there’s bad, and there’s ugly. You need to be able to compromise and not deal with problems.”
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney wouldn’t disclose terms of the settlement, but stated that his promotion was able to find “a common ground” with Alvarez. Rebney also mentioned that there will be more big-name additions to the 11/2 card.
And so, Bellator’s first pay-per-view gets a pay-per-view-caliber fight, and Eddie Alvarez likely ends up with a new contract that was considerably better than his old one. (Competition is never a bad thing in the fight game.) But can Alvarez stay competitive in the rematch, after a year-long layoff? Check out video of Alvarez vs. Chandler 1 after the jump, and let us know what you think…
(Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler, Bellator 58, 11/19/11)
Maybe one day there will be a Bellator lightweight contender who’s talented enough to defeat champion Michael Chandler — but it ain’t gonna be the dinosaur guy. (No offense.) Season 8 lightweight tournament winner David Rickels had a good head of steam going into his title challenge against Chandler last night at Bellator 97, with four straight wins including a TKO of Saad Awad back in March. But against a truly world-class lightweight, the Caveman was in way over his head.
As you can see in the video above, Rickels didn’t even have a chance to get started. Chandler swarmed as soon as he staggered Rickels with a right straight, landing more follow-up power shots and diving after Rickels when the challenger hit the mat. In just 44 seconds, Rickels was unconscious and Michael Chandler (now 12-0 overall) had made his second title defense with another fearsome display of killer instinct.
Chandler’s next fight will likely come against Dave Jansen, the Season 7 lightweight tournament winner who hasn’t been able to face Chandler yet due to injury. Jansen is 6-0 in Bellator, and is clearly the most qualified man for the job. And yet, we can’t help but wonder how Chandler would stack up against some of the top 155’ers in the UFC — not like that would ever happen.
Speaking of dominant Bellator champions who could use a higher level of competition…
Maybe one day there will be a Bellator lightweight contender who’s talented enough to defeat champion Michael Chandler — but it ain’t gonna be the dinosaur guy. (No offense.) Season 8 lightweight tournament winner David Rickels had a good head of steam going into his title challenge against Chandler last night at Bellator 97, with four straight wins including a TKO of Saad Awad back in March. But against a truly world-class lightweight, the Caveman was in way over his head.
As you can see in the video above, Rickels didn’t even have a chance to get started. Chandler swarmed as soon as he staggered Rickels with a right straight, landing more follow-up power shots and diving after Rickels when the challenger hit the mat. In just 44 seconds, Rickels was unconscious and Michael Chandler (now 12-0 overall) had made his second title defense with another fearsome display of killer instinct.
Chandler’s next fight will likely come against Dave Jansen, the Season 7 lightweight tournament winner who hasn’t been able to face Chandler yet due to injury. Jansen is 6-0 in Bellator, and is clearly the most qualified man for the job. And yet, we can’t help but wonder how Chandler would stack up against some of the top 155′ers in the UFC — not like that would ever happen.
Speaking of dominant Bellator champions who could use a higher level of competition…
Before his welterweight title defense last night against Season 7 tourney winner Andrey Koreshkov, Ben Askren completely wrote off his formerly unbeaten opponent, describing Koreshkov’s ground game as “embarrassing.” It turned out to be a very apt description, although Askren should feel free to share some of that embarrassment.
If you’ve watched any of Askren’s performances before, I probably don’t need to tell you what happened, but in short, Funky Ben took Koreshkov to the mat in every single round, and threw down enough half-hearted strikes to avoid being stood up by the ref. He racked up a truly absurd striking differential, and there were moments in the fight where Askren was confident enough to do absolutely nothing without fear of reprisal. That’s undoubtedly impressive, although not particularly entertaining to watch.
But while Askren was successfully able to lead the crowd in chants of “USA!” early in the fight, the fans eventually turned on him, as they always do. After nearly 18 minutes of Askren’s safe, stifling, tedious top control, the referee called it a TKO, more out of boredom than anything else. Afterwards, Askren accused the fans of being Communists. If booing lay-and-pray makes you a Communist, then yes, I believe the workers should own the means of production. Fun fact: Ben Askren is currently without a contract. Let the bidding war begin!
Elsewhere on the card, Muhammad Lawal went back to his wrestling roots for a ground-and-pound-based victory over Jacob Noe to win the 2013 Summer Series light-heavyweight tournament final, while Patricio Freire bounced back to the W column with a savage third-round TKO against Jared Downing. (Note: Downing was an injury replacement for Rob Emerson, who reportedly pulled a muscle while banging Ian McCall’s wife.)
Bellator 97 July 31st, 2013 Santa Ana Star Center; Rio Rancho, New Mexico
Main Card:
– Michael Chandler def. David Rickels via KO, 0:44 of round 1 [for Bellator lightweight title]
– Ben Askren def. Andrey Koreshkov via TKO, at 2:58 of round 4 [for Bellator welterweight title]
– Muhammed Lawal def. Jacob Noe via verbal submission (punches), 2:51 of round 3 [light-heavyweight tournament final]
– Vitaly Minakov def. Ryan Martinez via TKO, 4:02 of round 3 [heavyweight tournament final]
– Patricio Freire def. Jared Downing via TKO, 0:54 of round 3
Preliminary Card:
– Bubba Jenkins def. Mike Barreras via TKO, 1:05 of round 2
– Anthony Leone def. Frank Baca via submission (rear-naked choke), 1:07 of round 3
– Rafael Silva def. Rodrigo Lima via submission (rear-naked choke), 2:03 of round 3
– Will Brooks def. Cris Leyva via TKO, 2:20 of round 3
– Jeremy Kimball def. Keith Berry via KO, 1:45 of round 2
– Shawn Bunch def. Russell Wilson via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
– Donald Sanchez def. Cliff Wright via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
– Adrian Cruz def. Felipe Chavez via TKO, 4:24 of round 2
– Javier Palacios def. Richard Jacques via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Just a heads up to you non Zuffa-zombies out there: Bellator 97’s preliminary card is already underway on Spike.com (“Come for the fights, stay to watch some drunk, gay club owner order his bartender to play Janet Jackson”). And at 7 p.m. EST, the Santa Ana Center in Albuquerque will play host to one hell of a free card to cap off Bellator’s Summer Series. Featuring two title fights in Ben Askren (LET ME FINISH) vs. Andrey Koreshkov (welterweight) and Michael Chandler vs. David Rickels (lightweight) as well as the heavyweight and light heavyweight tournament finals, Bellator 97 is all but guaranteed to deliver its usual blend of carnage and controversy. It is truly the Grand Theft Auto of MMA promotions.
Of course, the main spotlight will be on that of King Mo Lawal, who faces Jacob Noe in the aforementioned LHW finals. On the heels of a brutal, retirement-inducing KO of Seth Petruzelli at Bellator 95, Mo is only a couple wins away from become the first ever light heavyweight and tag team champion in MMA/professional wrestling history. The time of legitimacy and mainstream acceptance is truly upon us, nation.
Just a heads up to you non Zuffa-zombies out there: Bellator 97′s preliminary card is already underway on Spike.com (“Come for the fights, stay to watch some drunk, gay club owner order his bartender to play Janet Jackson”). And at 7 p.m. EST, the Santa Ana Center in Albuquerque will play host to one hell of a free card to cap off Bellator’s Summer Series.
Featuring two title fights in Ben Askren (LET ME FINISH) vs. Andrey Koreshkov (welterweight) and Michael Chandler vs. David Rickels (lightweight) as well as the heavyweight and light heavyweight tournament finals, Bellator 97 is all but guaranteed to deliver its usual blend of carnage and controversy. It is truly the Grand Theft Auto of MMA promotions.
Of course, the main spotlight will be on that of King Mo Lawal, who faces Jacob Noe in the aforementioned LHW finals. On the heels of a brutal, retirement-inducing KO of Seth Petruzelli at Bellator 95, Mo is only a couple wins away from become the first ever light heavyweight and tag team champion in MMA/professional wrestling history. The time of legitimacy and mainstream acceptance is truly upon us, nation.
Bellator 97′s full lineup is after the jump.
MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 7 p.m. ET)
-Michael Chandler vs. David Rickels – for lightweight title
-Ben Askren vs. Andrey Koreshkov – for welterweight title
-Muhammed Lawal vs. Jacob Noe – Summer Series light-heavyweight tourney final
-Ryan Martinez vs. Vitaly Minakov – Summer Series heavyweight tourney final
-Jared Downing vs. Patricio Freire
PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 6 p.m. ET)
-Will Brooks vs. Cris Leyva
-Rodrigo Lima vs. Rafael Silva – bantamweight tournament semifinal
-Frank Baca vs. Anthony Leone – bantamweight tournament semifinal
-Mike Barreras vs. Bubba Jenkins
-Keith Berry vs. Jeremy Kimball
-Shawn Bunch vs. Russell Wilson
-Richard Jacquez vs. Javier Palacios
-Felipe Chavez vs. Adrian Cruz
-Donald Sanchez vs. Cliff Wright
