Tag: Rampage Jackson

Bellator Faces a Pivotal Crossroad Heading Into the Next Season


(The high point for Bellator. Photo via Tracy Lee/CombatLifestyle.com)

By Matt Saccaro

The ninth season of Bellator demonstrated what the Viacom-owned promotion is capable of when it’s given a platform on a stable, popular network—but can what season nine showed us elevate Bellator to the top while simultaneously revitalizing the stagnating MMA market in the United States?

It’s tough to tell, though we can glean a semblance of an answer when we look at an event that was simultaneously the high point and low point for Bellator during its ninth season: Bellator 106, the PPV that wasn’t. The card encapsulated everything that was right and wrong with Bellator.

What was wrong:

-Focusing on well-past-their-prime talent—Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz—and the “these guys used to be in the UFC” marketing line in order to sell a PPV. The cancellation of the PPV because Ortiz suffered yet another injury.

-The conclusion of the knock-off Ultimate Fighter, “Fight Master,” being won by Joe Riggs, another peaked-in-the-mid-2000s, ex-UFC fighter.

-The dubious interim title fight between King Mo and Emanuel Newton that defied the “title shots are earned and not given” mantra that made Bellator special.

What was right:

-Bellator’s homegrown talent like Michael Chandler, Daniel Straus, and Pat Curran being proudly put on display for the MMA world to see.

-Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez was one of the best fights of the year.

-The card being free on Spike TV meant it was the most-viewed in the promotion’s history with 1.1 million viewers.

These takeaways from Bellator 106 can be applied to the promotion’s efforts as a whole.

Bellator’s reliance on ex-UFC fighters in concerning. Rampage drew the second-highest ratings in Bellator history with 793,000 viewers in his fight against Joey Beltran, but banking on older, expensive fighters isn’t sustainable. At 35 years old, Rampage has a limited time left in the sport. The same goes for 38-year-old Tito Ortiz, who hasn’t even fought for Bellator yet since he can’t stay healthy. Placing the weight of a promotion’s future on surgically reconstructed knees and necks is a terrible idea.

Bellator apologists might argue that Rampage and Tito were brought in to garner the casual fan’s attention and in doing so promote the lesser-known, Bellator-made fighters…


(The zenith for Bellator. Photo via Tracy Lee/CombatLifestyle.com)

By Matt Saccaro

The ninth season of Bellator demonstrated what the Viacom-owned promotion is capable of when it’s given a platform on a stable, popular network—but can what season nine showed us elevate Bellator to the top while simultaneously revitalizing the stagnating MMA market in the United States?

It’s tough to tell, though we can glean a semblance of an answer when we look at an event that was simultaneously the high point and low point for Bellator during its ninth season: Bellator 106, the PPV that wasn’t. The card encapsulated everything that was right and wrong with Bellator.

What was wrong:

-Focusing on well-past-their-prime talent—Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz—and the “these guys used to be in the UFC” marketing line in order to sell a PPV. The cancellation of the PPV because Ortiz suffered yet another injury.

-The conclusion of the knock-off Ultimate Fighter, “Fight Master,” being won by Joe Riggs, another peaked-in-the-mid-2000s, ex-UFC fighter.

-The dubious interim title fight between King Mo and Emanuel Newton that defied the “title shots are earned and not given” mantra that made Bellator special.

What was right:

-Bellator’s homegrown talent like Michael Chandler, Daniel Straus, and Pat Curran being proudly put on display for the MMA world to see.

-Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez was one of the best fights of the year.

-The card being free on Spike TV meant it was the most-viewed in the promotion’s history with 1.1 million viewers.

These takeaways from Bellator 106 can be applied to the promotion’s efforts as a whole.

Bellator’s reliance on ex-UFC fighters in concerning. Rampage drew the second-highest ratings in Bellator history with 793,000 viewers in his fight against Joey Beltran, but banking on older, expensive fighters isn’t sustainable. At 35 years old, Rampage has a limited time left in the sport. The same goes for 38-year-old Tito Ortiz, who hasn’t even fought for Bellator yet since he can’t stay healthy. Placing the weight of a promotion’s future on surgically reconstructed knees and necks is a terrible idea.

Bellator apologists might argue that Rampage and Tito were brought in to garner the casual fan’s attention and in doing so promote the lesser-known, Bellator-made fighters. This logic sounds plausible but doesn’t hold up to snuff. As mentioned above, Alvarez vs. Chandler drew 1.1 million viewers. Rampage Jackson vs. Joey Beltran drew several hundred thousand less at 793,000. Two fighters that have never been in the UFC out-drew two fighters that had been in the UFC, one of whom was a “star.” Yes, casuals will watch Rampage if he’s on for free. But even more will watch if a fight is free and they perceive that it’s a contest of world-class talent and importance, like with Chandler and Alvarez.

If you’re still not getting the point: Two non-UFC guys earned Bellator’s highest ratings ever, proving that Bellator can build their popularity without people like Rampage and Tito if they wanted to. This isn’t to say that hiring any ex-UFC guy is bad. Bellator signed Paul Sass who made his debut for the promotion on the Bellator 104 prelims.  Sass is a guy who’ll likely be a stud for Bellator and can be for a long time due to his young age. Instead of promoting that kind of UFC veteran, they chose to parade fighters like Vladimir Matyushenko, Houston Alexander, Joe Riggs, Cheick Kongo, Marcus Davis, Terry Etim, and Rich Clementi on Spike like it’s the previous era of MMA and they’re all still relevant.

This is to the detriment of the legitimately bright prospects that Bellator has on their roster—and they do have quite a few. If the undefeated, 6’6″ light heavyweight Liam McGeary were in the UFC rather than Bellator, people would be saying that he’d be one of the men who could be Jon Jones in 2014. 13-1 lightweight Will Brooks is a talented fighter who could go far in MMA and he’s only 27. Bellator also has Polish grappling phenom Marcin Held who’s 16-3 and is only 21. There’s also the resurgent NCAA Division I champ Bubba Jenkins who returned to the winning column on the Bellator 109 prelims and is now 5-1. At 25, he can go far in Bellator. As an MMA fan, I have more interest in seeing all of these fighters than I do in seeing the ex-UFC fighters mentioned earlier. I want to see athletes who compete for a better tomorrow, not ones who fight for fading glimpses of yesterday.

That’s the crossroads that Bellator finds itself at at the end of season nine. They can continue their focus on former UFC “stars” and adopt the money-fueled booking strategy for which they’ve lambasted the UFC, or they can be different. They can be the best Bellator they can be instead of being the best UFC impersonator.

Bellator 108 Recap: Rampage Finishes Beltran at the Bell, Minakov Becomes Bellator Heavyweight Champ


(Rampage intimidates Beltran while Bjorn Rebney continues to do his best Dana White impression. / Image via Sherdog)

Bellator 108 had the potential to be a disaster for the perennial runner-up promotion, but it wasn’t. All of the main card fights were exciting, first-round finishes. And, most importantly, the right guy won the main event.

Here’s the event recap, from bottom to top:

On the prelims, Bellator’s 6’6″ English light heavyweight prospect Liam McGeary advanced to 6-0. He’s raw but, from what we’ve seen so far, also quite talented and diverse. If he were in the UFC, there’d be dozens of “Is Liam McGeary the man to beat Jones in 2014?” articles written by now.

UFC and strikeforce veteran Nah-Shon Burrell won a forgettable unanimous decision against a guy named Jesus Martinez who also had a Jesus tattoo. Awesome.

Two other UFC vets were featured on the prelims: Tom DeBlass and Jason Lambert. The fight between them was short. DeBlass scored a walk-off KO with a devastating hook early in the first round.

The main card started with the featherweight tournament final between Bellator mainstray Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Justin Wilcox. Pitbull finished Wilcox in the first round in largely uncompetitive fight. Every one of Freire’s frequently-landed punches seemed to rock Wilcox, who eventually succumbed to the Brazilian’s flurries. This was the second time Freire has won the Bellator featherweight tournament.

Read on to learn about the specifics of Rampage’s victory as well as of the Bellator heavyweight title fight.


(Rampage intimidates Beltran while Bjorn Rebney continues to do his best Dana White impression. / Image via Sherdog)

Bellator 108 had the potential to be a disaster for the perennial runner-up promotion, but it wasn’t. All of the main card fights were exciting, first-round finishes. And, most importantly, the right guy won the main event.

Here’s the event recap, from bottom to top:

On the prelims, Bellator’s 6’6″ English light heavyweight prospect Liam McGeary advanced to 6-0. He’s raw but, from what we’ve seen so far, also quite talented and diverse. If he were in the UFC, there’d be dozens of “Is Liam McGeary the man to beat Jones in 2014?” articles written by now.

UFC and strikeforce veteran Nah-Shon Burrell won a forgettable unanimous decision against a guy named Jesus Martinez who also had a Jesus tattoo. Awesome.

Two other UFC vets were featured on the prelims: Tom DeBlass and Jason Lambert. The fight between them was short. DeBlass scored a walk-off KO with a devastating hook early in the first round.

The main card started with the featherweight tournament final between Bellator mainstray Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Justin Wilcox. Pitbull finished Wilcox in the first round in a largely uncompetitive fight. Every one of Freire’s frequently-landed punches seemed to rock Wilcox, who eventually succumbed to the Brazilian’s flurries. This was the second time Freire has won the Bellator featherweight tournament.

Then the card moved onto Marcos Galvao vs. Tom McKenna. Galvao, a BJJ ace, smothered McKenna, cut him open, and finished him via TKO near the end of the first round. Thought it seemed like a piss-break match (it was the least-significant fight of the night yet it was sandwiched between two important fights rather than at the beginning of the card), it was an enjoyable fight to watch.

A Bellator heavyweight title fight was the night’s co-main event, which is telling. A has-been former UFC champ facing a never-was UFC reject took top billing over a match for a “world” title. Champion Alexander Volkov met fellow Russian Vitaly Minakov. The fight started with brief fireworks, then went into a lull after which Minakov floored Volkov and finished the champ with strikes. It was all over in a round.

Rampage Jackson fought late-replacement Joey Beltran in the main event. Despite being a little doughy (the fight was at a catchweight of 210 rather than 205), Jackson didn’t look as bad as the MMA world thought he would. He was a little quicker than in his previous outings, threw a few kicks, and landed some great knees. There were bouts of stalling and clinching for the latter half of the first round, but Rampage eventually landed a flurry that floored Beltran, prompting a stoppage right as the bell rang. One of the night’s highlights came after the fight, during Rampage’s post-fight promo. He was trying to take the mic from Jimmy Smith, who refused to acquiesce all the while you could hear someone screaming “DON’T LET HIM TAKE IT,” at the top of their lungs. It was about as awkward as that time Dana White reprimanded Colton Smith for ignoring the Harley-Davidson rep when he won a motorcycle.

Overall? Not bad. The fights were optimized for the casual fans (quick TKO finishes) and, for the first time in a while, something went right for Bellator: Rampage won his fight in convincing fashion. And the card he was on, one that was likely to draw more eyes than others, was entertaining. The fights might actually want to make people watch another Bellator show in the future.

But the biggest issue after Bellator 108 is what they’ll will do with Rampage now. He’s likely to high-profile for a tournament, yet they’ll compromise their integrity (like that matters) if they gift Rampage a title shot. Bellator’s future will be interesting, to say the least.

Complete results:

Main Card:

Quinton Jackson def. Joey Beltran via TKO (punches), 4:59 of Round 1
Vitaly Minakov def. Alexander Volkov via TKO (punches), 2:57 of Round 1
Marcos Galvao def. Tom McKenna via TKO (punches), 4:29 of Round 1
Patricio Freire def. Justin Wilcox via TKO (punches), 2:23 of Round 1

Preliminary Card:

Sam Oropeza def. Chip Moraza-Pollard via TKO (punches), 0:37 of Round 1
Tom DeBlass def. Jason Lambert via KO (punch), 1:45 of Round 1
Nah-Shon Burrell def. Jesus Martinez via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Anthony Morrison def. Kenny Foster via majority decision (28-28, 29-27, 30-26)
Liam McGeary def. Nahim Wali via submission (armbar), 1:31 of Round 1
Will Martinez def. Kevin Rodday via submission (rear naked choke), 3:50 of Round 1
Dan Matala def. Ryan Cafaro via TKO (strikes), 3:52 of Round 2
Rob Sullivan def. Sergio da Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)

Bellator Was Just Kidding About Giving Rampage vs. Beltran Top Billing Over Shlemenko vs. Marshall


(Two unrelated Bellator stories on the same day? Tell us how you feel, Mugatu.)

When Quinton Jackson vs. Joey Beltran was announced as the main event of Bellator 108 (November 15th, Atlantic City), we couldn’t help but roll our eyes. Not only does Jackson/Beltran have the potential to be a sloppy, gassy brawl, it’s kind of a slap in the face to Alexander Shlemenko and Doug “The Rhino” Marshall, who were scheduled to face off in a middleweight title fight that same night. Keep in mind, Shlemenko is one of the most exciting and successful competitors in Bellator’s history, and Marshall has “Comeback MMA Fighter of 2013” locked up if he manages to win this one — and yet they’ll be playing second fiddle to a couple of one-dimensional UFC refugees? Doesn’t seem fair to us.

Luckily, Bellator seems to have heard these complaints, because they just did a little flip-flopping with their event schedule. As confirmed by the promotion today, Shlemenko vs. Marshall will be pushed back one week so it can headline Bellator 109 (November 22nd; Bethlehem, PA), while the heavyweight title fight between Alexander Volkov and Vitaly Minakov has now been moved up from the main event of Bellator 109 to the co-main event of Bellator 108.

In other words, Rampage vs. Beltran will still be main-eventing over a title fight, but now it’s a title fight between two Russian dudes who you probably don’t care about. Plus, Rampage will likely be pulling out of his fight with an injury next week anyway. So good work, Bellator, you guys are on a roll lately. The full fight lineups for Bellator 108 and 109 are after the jump…


(Two unrelated Bellator stories on the same day? Tell us how you feel, Mugatu.)

When Quinton Jackson vs. Joey Beltran was announced as the main event of Bellator 108 (November 15th, Atlantic City), we couldn’t help but roll our eyes. Not only does Jackson/Beltran have the potential to be a sloppy, gassy brawl, it’s kind of a slap in the face to Alexander Shlemenko and Doug “The Rhino” Marshall, who were scheduled to face off in a middleweight title fight that same night. Keep in mind, Shlemenko is one of the most exciting and successful competitors in Bellator’s history, and Marshall has “Comeback MMA Fighter of 2013″ locked up if he manages to win this one — and yet they’ll be playing second fiddle to a couple of one-dimensional UFC refugees? Doesn’t seem fair to us.

Luckily, Bellator seems to have heard these complaints, because they just did a little flip-flopping with their event schedule. As confirmed by the promotion today, Shlemenko vs. Marshall will be pushed back one week so it can headline Bellator 109 (November 22nd; Bethlehem, PA), while the heavyweight title fight between Alexander Volkov and Vitaly Minakov has now been moved up from the main event of Bellator 109 to the co-main event of Bellator 108.

In other words, Rampage vs. Beltran will still be main-eventing over a title fight, but now it’s a title fight between two Russian dudes who you probably don’t care about. Plus, Rampage will likely be pulling out of his fight with an injury next week anyway. So good work, Bellator, you guys are on a roll lately. The full fight lineups for Bellator 108 and 109 are after the jump…

Bellator 108
November 15th, 2103
Revel; Atlantic City, NJ 

Spike TV Main Card
Catchweight Feature Fight (210 lbs.): Rampage Jackson (32-11) vs. Joey Beltran (14-9)
Heavyweight Title Fight: Alexander Volkov (19-3) vs. Vitaly Minakov (12-0)
Featherweight Tournament Finals: Justin Wilcox (13-5) vs. Patricio Pitbull (21-7-1)
Bantamweight Feature Fight: Marcos Galvao (14-6-1) vs. Tom McKenna (7-3)

Spike.com Preliminary Fights
Bantamweight Feature Fight: Sergio da Silva (1-4) vs. Rob Sullivan (2-1)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Ryan Cafaro (0-0) vs. Dan Matala (0-0)
Catchweight Feature Fight (180 lbs.): Nah’Shon Burrell (9-3) vs. Jesus Martinez (8-4)
Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: Najim Wali (3-2) vs. Liam McGeary (6-0)\
Catchweight Feature Fight (150 lbs.): Anthony Morrison (17-10) vs. Kenny Foster (10-7)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Kevin Roddy (13-14-1) vs. Will Martinez (6-2-1)
Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: Jason Lambert (26-12) vs. Tom DeBlass (8-2)
Welterweight Feature Fight: Chip Moraza-Pollard (7-4) vs. Sam Oropeza (8-2)

Bellator 109
November 22nd, 2013
Sands Casino Resort; Bethlehem, PA

Spike TV Main Card
Middleweight Title Fight: Alexander Shlemenko (48-7) vs. Doug Marshall (18-6)
Lightweight Tournament Finals: Will Brooks (12-1) vs. Tiger Sarnavskiy (25-1)
Welterweight Tournament Finals: Rick Hawn (17-2) vs. Ron Keslar (11-3)
Welterweight Feature Fight: Matt Riddle (7-3) vs. Nathan Coy (13-4)
Welterweight Feature Fight: Terry Etim (15-5) vs. Patrick Cenbole (9-2-1)

Spike.com Preliminary Fights
Featherweight Feature Fight: Lester Caslow (10-8) vs. Jay Haas (11-12)
Lightweight Feature Fight: Brent Primus (3-0) vs. Brett Glass (2-0)
Lightweight Feature Fight: Terrell Hobbs (9-5) vs. Bubba Jenkins (4-1)
Featherweight Feature Fight: Saul Almeida (13-4) vs. Goiti Yamauchi (15-1)
Heavyweight Feature Fight: Keith Bell (5-2-1) vs. Blagoi Ivanov (8-0)
Welterweight Feature Fight: Andrew Osborne (7-7) vs. Michael Page (5-0)
Lightweight Feature Fight: Ahsan Abdullah (5-3) vs. Mike Bannon (4-1)

The Unsupportable Opinion: Death Was the Best Outcome for Bellator’s Inaugural PPV


(MMA gets another PPV that never was)

When your dog is terminally ill, you put it down.

When the sales for your inaugural PPV are anemic, you should do the same.

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:


(MMA gets another PPV that never was)

By Matt Saccaro

When your dog is terminally ill, you put it down.

When the sales for your inaugural PPV are anemic, you should do the same.

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.

BREAKING: Tito Ortiz Off Bellator PPV Card With Neck Injury, No Longer “The Healthiest He’s Ever Been” [UPDATED]


(The reason was to avoid another unnecessary ass-kicking, Tito. DUH. Via Ortiz’s instagram.)

Hey, you guys? Oh my God, you guys. You guys are never going to believe this shit. It appears that Tito Ortiz’s neck has once again collapsed under the weight of his massive head (via MMAFighting):

Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been hit by the injury bug.

Tito Ortiz suffered a neck injury in training which will keep him out of next weekend’s fight against Quinton Jackson, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Bellator is currently seeking a replacement for Ortiz, and it is unclear at this time whether Jackson will remain on the Nov. 2 card. There is a chance next weekend’s pay-per-view card turns into a Spike show with Jackson being moved to another event.

Well, at least Tito didn’t wait until 3 days after the fight to announce that he had been injured the whole time. It’s what we like to call “progress.” But seriously, bathroom selfie or it didn’t happen.

[UPDATE] Bellator sheds some light on the status of their PPV (via Twitter) after the jump…


(The reason was to avoid another unnecessary ass-kicking, Tito. DUH. Via Ortiz’s instagram.)

Hey, you guys? Oh my God, you guys. You guys are never going to believe this shit. It appears that Tito Ortiz’s neck has once again collapsed under the weight of his massive head (via MMAFighting):

Bellator’s inaugural pay-per-view has been hit by the injury bug.

Tito Ortiz suffered a neck injury in training which will keep him out of next weekend’s fight against Quinton Jackson, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Bellator is currently seeking a replacement for Ortiz, and it is unclear at this time whether Jackson will remain on the Nov. 2 card. There is a chance next weekend’s pay-per-view card turns into a Spike show with Jackson being moved to another event.

Well, at least Tito didn’t wait until 3 days after the fight to announce that he had been injured the whole time. It’s what we like to call “progress.” But seriously, bathroom selfie or it didn’t happen.

[UPDATE] (via Bellator’s official Twitter account).

I don’t even know where to begin, so let’s go to Dana White for what I predict will be a classy, restrained reaction…

Ohwaitnevermind.

–J. Jones

CagePotato Open Discussion: Is Anybody About to Spend $34.95+ on the Bellator PPV?


(That face you make when you realize that you’re an overpaid dinosaur who has long since worn out his welcome. And whatever facial expression Hulk Hogan is making.)

The title pretty much says everything I need to. Bellator is only charging the low, low price of far more than any reasonable person would pay to watch Tito Ortiz fight Rampage Jackson in 2013 for their charmingly misguided PPV experiment. That’s right, $34.95 for standard definition – $44.95 [!?] for HD – to watch a “mixed martial arts tournament* where fighters become warriors**.”

*Except, you know, it isn’t a tournament at all.

** How lovely.

Considering that people already aren’t buying tickets to this show, I have to ask: Are any of our readers about to drop over thirty bucks on this card? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not about to spend that much money on this. Maybe if it was stacked with the fighters who have made Bellator so much fun to watch over the past few years — guys like Alexander Shlemenko, Rich Hale, David Rickels and The Pitbull Brothers — I’d be able to justify dropping thirty bucks on it.


(That face you make when you realize that you’re an overpaid dinosaur who has long since worn out his welcome. And whatever facial expression Hulk Hogan is making.)

The title pretty much says everything I need to. Bellator is only charging the low, low price of far more than any reasonable person would pay to watch Tito Ortiz fight Rampage Jackson in 2013 for their charmingly misguided PPV experiment. That’s right, $34.95 for standard definition – $44.95 [!?] for HD – to watch a “mixed martial arts tournament* where fighters become warriors**.”

*Except, you know, it isn’t a tournament at all.

** How lovely.

Considering that people already aren’t buying tickets to this show, I have to ask: Are any of our readers about to drop over thirty bucks on this card? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not about to spend that much money on this. Maybe if it was stacked with the fighters who have made Bellator so much fun to watch over the past few years — guys like Alexander Shlemenko, Rich Hale, David Rickels and The Pitbull Brothers — I’d be able to justify dropping thirty bucks on it.

But $34.95 for two fights between UFC washouts I haven’t cared about since I was still in college, a completely pointless do-over, and only two fights that I’m willing to pay for?

The only reason that I’d buy this card is out of sympathy for Bellator. They’re sort-of banking on this thing working out, and I’d hate to see a promotion that has given us so many exciting fights go under. But if Bellator is going to continue to be a Station of the Cross for the UFC gatekeeper in decline, then, as much as I hate to type this, I can live without it.

That’s my two cents, guys. Feel free to add yours below.

@SethFalvo