Bellator moving to monthly events in 2015 spike to remain its focus

As expected, Bellator MMA is restructuring its format next year to focus on superfights and “tentpole” events rather than tournaments, the promotion’s new president, Scott Coker, today told MMAjunkie.

Bellator will kick off its 11th season at Bellator 123 on Sept. 5 in Connecticut, wrapping up lightweight and light-heavyweight tournaments from the 10th season before a season finale in mid-November that could feature a welterweight bout between Melvin Manhoef and Paul Daley, Coker said.

Manhoef is scheduled to fight Doug Marshall at Bellator 125 and will need to win in order to receive an offer for Daley, Coker added.

No new tournaments will be promoted for Season 11, according to a Bellator official, but title shots earned under the previous format will be honored.

In 2015, Bellator will shift from its usual format (two 12-week seasons and a trio of “Summer Series” events) to one event per month, Coker said, in addition to four major shows that feature the promotion’s “needle-movers,” for a total of 16 yearly events. All of them will air on Spike TV.

“That’s going to be our season,” said Coker, who took over for former Bellator head Bjorn Rebney in June. “We’re going to do 16 instead of 26, but the fights will be much larger, and the venues will have time to promote and really make it an event and not just a weekly TV show.”

As before, Coker said he will reserve the right to hold tournaments in the event that Bellator has at least four top-tier fighters that could face off, but as with the now-defunct Strikeforce promotion (which Coker previously headed), the competitions likely will take place over several months to provide ample time to build and market each event.

“I want to keep those options open,” Coker said. “We’ve thrown those tournaments over time. We’ve thrown one-night tournaments with the middleweight and the women’s division. We’re going to make a decision when the time’s right.”

The monthly events, as well as the major events, are expected to air with Bellator’s longtime broadcast partner, Spike TV. Coker didn’t rule out a future event on pay-per-view, but he opined that the promotion should focus on cable TV.

“To me, I think that we should be on Spike TV and building the next wave of stars in front of 100 million households,” he said. “There will be a time probably in the future where we can definitely go back to the PPV business, but for the foreseeable future, I see us as a Spike property.

“We’re going to put on the best fights we can put on, and we’re going to put on fights that the fans want to see. I think you might see a tournament at some point in 2015, but right now, I’m not ready to commit to that. But we’re going to see some big event and big fights, and fights that are going to move the needle.

“To me, one of the things we really have to focus on is, look, if you put on a bunch of fights that people don’t want to watch, then you’re going to have a very short business. And we have a good enough roster right now to make big fights in the future. I’m excited about the prospects coming up and the prospects we’re signing. We’re going back into the female fight division, and we might even start another female division in another weight class. We’re going to start building this thing up. I think it’s going to look a lot different in 18 months than it does today.”

http://mmajunkie.com/2014/08/scott-coker-bellator-moving-to-monthly-events-in-2015-spike-tv-to-remain-focus

Bellator

16 events minimun...

2015, Bellator will shift from its usual format (two 12-week seasons and a trio of “Summer Series” events) to one event per month, Coker said, in addition to four major shows that feature the promotion’s “needle-movers,” for a total of 16 yearly events. All of them will air on Spike TV.

“That’s going to be our season,” said Coker, who took over for former Bellator head Bjorn Rebney in June. “We’re going to do 16 instead of 26, but the fights will be much larger, and the venues will have time to promote and really make it an event and not just a weekly TV show.”

As before, Coker said he will reserve the right to hold tournaments in the event that Bellator has at least four top-tier fighters that could face off, but as with the now-defunct Strikeforce promotion (which Coker previously headed), the competitions likely will take place over several months to provide ample time to build and market each event.

urgh one event a month at best....great. meanwhile ufc dominate the international market with 16 events a months worldwide.

Bellator sucks donkey balls

Coming from someone who thinks m-1 is a waste of time LOL your thoughts are meaningless.

I honestly will prefer 16 large scale bigger venue events that will be promoted for more then 4 days with stacked cards.

Bellator is getting out of Indian casinos and into actual arenas

Also coker is still open to having tournaments and also I think its cook he's going to still honor title shits earned in old format.

I'm not happy with building multiple woman's divisions but atleast it seems ambitions are high.

This is going to be fun to watch transition from defacto #2 to legitimate #2.

I love how on point my auto correct is today lmfao

A lot of people barely knew bellator fighters due to fights never being promoted properly in future we can get real hype built and anticipation I'm happy.

Quality over quantity stu...

Just because ufc is having 4 billion north American shows and 2 million overseas shows doesn't mean its successful ....

They are happy with oversaturation and a lesser product .....BELLAFORCE is not!

fka wrote:Coming from someone who thinks m-1 is a waste of time LOL your thoughts are meaningless.

I honestly will prefer 16 large scale bigger venue events that will be promoted for more then 4 days with stacked cards.

Bellator is getting out of Indian casinos and into actual arenas

Also coker is still open to having tournaments and also I think its cook he's going to still honor title shits earned in old format.

I'm not happy with building multiple woman's divisions but atleast it seems ambitions are high.

This is going to be fun to watch transition from defacto #2 to legitimate #2.

M-1 is a sack of shit

What I was worried most about was a further emphasis on PPV events in 2015. From the sound of it, those would be PPV cards are going to be on Spike TV which is fantastic.

stu3ufc wrote:urgh one event a month at best....great. meanwhile ufc dominate the international market with 16 events a months worldwide.

Bellator sucks donkey balls

ufc is a watered down collection of cans these days.

fka wrote:A lot of people barely knew bellator fighters due to fights never being promoted properly in future we can get real hype built and anticipation I'm happy.

Quality over quantity stu...

Just because ufc is having 4 billion north American shows and 2 million overseas shows doesn't mean its successful ....

They are happy with oversaturation and a lesser product .....BELLAFORCE is not!

That was EXACTLY my problem with Bellator (and the UFC). I cannot follow what is going on every week! I am much happier following events once a month. I know very few of Bellator's fighters because it felt like a weekly commitment to their schedule. Now, next year, I can actually try to follow BellaForce a bit more. Once a month events (or "products", for the Zuffa-Heads) is perfect for a fight organization.

stu3ufc wrote:

fka wrote:Coming from someone who thinks m-1 is a waste of time LOL your thoughts are meaningless.

I honestly will prefer 16 large scale bigger venue events that will be promoted for more then 4 days with stacked cards.

Bellator is getting out of Indian casinos and into actual arenas

Also coker is still open to having tournaments and also I think its cook he's going to still honor title shits earned in old format.

I'm not happy with building multiple woman's divisions but atleast it seems ambitions are high.

This is going to be fun to watch transition from defacto #2 to legitimate #2.

M-1 is a sack of shit

Do you like MMA? What orgs are doing it right in your opinion?

I have no interest in watered down cards with no hype and low-tier production. A few, stacked, bigger than life events per year like PRIDE is how mma should be.

nathanli wrote:

Do you like MMA? What orgs are doing it right in your opinion?

I hate MMA and the current landscape of the sport, the drama, the PED's, Dana White, UFC, the monopoly, watered down cards, undeserved title shots, rematches, Big fights that are few are far in between, Joe Silva's match making..... I could go on.

I just want some JMMA like DREAM or Sengoku. white ring

Monthly events is a much better plan

Golden Age wrote:I have no interest in watered down cards with no hype and low-tier production. A few, stacked, bigger than life events per year like PRIDE is how mma should be.

Same here

Nathanli don't bother stu doesn't watch mma he just trolls .....

He admitted he doesn't like or watch mma yet he tortures us with ignorant statements.

He says watching mma is too much of a commitment and m-1 is garbage(he's never watched)which should pretty much let you know where he is.

Aside from old jmma I bet he watches ufc bellator and wsof .....super global mma fan #1.

If he watched last m-1 event he'd be speechless lol

stu, quit being such a sad sack.

Aunt Red wrote:stu, quit being such a sad sack.

you lot are the sad sacks getting butthurt over my opinions on coker and bellator.

sadsack3ufc

fka wrote:

Aside from old jmma I bet he watches ufc bellator and wsof .....super global mma fan #1.

If he watched last m-1 event he'd be speechless lol

Haven't watched any in months. probably the odd fight with a favorite fighter thats it. to sit through an american mma event is torture. who gives a fuck for m-1 just a bunch of russians.

Kickboxing is a real sport...MMA is a joke

Well to be fair, Russia is to MMA now what Brazil was to MMA in the late 90s-early 00s

I've never been into russian mma because i dont speak the language or know who is who. Portuguese is my second language and I am one of few who watched Brazilian MMA and knew guys before they joined bellator/ UFC

I watch everything I can in any language in fact nearly all the early pride stuff I seen was in Japanese.

Its nice when you understand the language but fighting is fighting and to me its like being at a live event.

You just pay more attention to the fight instead of letting commentary dictate your thoughts.

stu3ufc wrote:I've never been into russian mma because i dont speak the language or know who is who. Portuguese is my second language and I am one of few who watched Brazilian MMA and knew guys before they joined bellator/ UFC

Russian promotions M-1, Legend, Fight Nights, Tech-KREP FC and League S-70 are better than the South/North american promotions.