MMA Fighting: Is Bellator a real rival to the UFC?

Bellator vs. UFC. Dana White vs. Bjorn Rebney. Dan Henderson vs. Vitor Belfort. Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate. Judges vs. reality. Bobby Green's foot vs. yet another unsuspecting groin.

So many matchups. So many questions. Let's get right to it.

UFC vs. Bellator

@torontoufcfan: Has Bellator become a real competitor to the UFC or is this just a one off event that did so well?

If Bellator was a real threat to the number one spot, they wouldn't have pulled out of a pay-per-view slot (think cable/satellite providers were happy that a first-timer in the PPV game left them with a gaping hole in their big-money Saturday night live-event timeslot?). They also wouldn't have had about 10,000 empty seats at Long Beach Arena for a card that was advertised for a long time as being headlined by two huge names with deep local ties.

Bellator is experiencing the same sort of growing pains that every MMA company which has made the big plunge into the deep waters over the past several years has faced. Elite XC had a network television clearance and plenty of buzz. They laid all their bets on Kimbo Slice and it backfired in a spectacular manner. Early Strikeforce was the model for how to run a strong regional promotion, but they had to adapt to a changing game as time went on. They made their best attempt at going big by signing Fedor Emelianenko and Henderson in order to get strong ratings on Showtime, and it didn't work out in the long run, even though fans got memorable fights in the process.

Rebney got Bellator as far as he did by running a tight economic ship; running sold shows to casinos; making TV deals that made sense each step of the way; and developing talent organically.

Then Bellator got onto Spike and things changed. That's when you started seeing the stuff that didn't fit in with the original Bellator plan. That's when the splashy names like Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz were signed. That's when we ended up with tie-ins to a second-tier pro wrestling group, which doesn't bring in nearly enough new fans to offset the number of existing MMA fans who resent the crossover of real and phony. That's when we ended up with a company that used to make a big deal out of not signing UFC fighters turning around and signing recent UFC cuts to main-event fights.

And while other promotions over the years were the darlings of super-hardcore fans, you don't win that audience over when you have public spats like the one you had with Alvarez, even if you're technically in the right. So they've never really even had the anti-UFC fans, who would seem their most natural allies, on their side.

The fact that the Chandler-Alvarez rematch was an amazing fight -- and that, let's face it, if a third bout lives up to the first two, it will go down as the greatest trilogy in MMA history -- is giving Bellator plenty of leeway for the moment. But the fact that Bellator and Spike seem to be in "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" mode has the potential to be one of the industry's lingering stories in 2014.

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The bellator should be worried about their core fan instead draw casual people who still think ufc is sport i know it is ridiculed.#2. American audience kind not into combat sport unless it is boxing oh by way honey boo boo has more rate than glory kickboxing on spike tv.this new decade where people don't watch tv right now and start watch on netlflix and Ppv are a dead market for MMA.  

kayneo The Rising Warrio wrote:The bellator should be worried about their core fan instead draw casual people who still think ufc is sport i know it is ridiculed.#2. American audience kind not into combat sport unless it is boxing oh by way honey boo boo has more rate than glory kickboxing on  spike tv.this new decade where people don't watch tv right now and start watch on netlflix and Ppv are a dead market for MMA.               

I agree ppv needs to go the way of the dinosaurs. New day and age free TV is how it should be done here in the states boxing and MMA have fans kickboxing has not yet caught on but I feel they will especially with the new deal with Spike.