THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
The following was sent in by Torch reader Kevin Seefeldt on the live Bellator experience at the Chicago Theater for last night's Bellator 14 event.
The lower level seats were probably not the place to be. Those in the balcony probably had a better view of the action given that i was about in the 17th row and couldn't see what was happening on the mat.
They have plans to come back to Chicago, but the Chicago Theater probably isn't the best place for them to come. The audience misses out on half the action and most likely won't be willing to pay the high price of admission for the next show.
The crowd was miserable. They showed more appreciation for the ring girls than most matches. Unless it was a fighter from Illinois the crowd was uninterested in the fight. Lots of boos and lewd comments were made during the fights, especially the women's fight. The one celeb i saw was siting across from me. Carlos Marmol, relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs was in attendance.
The crowd was extremely disappointed with the early stoppage in the Ben Askren-Ryan Thomas fight, going as far as to boo the ref the next time he was in the ring. I have been to two UFC events in the past and watching this event live made Bellator seem very amateur.
The under card was dealt with after the main card, but a lot of people stayed because they wanted to watch Jeff Curran and the women fight. Overall I would give the event a "C" because the first few fights weren't active, the referee ruined one fight and the under card stole the show.
RELATED STORY: BELLATOR 14 RESULTS: Penick's round by round report on tape delayed event on Fox Sports Net: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...