Rich Hansen's Take
HANSEN: If Bellator's best possible fights and most stacked card aren't enough for PPV, what is?
Oct 29, 2013 - 1:15:55 PM HANSEN: If Bellator's best possible fights and most stacked card aren't enough for PPV, what is?

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

This was supposed to be the final week of hype before Bellator MMA's first ever pay-per-view offering. Then Tito Ortiz went out and broke his neck (so selfish), which put the kibosh on that idea. Instead, Bellator 106 will now be airing on Spike TV.

The original PPV lineup was to be Rampage vs. Tito Ortiz in the main event, Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez in the co-main event, Pat Curran vs. Daniel Straus, Emanuel Newton vs. Muhammad Lawal, and Cheick Kongo vs. Vinicius Queiroz. The Rampage vs. Ortiz fight and the Kongo vs. Queiroz fight are off the card now, and have been replaced by Joe Riggs vs. Mike Bronzoulis and Mike Richman vs. Akop Stepanyan.

All in all, there's not a lot of difference between the original card and the current card. The fights that were lost featured four aging veterans, all cast aside by the UFC. The new card added a fight featuring two fighters from Fight Master (the Bellator reality show), and two fighters who are most known for their time in Bellator.

For some reason, Bellator has decided that losing four has-beens who are only known for their time in the UFC was reason enough to tell Michael Chandler, Eddie Alvarez, Pat Curran, Daniel Straus, Emanuel Newton, and Muhammad Lawal, "Sorry boys. We don't believe in you enough to give you the ball and let you run. We just don't have faith enough in you to believe you'll make enough money for us." That's an appalling slap in the face to literally all of Bellator's best contracted fighters.

Bellator put all of their promotional eggs in the Rampage and Tito barrel. I couldn't tell you why, but they did. Did you see the commercial that they ran all of the time? You know the one, the one where they licensed Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones. Because, you know, that didn't cost them a shit-ton of cash. The cutting-edge commercial featured giant Rampage Jackson and giant Tito Ortiz walking really slowly through a city. I remember when The Rolling Stones did the same thing in their video for the song Love Is Strong. In 1994. I'm surprised they didn't decide to use liquid metal versions of Rampage and Tito like Robert Patrick in Terminator 2. But that film dates back to 1991, and we can't use technology that's twenty-two years old. That would just be ridiculous.

Anyhoooo, if you watch the commercial, you'll notice a distinct lack of confidence in their own brand, and in their own fighters. First, the commercial is narrated by the same person who does a lot of the Fox Sports promos. This means, of course, they're using a guy associated with the network who is in business with the UFC. Secondly, if you listen to the commercial a dozen times, you'll only hear the word Bellator spoken... a dozen times. Quick math... That means the name of the promotion is spoken exactly once. And that mention is in passing, not in a featured line. The Bellator logo is on the screen for exactly three seconds. Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez are given four seconds out of thirty. Pat Curran's opponent isn't shown or mentioned. That Pat Curran is a champion isn't mentioned. The guy who beat Muhammad Lawal isn't shown or mentioned.

This commercial is a prime example of Brand Confusion. Normally brand confusion leads to a new advertising firm being brought in to sell your goods and services to the public. In this case though, it's pretty clear that the brand confusion was as intentional as can be. Bellator made a conscious decision to target the most casual of casual fans, fans so casual that they still think Rampage and Tito are still fighting for the UFC. After all, $45 worth of casual fans' money spends just as easily as $45 from anyone else.

Once Tito broke his other neck, Viacom was pushed into a corner. Would they leave the show on PPV without their show pony and pray they still got the 50,000 buys they need in order to not suffer a financial loss on their PPV venture? Or would they push the ever-loving hell out of Michal Chandler, Eddie Alvarez, Pat Curran, et. al. and have faith in their fighters and their brand?

Assuming that Bellator only found out about Tito's injury a day or two before he officially was pulled from the card, it only took Viacom about an hour to make that decision. Sell a Michael Chandler PPV? Are you kidding me? Who in their right mind is going to pay to see him? After all, he's a lead spokesman for Dave and Busters, and according to their own commercials people who actually go to Dave and Busters don't recognize him when he's sitting less than a yard away? (And as an aside, if you're a grown man, what the hell are you doing at Dave and Busters, anyhow? Ok, back to our regularly planned programming...)

So I think it's pretty clear I hated the marketing for the erstwhile PPV, but there's still a card going down on Saturday night, and it is one hell of an event. Let's discuss:


1.) Bellator's Lightweight Champion, and Dave and Buster's poster boy, Michael Chandler will be defending his belt against Eddie Alvarez. Bjorn Rebney consistently declares Chandler to be the best lightweight in the world, due in large part to his upset victory over Eddie Alvarez in 2011. Chandler vs. Alvarez is the best fight in Bellator history, and the rematch is without a doubt the biggest fight the company is capable of promoting today.

2.) Bellator's Featherweight Champion will be defending his belt against Daniel Straus, in a rematch of a fight that happened way back before either fighter garnered any fame whatsoever. Although, if the erstwhile Bellator PPV promo is to believed, you know, the one with Really Tall Rampage and Really Tall Tito destroying monster trucks and necks in Really Slow Motion is to believed, Pat Curran is fighting an invisible and unnamed person. Curran is consistently regarded by Rebney as the second best featherweight in the world (Because Jose Aldo and credibility). Daniel Straus (who apparently didn't have a name, face, or highlight reel until after Tito Ortiz broke his other neck since this neck injury isn't to the same neck or something) is now being promoted as the best fighter Curran has ever faced. Apparently we live in a universe where The Good Pitbull Friere was never conceived. Regardless, Curran vs. Straus is a hell of a fight to put on free TV, and would make for a fantastic PPV fight under any promotional banner.

3.) The two most recent light heavyweight tournament champions, Emanuel Newton (who had to win three fights to win his tournament, including one over Lawal) and Muhammad Lawal (who won two supposed fights to win his tournament), are fighting for the Interim Light Heavyweight Championship. Newton knocked Lawal out earlier this year in what has to be considered both the biggest and most shocking upset of the year (not to mention the most schaudenfreude-tastic). Lawal and Newton have serious heat, due in part to Lawal constantly telling himself the entire freaking world how feminine Newton's spinning backfist KO was. By definition, do you want to know what's more feminine than a spinning backfist KO? Getting KO'd by a spinning backfist and then bitching about it for the next several months every time you open your mouth, that's what. There's gold on the line, Lawal is probably the biggest name in the company, these guys hate each other, and it's a rematch of the promotion's most talked about fight of all-time (along with Chandler vs. Alvarez 1).

4.) Bellator (and Viacom) poured a ton of cash into producing Fight Master, and the finale of that show takes place on Saturday night. Joe Riggs, one of the more recognizable names in the promotion takes on Mike Bron-WHO?-lis in the finals of Bellator's reality show. Also appearing on the card is a fight between Mike Richman and Akop Stepanyan, in a battle of two of the best middle of the pack strikers the promotion could possibly pair up for this card.

This is a fantastic card that has something for every fight fan. There is a rematch of an all-time great fight which should appeal to hardcores, and which should please the casuals. Pat Curran is one of the best featherweights in the world. A ginned-up fight between two guys who loathe each other will get casual fans talking. The finale of Fight Master will appeal to the people who found Bellator through the show. And hell, hardcores will watch that fight if just to make in jokes about Nick Diaz and hospital rooms.

The card that Bellator is running on Saturday night is a better card than they originally tried to sell as a PPV, but since a broken down mule and an over the hill ingrate aren't fighting one another, it's going to be on basic cable instead. That's fine with me of course. I'd rather a million or so people watch the fights for free than to have maybe 75,000 people watch on PPV. Saves me $45, and I couldn't care less how much money Viacom makes or loses on Saturday.

What is perplexing me about this whole thing is this: If Chandler vs. Alvarez 2 for the Lightweight Title, plus Curran vs. Straus 2 for the Featherweight Title, plus Newton vs. Lawal 2 for the Interim Light Heavyweight Title, plus Riggs vs. Bronzoulis for the Fight Master championship, plus Richman vs. Stepanyan aren't worthy of a PPV, what exactly could Bellator put together from their current roster that would convince them to try PPV again?

It's simple. Bellator can't and won't do a PPV as their current roster is currently built. If the UFC thought Rampage Jackson were a PPV draw, they would have gotten Vladimir Matyushenko or Sokoudjou or Atilla Vegh (don't get me started) or God forbid Houston Alexander into Tito's spot and stayed on PPV. Tito Ortiz was the draw. FrontRowBrian on Twitter, bastion of journalistic integrity that he may or may not be, tweeted out to the world that Tito was looking at a $2,000,000 payday, plus $7 for every buy above $50,000. Now, while that might be fantasy, I think it puts into perspective just how much he might be getting paid (closer to Anderson Silva money than Eddie Alvarez money if you get my drift).

Viacom deemed the remaining card without Tito as not dynamic enough to be on PPV. Bellator literally could not put on a better card than what they're putting out on Saturday night. So what exactly is Viacom waiting to have happen before they try PPV again? Unless they think the UFC is on verge of collapse, and that they are going to swoop in and put the UFC brand on their own headstone in Kevin Kay's office and sign Anderson Silva to fight Jon Jones at Bellator 125 on PPV, there is just no other good answer.

Bellator isn't worried about putting the best fights on PPV; they're worried about the biggest names. Their best fighters and biggest names won't ever become big enough to carry a PPV unless they get bigger names to headline. And the only big names whose coattails are available to them are Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz.