Breaking through: Bellator MMA loads up for biggest year yet
You don't stand toe-to-toe with a giant unless you want to get squashed.
That's the mentality that every MMA promotion has to have in this UFC-dominated world, and that includes Bellator, an entity widely recognized as the No. 2 fighting organization in North America.
For the longest time, Bellator has been a distant rival to the UFC, often viewed as an amusing alternative known as much for its freak show fights as its ability to unearth talents that may have slipped through the cracks. But with the announcement that they will be hosting a pay-per-view event June 24 at Madison Square Garden, it appears they're taking a major step to being more than just "that other MMA league."
It's not as if this development came out of nowhere. Since taking over from Bjorn Rebney in 2014, Bellator president Scott Coker has made several calculated moves to boost his company's image, including bringing in former UFC stars, putting on more special attraction bouts, and continuing to develop homegrown talent.
It's one thing to bring in talents past their primes, but Bellator has actually managed to acquire several names over the last couple of years who are consensus top-10 fighters in their divisions. That includes Phil Davis, Benson Henderson, and Rory MacDonald among others.
At the time he made the move from the Octagon to the Bellator cage, McDonald was ranked in the top three of the UFC's welterweight rankings. This wasn't a signing meant to exploit the last vestiges of a fighter's star power, it was the acquisition of an athlete in his prime who holds a dominant win over current UFC 170-lb titleholder Tyron Woodley.
This week alone, two other top-10 talents joined the Bellator ranks: light heavyweight Ryan Bader and welterweight Lorenz Larkin. Coker isn't resting on his laurels with the pieces he has, he's continuing to build his divisions with known properties who have strong resumes.
Which is not to say the promotion doesn't know how to cater to more casual demographics.
Last year, Bellator 149 was one of the most talked-about MMA events of the year, for better or for worse. The show featured a main event between aging legends Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, and a co-main event featuring street fight superstars Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000. Those headlining bouts raised plenty of eyebrows, but also drew plenty of eyes to the broadcast.
Almost two million viewers tuned in to watch Kimbo and Dada participate in one of the sloppiest fights ever, and Gracie defeat Shamrock with what looked like a low blow to close the festivities, but the fights were always more about spectacle and morbid curiosity than competitive relevance.
They followed that up in 2017 with a match between Chael Sonnen and former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz. The two had a history dating back to their collegiate wrestling days and the ensuing trash talk-filled promos were like something out of a bad episode of "Monday Night Raw."
The actual fight underwhelmed, but that didn't stop Bellator 170 from drawing another massive viewership number with 1.4 million reportedly tuning in.
And as long as people are watching, there's a chance that one of the company's lesser known personalities catches their attention and forms a fan base of their own. Fighters like viral sensation Michael Page, multiple time lightweight champion Michael Chandler, and undefeated women's flyweight Ilima-Lei MacFarlane all have the potential to break through to the mainstream with a standout performance on the right night.
Chandler made a huge statement in November when he won a split decision over Henderson - a former UFC champion - in an exciting five-round battle, and Page had arguably MMA's best knockout of 2016 when he decimated Evangelista Santos with a flying knee.
It's with this combination of assets that Bellator heads into its first PPV in over three years and just its second ever. Their first foray into paid programming, Bellator 120 in May 2014, drew approximately 100,000 buys, a modest number in comparison to the best offerings of the UFC.
But Bellator's goal is not to be the number one promotion. It never has been. Its goal has been to grow and if it can reach a new peak (say, around 150,000 PPV buys) in 2017 then it's still trending in the right direction.
(Photos courtesy: Bellator MMA)