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Bellator gets Joe Warren, DREAM left to wonder what to do
By Zach Arnold | February 2, 2010
The news for DREAM is getting ugly. Marius Zaromskis gets clocked by Nick Diaz, then Hayato Sakurai is more than likely next in line for ND, and now Joe Warren is off to Bellator for their upcoming Featherweight tournament. If Warren isn’t back in DREAM soon, it will be a blow for DREAM given how much credibility Warren earned by beating Kid Yamamoto last year.
Warren was supposed to fight on the Vale Tudo Japan card last October but pulled out. Warren stated to Yahoo Sports that he can still fight in Japan, but given his wrestling aspirations along with Bellator’s upcoming schedule, it might be difficult to see Warren getting consistent bookings in Japan due to scheduling conflicts. DREAM put some PR effort behing pushing Warren and it will be interesting to see what they do next…
Topics: DREAM, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Those non-exclusive contracts seem to be working out well…. Hahaha
the rumor is now that Aoki vs. Melendez could happen. Great fight that is stupid for both companie. The loser in that fight hurts his entire division for a long time. And can Strikeforce afford to have another Overeem who refuses to defend their title?
bellator’s tournaments are looking stacked. Too bad most people won’t be watching them.
Did DREAM have a nonexclusive contract with Warren? All I’ve heard makes it sound like there is no contract.
Do you care what happens to the LW divisions of Strikeforce or DREAM, 45? Because I don’t. Its the best LW fight outside of Strikeforce – why wouldn’t I want to see it?
Alan,
As a fight, I agree it is a great one. The best Lightweight fight that can put on outside of the UFC.
Here is my problems with it….
1) There is no build-up to this fight. Strikeforce is wasting a true high level fight without getting Aoki on TV first to showcase his skills and have a build up to the fight. I know people will say Strikeforce can’t get Aoki or DREAM to do this, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t create a problem.
2) If Aoki wins, the Strikeforce Title likely won’t be defended for the rest of 2010.
To me, it just seems like all of these co-promotion fights are being rushed without any real sense of organization to them. At this rate, there will be about 3 meaningful titles between Sengoku, DREAM, and Strikeforce.
And let’s say Melendez wins…. Well, Strikeforce is going to want him to fight in their organization next. Yet his next fight should be against Kawajiri. Which I doubt DREAM will loan out if their fighters keep on losing in Strikeforce.
So yes, it’s a great fight…. But there are a lot of negatives to go along with it.
I guess I just see this co-promotion stuff being a big failure from a promotional aspect of things.
If they have a fight to “build it”, and one of them loses…that fight is dead. Why risk it?
I also have no idea what rights they’ll have to Aoki. I’m guessing they’ll end up with options on him that they probably never cared to get on Overeem, since they signed him back in the days of being telecast on Yahoo streams and not Showtime. I’m not terribly worried.
Also, in LOLable news; UFC is playing musical chairs with Rolles Gracie’s opponent for this weekend. Apparently Madsen was too much of a challenge, so they downgraded to the guy that KOed Houston Alexander. Madsen will be kept on as a potential “backup” fighter, a la Jesse Taylor was for Jay Hieron a few months ago. No surprise though that no one on the MMA internet community cares. It is funny, though, to compare it to the collective apopleptic fit it had *TWO WEEKS AGO* over Bobby Lashley being in that same position as Rolles is now.
They most likely had Warren under contract for 3 fights in the tournament, and well, all he did was fight in the tournament.
Bellator scored with this one.
Wasn’t DREAM trying to setup Aoki vs Kawajiri in May?
They still are, Jeff. It might happen in July, though.
“1) There is no build-up to this fight. Strikeforce is wasting a true high level fight without getting Aoki on TV first to showcase his skills and have a build up to the fight. I know people will say Strikeforce can’t get Aoki or DREAM to do this, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t create a problem.”
Isn’t this the GRIPE that 99% of the Zuffa-ites have in the first place? That top guys that a large part of the casual audience don’t have any exposure to are getting “easy, showcase fights” instead of fighting other top fighters?
It’s just a no-win that you’ll see these people exploit no matter what.
(a) Either they don’t do the “showcase fight” to introduce the fans to the fighter, so they are bad promoters who aren’t as savvy as the UFC; or
(b) they’re only interested in protecting the fighers, not making top level fights, so they’re hucksters.
There is a middle ground and a way to do it.
Putting Kimbo in a main event against a can is one extreme. Putting Aoki/Melendez on with nobody caring is the other.
How did Bellator get Warren, anyway? Seems like WEC should have been all over that.
If Aoki and Melendez ended up in separate fights again, hell, I dunno, Rich Clementi and Din Thomas, people would hate that too. “Why risk the fight?” “What if they lose to UFC rejects?”
Shinya Aoki vs. Billy Evangelista
Evangelista has already shown that he will likely never be high level. his fight with Mike Aina was proof of that. Throw him to Aoki. It’s a solid enough fight that nobody will be crying about it too much.
Plus, there isn’t the lose to a UFC reject downside.
On the same event, put Melendez vs. Thomson 3. It’s easily justifiable because it would be a rubber match and the 2nd fight was so fun to watch.
Problem solved. Like I said, there is a middle ground.
Aoki vs. Melendez right off the bat doesn’t help Strikeforce of DREAM….
I think a lot of fighters are choosing the “money right now” approach. Let’s face it, they’ll be fighting lesser competition for more money, more frequently. I just wonder how it’ll play out with those long term contracts. Look at Eddie Alvarez, he had to wait around for Season 2 and could only fight fighters that Bellator approved of in the interim. I just fighters don’t get stuck in a Bellator limbo if they want to move on to bigger fights elsewhere.
Aoki-Melendez sounds intriguing, I hope it happens. I’m glad there are no set-up fights. Aoki is represented as a consensus #1 lightweight contender, so he shouldn’t be taking set-up fights unless they are biding time until a title shot. Well we know he has no access to a title shot against BJ Penn, so he should fight the toughest available opponent and prove his ranking or let someone else move up the rankings.
Bjorn Rebney’s really throwing some coin around. DREAM’s circling the drain.
To 45, Alan, and Gaijin;
Co-promotion is really the only way to compete with the UFC right now. If you don’t have cooperation all the best fighters of each organization would just be knocking each other off repeatedly, or you have fighters jumping out of their natural weightclass to look for challenges.
SF could have done a world better by introducing Manhoef and Zaromskis to the American audience with more hype. Their might not be a need for “tune-up” fights, but there definately is a need for fight footage. During UFC events you sometimes see a fighters HL reel 10 times. During the SF broadcast we didnt see one clip.
If they are truly co-promoting then Dream and K1’s archive should be readily available for SF broadcasts and visa versa. If they were available then someone from SF or SHowtime truly made a misstep in not taking advantage.
Warren pulled out of Vale Tudo Japan because the money was poor.
I’m interested to see where DREAM goes next. I think they should try to establish proper weight classes (143lbs FW/ 132lbs BW).
@ Alan: To be fair to people with regards to the Lashley/Gracie comparison – Gracie isn’t being billed as a featured fighter on the main card, whereas Lashley was on the posters for Strikeforce.
They’ve come up trumps with an opponant for him though…should be a nice little showcase fight for Gracie.
Shinya Aoki vs. Billy Evangelista
Evangelista has already shown that he will likely never be high level. his fight with Mike Aina was proof of that. Throw him to Aoki. It’s a solid enough fight that nobody will be crying about it too much.
You can’t seriously think there would be no uproar if they made this fight.
“He’s supposed to be the #2 lightweight in the world and he’s fighting Billy Evangelista? What a joke! Gray Maynard/Frankie Edgar/Kenny Florian would never get booked to fight someone like Evangelista! Strikeforce is throwing Aoki a gimme fight, which the UFC would never do! No wonder he went to Strikeforce instead of the UFC! This fight is meaningless! He’s won’t fight Kawajiri, but he’ll take Evangelista??” etc. etc.
@JRN – thank you. Perfect illustrative example.
LOL at Jon Madsen being a tougher fight for Rolles than Joey Beltran
Wolverine: you don’t think Madsen is better than Beltran?
I think Beltran with his decent wrestling and KO power is a tougher style match-up for Rolles.