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Bellator running show in New Orleans on same night against Saints/Vikings NFL game
By Zach Arnold | September 1, 2010
Last month, a reader on our site (please leave a comment and take a bow for the tip) notified us that Bellator had a Thursday night show planned in New Orleans that would go against the Saints/Vikings game going on at the Super Dome on NBC for the Thursday night NFL season launch. The Bellator event will take place at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts. That will happen next week.
Jamie Penick at MMA Torch has comments from Bjorn Rebney in response to this event booking. Luke Thomas fires back:
I have a lot of respect for Bjorn Rebney, but he completely misses the point saying not all MMA fans are NFL fans. That’s not the point.
The point is that indigenous sports media will have neither the interest nor the manpower to promote, preview or cover the event.
He’s forcing Bellator to rely on MMA media to hype the show, which is not going to help Bellator’s bottom line. Swing and a miss here.
***
As for this week’s show coming up, it’s in San Antonio, Texas at the Majestic Theatre. So, who in the media wants to go after Bellator on drug testing issues like writers went after Strikeforce for with their Houston event? (BTW, Bellator’s ran shows in Texas in past seasons.)
Thursday’s card:
- Bellator Bantamweight tournament: Nick Mamalis vs. Zack Makovsky
- Bellator Bantamweight tournament: Bryan Goldsby vs. Ed West
- Bantamweight tournament: Travis Reddinger vs. Ulysses Gomez
- Bellator Featherweight title match: Joe Soto vs. Joe Warren
Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 11 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Bellator has completely lost steam for the 3rd season. Too much too soon I think. They didn’t try and mature any sort of markets. Instead, they visited them so quickly that they just wore out their fans and now have even less attendence numbers then they did before.
Choosing Heavyweight, Bantamweight, & Females all for the same season was a huge mistake. Bantamweights don’t even draw for the WEC. Unknown females can’t carry a card. And up & coming Heavyweights are often super boring.
Looking at their schedule, the only fights I’ve been interested in so far this season have been the Hornbuckle fight, Warren/Soto, & Alvarez/Huerta. Besides that, this season is pointless.
I agree that the HW tournament was a mistake. Watching good HWs can be difficult at times. Watching bad HWs is downright painful. Cole Konrad is a hell of a prospect, but make no mistake about it … he is pretty bad at this point in his career. He is certainly awful from an entertainment perspective.
No promoter should ever feature HWs on their broadcast unless they can afford the top of line guys. HW fights make for awful TV.
While on the subject of Bellator, it appears they are still dead set on killing Dave Herman’s career.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Herman-Scratched-from-Shark-Fights-13-Due-to-Bellator-Litigation-26649
Also, shame on Shark Fights for claiming they would fight for Herman in court when they first signed him and then cutting and running the moment Bellator dropped the hammer.
I was thinking the same thing when I read that.
Ditto.
“We wanted the fight and we knew there would be some problems when we signed it,” said Shark Fights President Brent Medley. “At the end of the day, it looked like both sides would have had to spend money that we could put into our organizations and our upcoming events. It wouldn’t have mattered who won — the attorneys would have walked away with the money.”
When in doubt, blame attorneys.
I have never seen Bellator on TV and I have not the foggiest idea when it comes on.
It comes on whenever your local FSN affiliate feels like putting it on. Usually, that means it comes on about an hour or three after the event is over.
I have given up on trying to watch Bellator live on FSN. I just download their events and watch ’em later.
JOE WARREN IS RADDDDDDDDDDDD
I was cheering for Warren…. But how many illegal shots did he throw in that 2nd round? I think I counted about 10.
The shot the knocked Soto down was illegal. His last punch after the knee was illegal. So were a bunch on the ground. All to the back of the head.
Warren is one tough guy, but he is far too sloppy to beat the Top Tier guys in MMA. His sloppyness will always get him beat against a top fighter with a strong gameplan.
Warren is quite possibly the sloppiest ‘elite’ fighter I have seen since the NHB days. The guy doesn’t do ANYTHING well except for his core discipline. He gets by on guts, confidence, a ridiculous beard, and wrasslin’. His standup is awful and his submission grappling is worse than awful.
Just goes to show how far wrestling and being a tough bastard can take you.
My FS affiliate isn’t even showing the fights until Sunday.
YAY!