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On heels of upcoming big fights, Bellator faces scrutiny

By Zach Arnold | September 23, 2010

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With Neil Grove vs. Cole Konrad and the semi-finals of the women’s 115-pound tournament coming up, you would think Bellator would be in good position to garner some positive attention. Throw in next month’s fight between Roger Huerta (of TMZ fame now) and Eddie Alvarez and life’s not so bad.

Unfortunately, MMA Payout has a report claiming that the FBI is investigating the alleged main financial backer of Bellator. Read the report.

Take that information, put it into context as far as how Bellator is doing business-wise, and read the comments that both Roger Huerta and Eddie Alvarez have made about their upcoming fight in Philadelphia. Will long-term financial problems put an end to some of the unique matches that Bellator is making that Strikeforce simply hasn’t done?

EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I’m wearing my Philadelphia Eagles jersey today because the fight’s going to be in my home town. My first fight in Philadelphia. I couldn’t be more happier with Bellator. They’re giving me the match-up I want, in the place I want, and I’ve been doing well by them so I think I earned it and I’m excited. There’s no one more than I want to fight in Bellator than Roger, so…”

KENNY RICE: “And that is, why? You want to fight Roger…”

EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I believe that he’s… one of the last match-ups left for me to fight as far as good guys, guys who have names as well as I just want to challenge myself and I just, I think the match-up is amazing. It’s what people want to see. It’s been on the Internet for the past two or three years, how do you think Eddie Alvarez would do against Roger Huerta, how do they think they match up, and everyone seems like they are very opinionated about it. The Roger fans think he’ll win, my fans of course think I’ll win so we’ll see on October 21st.”

KENNY RICE: “Roger, what about fighting and not just fighting Eddie but fighting him in Philadelphia? This guy has never lost in the U.S. and now he’s going to be fighting on home turf, to boot.”

ROGER HUERTA: “Um… We’ll see. Everybody’s different. You know I took it differently when I fought in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I fought Kenny Florian there and it was overwhelming for me but Eddie’s Eddie. I mean he’s definitely going to come in fully ready, I believe, and I’m preparing for the best Eddie Alvarez ever. I respect this man next to my left here and, you know, he’s going to bring the best out of me, for sure, that night and we’ll see what happens.”

BAS RUTTEN: “Two technical guys, one brawler and the other one more compact. It’s going to be fun for us to watch.”

KENNY RICE: “That’s going to be a really great match-up for Bellator. We asked you in our Inside MMA Junkie poll this week, who is going to win it and how they are going to win it? There you see and here’s what you said… you said Alvarez wins by decision, Alvarez wins by way of knockout, Huerta wins by way of knockout, so nobody else is giving you guys any credit to either one of you that you’re going to win it by submission. If you look only 13% total say it’s going to end by submission one way or the other. What do you think about that poll, Roger? Eddie?”

EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I can’t believe that the Underground that it’s going for a decision, that the majority of the people would say it’s going to a decision. I’ve got over 90%, I believe 90% finish ratio. Why they think I would ever take a fight to a decision against any one is beyond me and Roger, Roger’s been known to bring it, too. You have a lot of decisions?”

ROGER HUERTA: “The last couple ones I guess they went to decisions but… it doesn’t really go to my favorites so I’m not prone to that.”

BAS RUTTEN: “Yeah, you’re going against top, top guys also.”

EDDIE ALVAREZ: “I think that the style match-up that Roger has is real resilient. He doesn’t give up, he’s always sticking in there against really good guys. I match-up really well against guys like that. Every guy I fought who’s known to be stick-around-and-not-go-away-and-have-a-big-heart, I’ve did my best against guys like that. So I really love this match-up and I want to challenge Roger to make it Fight of the Year, let’s go after it and make another Fight of the Year. 2008 I had one. I’d love to have one again in 2010.”

KENNY RICE: “I think you’re up to that challenge. … Were you really in a street brawl? I don’t think anything upsets you. Nothing upsets you, does it? That’s good.”

At the end of the video, Bas Rutten compares Roger Huerta’s relaxed nature on the show to that of Prince on Oprah Winfrey… and he does a Prince singing impersonation that you have to watch to believe.

Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “On heels of upcoming big fights, Bellator faces scrutiny”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    Roger Huerta was on the MMA Hour recently and when Ariel asked him about being inside the UFC versus outside…. Huerta literally froze up for about 30 seconds and didn’t know what to say. It was painfully obvious that he wasn’t trying to talk smack about Bellator, but his silence said everything.

    Bellator really worries me. They don’t seem like reasonable people, so when they go out of business, I don’t think the best interest of the fighters will happen.

  2. So, if Bellator turns out to be an organization that exists solely to enrich the pockets of the folks running the hedge fund (and probably Rebney too), will people start talking about them having been “bad for MMA”?

    People wanted to believe in them because they operated the way they imagined a small organization could and should. Instead its starting to look like Bellator was a colossal fraud. Whoda thunk?

    • edub says:

      Im pretty sure you called this from day one. So um…. good calll man!

      The headline is pretty funny to this article BTW.

      • Mr. Roadblock says:

        I was just coming on to say the same thing. Alan called this months ago. Actually a year ago, wasn’t it?

        • People would prefer I be wrong because NARRATIVE, TRUE SPORTS BUILD, and GREAT VIDEO PACKAGES would get thrown out the window as ways for the second rate organizations to succeed. They succeed by sucking in money from advertisers and partners and thrive by selling a combination of complete freakshows and legitimate fights. That’s why Strikeforce will still be on Showtime in 12 months and Bjorn will be out of a job.

  3. mitchtiz says:

    roger said ” it really doesnt go to my favor so im not going for that” instead of favorites and not prone to that
    anyway sorry for being snippy there but im always looking for mistakes. not a big deal however – I think the poll ended up decision votes cuz fans are split on how itll end and a decision is a compliment to both cuz they are difficult to finish. When I make picks and dont feel confident that itll end with a finish I do it too. Junkie fans felt it would be a close contested bout thus a decision win for either. Huerta is hard to finish same with Eddie however I see more finishing ability in Alvarez so Im leaning in his favor.

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