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« | Home | »

One week away from Bellator’s under-publicized Memphis-area PPV

By Zach Arnold | May 8, 2014

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The stakes: Bellator will continue as-is if the PPV buy rate number isn’t hot, and for expectation purposes let’s use 50,000 as the cut number. Anything over 50,000? Then the lobbying begins to get Viacom cash flowing to ramp up Bellator activity in attracting bigger names. If the number isn’t great, then Bellator stays as-is for Viacom in terms of being an MMA-on-the-cheap property that draws in money but isn’t going to grow.

Here’s how the Saturday, May 17th card from Southaven, Mississippi at the Landers Center stands:

This card has been marketed as a two-match PPV show and only one of those fights (Rampage/Mo) has been pushed as the must-see fight in advertising.

Topics: Bellator, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 21 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

21 Responses to “One week away from Bellator’s under-publicized Memphis-area PPV”

  1. Alan Conceicao says:

    The UFC regularly puts on equivalent or better shows on TV for free and I don’t watch them. There’s no way in hell I’m paying for this.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Bellator 120…. UFC 173…. UFC 174…. These are the 3 PPV options for May & June. None of them are worth the money.

    • rst says:

      “According to Meltzer, Jones/Glover did about 350,000.”

      That was a heck of a fight! Took Jones all rounds to finish that fella off. Is that good numbers? I hope so. Or real MMA is as dead as an unwanted child. And thats not good IMO.

  2. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    Bellator all the way. Their ppv is about 2/3 of what a good ppv is about, so I guess charging $35 is about right.
    Unless ufc can get their stuff together give the Diaz bros a better deal or get Brock back… this year is a wash for them. I don’t think re signing rumble and Arlovski is going to do it for them.
    I would love to see the Diaz bros in bellator, that would be great. Just think if this ppv had both diazs?!

  3. rst says:

    “…and only one of those fights (Rampage/Mo) has been pushed as the must-see fight in advertising.”

    Maybe because thats the only must see fight on the card.
    (Come on Mo!)
    But I see what your saying,
    they need to put on the funny hat, bring out the dancing girls and curse up a storm about how each and everyone of these F’n fights is worth an F’n hundred 100 bucks easily.
    YOU’RE the one getting a deal!

    How much are they asking for this anyway?
    Its gonna be REAL HARD to sell a card thats vagually as good as the throwaway stuff UFC puts on TV for free.
    1 Must see fight and some guys.
    Thats were that marketing comes in.

    I’m not a fan of pro-rasslin, or fighters with pro-rasslin shticks.
    But if there were ever a justified place to apply that, it in a situation like Bellator is in.
    Bjorn seems pretty reserved, but maybe he should encourage his guys to act more outrageous, obnoxious and bizarre.
    Costumes, posse’s and back up dancers.

  4. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    An interesting psychological dynamic to the trilogy, it’s Eddies last fight for Bell. So he’s fighting for the belt and his potential money making future in another org. Chandler needs the belt to be considered a legit champion, and perhaps get a raise.

    It’s very high stakes as far as championship matches go there’s more to it than the belt. And these guys aren’t pals or ex training partners, they will be pulling no punches.

    That fight on paper is really as good as it gets.

    I have been watching mma since ufc 2 on ppv, I even bought ufc 22,23,24 on ppv after it went off cable.
    However ufc 24 was the last time I pay $25 for the ufc for such a weak show. Without its stars who were fighting in brazil or pride, UFC was just some guys fighting.

    I see some similarities this “dark” period ufc and new ufc. This year most of their stars are gone not because they went to a higher paying org, rather its due to their expiry dates and contract disputes. The ufc is now low balling the fighters like the dark ages of ufc 23-29, even though they are a BIG MONEY MAKING ORG on the cusp of global f#%&@&#$ domination.

    The new breed of ufc star is fragile, injured 50% of the time, and not much in the personality department, so what the ufc has going is just a bunch of meaningless fights for most of the year.

    My point is its a a good time for Bell to start ramping it up a bit, sign a few more “washed up” stars with charisma this year. Where as UFC is a bit depleted, while still negotiating with some of their big stars and ignoring other potential stars for whatever reasons.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    According to Meltzer, Jones/Glover did about 350,000.

    The next 2 PPV’s won’t do good. Which means the UFC will not have a PPV do 400k or more during a 6 month stretch. Not good at all.

  6. 45 Huddle says:

    According to Sherdog, Eddie Alvarez is out of the Main Event and Will Brooks will now be fighting Michael Chandler. If this is true, I can’t see anybody buying this PPV based on Rampage/Lawal. This thing is going to tank.

    Alvarez could very well be the one guy who takes down Bellator. His contract dispute scared prospects from signing with the company. And him not being on the PPV on short notice will make it a failure.

  7. turd says:

    they need to put that fight on spike again, this ppv will not sell, its a decent card to

  8. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
    Oh well.
    When will fighters learn to train properly?
    We got Jr and pitbull out with broke hands, we got tj and Eddie both out with concussions, groin pull for Dom. And most of those previously mentioned were fighting for the title in their next cancelled bouts..

    Yet another reason for UFC to get in better graces with the Diaz’s.
    Have nick or nate ever been injured or pulled out of a fight? Diaz’s are very, very durable made in Stockton, well worth the money.
    Frattatas want to pay the chinese junk price for made in america built to last? f that!

  9. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    Tate banked $56,000 ($28,000 to show, $28,000 to win) for her last embarrassing win.
    Nate Diaz $15,000 for getting knocked out by Josh. Even had Nate won that fight… $30,000 compare to crapcake loosing for $28,000.

    If I had won the tuf show and had ko’d Gomi beaten the Cowboy and the bully and saw I was getting paid 1/2 what some woman was making I would sit out too.

    Now crapcake wants more money. Dumb greedy broad is making twice what top ten MEN fighters are making.

  10. Diaz's cashed bowl says:

    Nate got $30,000 for his ko of the bully in the main event.
    Tate $58,000 for laying around with a bull dyke Carmouche in a prelim.

    That’s just wrong and UFC knows it.

    • Diaz's cashed bowl says:

      Speaking of wrong, I should have said “$58,000 for laying around with lazy liz”.
      Didn’t mean to insult her, she is an attractive woman, but lazy fighting style has led to her looses to Cake and Rousy.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Diaz got more then $30,000. His manager even said so.

      • Diaz's cashed bowl says:

        I’m not sure what that means, a performance bonus I imagine. I’m not saying Nates at El Nino or Nick payday level but at the end of the day the entire contract dispute dynamic as played out in the media only serves to increase buy rates for future Diaz bros fights you must agree.
        Smart move by UFC, they even had me going for a while there.

        • cutch says:

          He apparently got a large signing bonus, these are not released by the athletic commissions.

          Overeem got a $1 million signing bonus (over 3 fights) when he signed with the UFC, this was on record because of the Golden Glory-Overeem lawsuit.

          Bellator offered Gilbert Melendez a $25,000 signing bonus.

          Nate Diaz earned $50,000 to show and $50,000 to win when he fought Jim Miller and earned a title shot, if Nate and his manager negotiated a pay cut when he was at his most marketable, then they are idiots.

  11. Alan Conceicao says:

    Chandler/Alvarez 3 is off. This show might as well be a glorified HDNet program.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      And they said they are still going to put it on PPV.

      Pride is getting in the way here. Either that or them being afraid of issues down the line due to them saying they would do PPV in a courtroom.

      I can’t see many people buying this one. Maybe 20,000 tops?

      • turd says:

        huddle i have to agree with you this show will tank,

        mma fans are tapped out, 55.00 for ufc, i remember the good old days

        when i would buy both pride and the ufc every month, 25 a pop each for good cards.

  12. rst says:

    What I find interesting about the last UFC,
    is that it was a decent show without any particularly name value players.

    That might actually work in Bellators favor.
    It reminds you that good fights aren’t only about name value.

    Was UFC Brown/silva all that different from a bellator card as far as name value?

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