How can Bellator improve?

[Kingz]

Bellator doesn't have a card that will sell big. That doesn't reflect the quality of their talent pool but their lack of PPV draws and the Bellator brand being rooted in cable television rather than PPV. UFC can get a level of buys on brand alone and their roots of being exclusively PPV for their best content. Now that UFC does exponentially more TV their PPV sales in general have fallen off but people expect to get free Bellator, no matter the amount of stacked talent on a card.

It's possible they'll have a guy capture the attention of the world and anchor successful PPV but that guy hasn't arrived. It will happen eventually but they'll never host PPVs at the rate of UFC. I don't think UFC will be hosting as many PPVs in the future either.

 

[Fight To Win]

I'm seriously hoping they're willing to get Ben Askren. He's the original Bellator champion and has 2 wins over the last two champs (Koreshkov and Lima) in fights that were not at all close.

It's like a Jones/DC thing. The current title will not be fully legitimized until both of those lineages are unified.

The last time Askren fought in Bellator was 4 years ago though. I would love to see how he stacks up against Rory, Larkin, MVP, and current Lima/Koreshkov

Now that you mention it Askren vs. Rory is a very, very intriguing matchup. I like Lima's chances in a rematch as well to be honest. And of course Koreshkov. I think on any given night Koreshkov has a shot at putting anyone's lights out at 170.

 

[kingcillo24]

I have two main issues with Bellator. I think they can improve by doing two things. The 1st being higher base pay. Those 1k/1k bellator contracts are no longer acceptable when you have to money to greatly outspend the UFC on talent. If you can afford Rampage,Kimbo,Fedor and Rory/Moose on those big contracts your min pay should at least be 5k/5k.

Bellator also needs to know when to stop feeding cans to their prospects. Early in a prospects career feeding them cans is acceptable, but there comes a point when they need to be tested. Some prospects will fail but some will also thrive with the increased difficulty. Those prospects who thrive will be the ones who can become stars. After awhile prospects become a joke if they are never really tested. I think Bellator is doing fighters like MVP a disservice.

Any of the guys that will sign a bout agreement for 1k shouldn't be fighting in Bellator.

 

[whougonnacall]

-Head hunt foriegn talent ....the ufc is lazy at picking guys outside of a few u.s camps

-Promote up and commers better

- work hard to actualy remind people.constantly of dates of upcomming events..basic promoting 101

-the ufc has slacked off in hw and lhw recruitment...push hard to fill those div with young talent there

-implement usada testing or equivalent....popular move anyway for ufc and it narrows the percieved gap in credibility between the orgs.

-link deals with m1, rizin , one fc etc and stick to them ie of they lend u a star be sure to return favour always

-begin touring u.s but make sure it doesnt clash with ufc event and time it so its been a while since ufc when was in that city

-keep the fighters able to make cash of their own advertising and split any ppvs so a much bigger % goes to fighters...itl help lure away more big names

-back fighters union and ali act
Push to be seen as the more generous and fairer to fighters company...again itl help seal deals with unhappy ufc star.

-ufc has womens mma no reason to make same mistake...get rid
No other sport makes you watch the womens version.

- decent promo shows before big events...help unknowms become.knowm by telling their background story..that way people will give more of a fuck whos fighting

 

[KeeSmyth]

keep signing top prospects and building them up, AJ Mckee is perfect example of them building a top talent

 

[Pakman]

keep signing top prospects and building them up, AJ Mckee is perfect example of them building a top talent

def agree, Ruth, Davis, Fortune, Trice, Pico all have potential. Hope guys like MVP turn out to be the real deal. Sign some good talent from the UFC if and when they can. Better job at promoting for sure.

They'll never be the #1 org, they just have to make sure they stay the #2

 

[qw3rty]

Now that you mention it Askren vs. Rory is a very, very intriguing matchup. I like Lima's chances in a rematch as well to be honest. And of course Koreshkov. I think on any given night Koreshkov has a shot at putting anyone's lights out at 170.

I wanna see Koreshkov vs Lima 3, I believe he is the best WW between thesm (by a narrow margin)

 

[Fight To Win]

I wanna see Koreshkov vs Lima 3, I believe he is the best WW between thesm (by a narrow margin)

I think Koreshkov needs one more big win against someone like Daley or Rory or MVP.

 

[qw3rty]

I think Koreshkov needs one more big win against someone like Daley or Rory or MVP.

If Daley losses he will be on a 2 fight losing streak, he should fight Larkin instead
Rory is fighting Lima for the title, so it's not a possibility
MVP would avoid that fight like the plague
Gonzalez is the other option

 

[lagofala]

Merge with ONE to be a true worldwide promotion and also buy out the entire Flyweight division fron the UFC to get some credibility. Also gives them a chance to rebrand and change that stupid name.

 

[Pakman]

If Daley losses he will be on a 2 fight losing streak, he should fight Larkin instead
Rory is fighting Lima for the title, so it's not a possibility
MVP would avoid that fight like the plague
Gonzalez is the other option

Daley is fighting Larkin

Also, change it from cage to a ring.

 

[GueseGuy]

Bellator needs to start putting on events consistently and match up the best fighters to fight. They have an event once every other month with garbage cards that nobody cares for.

I know it might go against popular opinion but let's be real, 95% of women's mma is garbage. Unless you have that 5% that can draw in eyeballs and tickets, you're wasting your time on mediocre talent who put on trash fights. Stop wasting time on these women's fights! They aren't going anywhere with this! Mousasi said it best when he signed with Bellator and talked to Ariel, "nobody wants to watch women's fights!" And don't come at me behind your little "Team women's mma fan for life" profile and try to attack me like you have a point. You and your little group of 4 or 5 people that enjoy women's mma is not enough to sustain a healthy mma promotion. It's just not. Bellator is wasting time, money, and resources signing garbage fighters who will NEVER be Ronda Rousey!

Also, enough with the tape delay. Get a fucking fight pass type app and let people stream. It's 2017. You're hurting yourselves more than the little garbage ad revenue that you generate on a tape delay on spike.

Bellator is so focused on building stars that the product is hurting big time. They're avoiding big fights and feeding prospects can after can. Look at this dude McKee. I've watched McKee fight 9 times and not once did he fight anyone who is relevant at all. Not even a slight challenge. How the fuck am I supposed to get excited when I've watched him 9 times and every opponent sucks? This is getting stupid. If he's gonna fight bums out him on the prelims. Putting him on the main card of a shitty card against a shitty opponent doesn't make any difference than if he were on the prelims.

Cut the bullshit Bellator and start putting the best fighters together to fight. I feel like we're always on a slow build towards something with Coker's Bellator but we never get anywhere. It's like we're anticipating something that will never happen.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Any top 5-6 WW against eachother is an awesome matchup. I hope they bring Askren back.

They really need to work in MW and HW divisions. They are thin as fuck.

LHW is shallow too but UFC just lost Jones and Rumble so it is not that far. Fucking 2017 Shogun is 1 win away from a TS.

 

[skylolow]

They need to plan ahead and actually put together meaningful matchups. Right now it seems like they randomly pit two fighters against each other and fill an event with random matches. In 99% of the fights there's no history between the fighters, no title implications, and in heavyweight they don't even have a championship.

They also need to stop relying on squash matches and old fading stars fighting each other.

Bingo...............and its always been Coker's M.O. and one of the biggest reasons I don't think he is the guy to lead Bellator in the future.

Everything he does is about the hear and now with no vision for the future past an event or two.

Perfect example....the last PPV was there biggest day in there history and they follow it up with a shit card. When they could've laid out maybe three or four cards with decent names and pump them up during there big show and try to give fans a reason to tune in next week or two weeks or whatever.