Who will be the next big name mixed martial artist to sign with Bellator?

Don't forget Rory who would dominate the current WW champ again. He is their best guy imo.

Right now it probably doesn't seem like much of a deal to the UFC but it will continue.

If they keep treating fighters like they do now Bellator and other organizations will keep getting really good fighters.

Good for them but as a fan it sucks that we won't get to see a ton of great match ups.

And the UFC's claim that they have the best fighters will lose credibility eventually.

As I pressed the "Send" Button I thought of Rory. Yea, he is the last guy that beat the current WW champ decisevily. That's worth something. I don't think it will suck, cause we'll see better fights I think. If Coker does his job, the fighters will have fun and fight great. Especially as Bellator goes the "full purse way" - paying them the same, win or lose, which will guarantee for better fights!
 
Thank you! its amazing the amount of disrespect that Bellator gets just because they put on crazy fights. They have extremely legit fighters all over their roster, but because they occasionally do shamrock vs gracie's and kimbo vs dada's it becomes a shit show to the ignorant. I appreciate the shit out of some Bellator and their seldom freak show fights. A lot of you complaining about Bellator Probably liked Pride FC you silly contradicting fucks.

Yup. I really enjoy Bellator recently. The show, the fights, everything. And I enjoy the occurring freak fights. I am curious for Wand vs. Chael despite knowing, none of them will ever be a force again. However there will be an ultra legit Bader vs. Davis fight on the same card, which makes it amazing!
 
you consider bendo a good pickup? the guy should be 0-3 and looks horrible

The moment they picked him up he was coming off two strong perfomances. And yeah, he might have been 0-3, but it's not like he got manhandled in his last two fights. He fought Chandler to the core. And his first fight he was just plain outsized vs. the WW champ. Nothing to blame him for. Who'd you rank about Bendo at LW in the UFC? He is easily Top10 if not Top5. And Chandler ist Top5 worldwide in my book for sure.
 
True, but the washed-up legends do get a lot of hype. Besides the 2 you mentioned, there's Wanderlei, Rampage and Fedor. Then there was Kimbo not long ago (RIP). Others?

But you are right.

RoryMac? Beat current WW champ decisively. Kimbo, Royce and Co attract the numbers. But even Meathead hat Browne's number till he got poked to oblivion. And Browne is still top 10 in the UFC. As said: Davis, Bendo, Bader, Rory, Larkin are amazing pickups. Easily Top5 each in their weightclass (ok we can talk about my boy Bendo right now, but keep the faith).
 
In order?

I'd say Michael McDonald, then joe Duffy.

The UFC might sit on Duffy for months just how they did to Larkin. Make sure they let them go with as little hype as possible.

Mousasi is someone to keep an eye on as well. Mw has been a complete cluster fuxk with bisping fighting hendo, then gsp. All the viable contenders are getting shafted.

Heard that gegard is on his last fight; can anyone confirm?
 
Big name? I dont know.

Duffy is probably the next guy they sign but I wouldnt really call him a big name.
 
Bellaror is really the old timers league, or lets say the legends league. EVERY guy they sign from UFC except for Rory McDonald is on the tail end of their career. Guys like Hendo and Bader are mentioned, but Hendo has declined in the last 2 years and he hasn't finished a fight in about 10 years, and Bader is not championship matrerial and he wanted bigger money from UFC. The guy got finished by OLD Tito Ortiz for GOD sake! Sonnen vs. Wandy is a joke! They will probably enter the cage with a walker cane soon. If anybody pays to see that fight, then you have a lot of money to blow on crap!

Wand-40
Chael- 39

Bisping- 38
Hendo- 46
GSP- 35
Vitor-39
Romero-39
Jacare-37
Anderson-41
 
UFC has a formula they use when these orgs want to step up and challenge them when it comes to letting fighters go.

They love to gift wrap "big salary anchors" with limited draw potential to there competition. There names look good on paper but they don't draw well and there salaries stick out massively on the bottom line for the bean counters. Over time those fighters end up sinking the org. as the org can't make money off them. The UFC knows Spike/Bellator makes there money on advertising. It takes consistent ratings to pull in top dollar for advertising spots. Bellator has been trapped in this 700K give or take 200K area forever. So how do explain to the bean counters a shitty card on paper(low fighter salaries) does 675K in viewers and a much higher name value card(much higher fighter salaries) that only ends up pulling in 800K-850K in viewers. Gate numbers should be better for the later and maybe that has been enough to keep them satisfied but that isn't going to last forever. Eventually they want to see some real progress on money they been spending. Right now it hasn't yet came to fruition.

Think about all the guys through the years they let walk. You'll have a hard time coming up with more than a few that ever found any great success after they left. Who ever does the analysis of the fighters behind the scenes in the UFC is a pure money.


P.S.: I bet this PPV has a lot to do with the low ratings that the Fedor card he should've fought on got. That was an extremely late cancellation to the point that if you weren't cruising MMA sites you didn't know until you where already tuned in. They where hoping over 2.0 according to Coker but based on the numbers they got they might have had a hard time getting an avg. of 1.3 and a peak of 1.8 and that is being generous. PPV path is dangerous one at best and I honestly don't think Bellator has the viewers that will end up paying for this. So far the fights they have and rumored aren't anything special and sure the hell doesn't get avg. MMA fan out of bed or even begin to get joe blow to take notice.
 
Big name? I dont know.

Duffy is probably the next guy they sign but I wouldnt really call him a big name.

If they are smart and Coker is smart, they will squeeze out how Duffy manhandled Conor. The video rights are available for them!
 
If they are smart and Coker is smart, they will squeeze out how Duffy manhandled Conor. The video rights are available for them!

This- they'll mention it every other sentence how Duffy ran over Conor, and build to a Duffy vs Danis fight.
 
Hopefully some more heavyweights so they can keep matching the big names up against guys no one has ever heard of instead of against each other. The Heavyweight division in Bellator is pissing me off. I wish I was their match maker.
 
Not really "big" name but..Pablo Garza?
 
They should go sign Sergey Pavlovich. He's one of the best heavyweight prospects since Cain first came into the picture. Heavyweight prospects are also the hardest to find as well.

Tyrell Fortune definitely looks to be a legit prospect. Sign Sergey and build both of those guys up together, hope neither one loses and build it into a heavyweight super fight like Pride did with Fedor/Mirko.

They're already doing this with AJ McKee and James Gallagher at Featherweight. Keep hyping both, hope they don't lose and turn it into a super fight.

They missed out on Tom Duquesnoy.
 
They should go sign Sergey Pavlovich. He's one of the best heavyweight prospects since Cain first came into the picture. Heavyweight prospects are also the hardest to find as well.

Tyrell Fortune definitely looks to be a legit prospect. Sign Sergey and build both of those guys up together, hope neither one loses and build it into a heavyweight super fight like Pride did with Fedor/Mirko.

They're already doing this with AJ McKee and James Gallagher at Featherweight. Keep hyping both, hope they don't lose and turn it into a super fight.

They missed out on Tom Duquesnoy.

They're doing this with Aaron Pico, Joey Davis, Ed Ruth too. They already did to it with Michael Page.
 
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