Why is Bellator Sitting Rory on the Bench?

[MarcoW]

When they signed him they immediately sat him down and made him wait until May 19th to fight. That is 2017. They signed him in August 2016. That is almost a year wait for his first fight.

That fight lasted 2 rounds and Rory took no damage at all. He could probably have fought again the next week. He is waiting for a fight now and hearing nothing back.


He said he heard now he probably has to wait until 2018 to fight again.

What is the point of signing him then sitting him on the sidelines?
2 fights in 2 years???

 

[Meathead Jock]

The first wait was to give his nose time to heal. This wait I assume is a result of Lima saying he isn't ready?

 

[GoldenAzazel]

I'm just assuming Lima isn't ready and he doesn't want to fight in the meantime. I would like to see him against Koreshkov at some point though.

 

[Cousin Oliver]

The're probably saving him for their next PPV.

 

[GueseGuy]

Bellator is a joke now. They sign all these guys and they never fight. It's the land or irrelevancy. How does Rory only fight once a year when he's healthy? This is a joke and a waste of time. Bellator has become a steaming pile of shit. I still would rather have Bjorn back. At least with Bjorn he would put together great fights and the best prospects/champs would fight each other. Now it's just boring cards filled with trash mismatches to hype up mediocre fighters. Coker is signing all these guys and they don't even fight. This is garbage.

 

[mime]

The're probably saving him for their next PPV.

yeah probably the next PPV and/or a fight in Canada. Hopefully it's in Jan/Feb and he fights like 3 times in 2018 to make up for it.

 

[HaulParris]

Bellator is a joke now. They sign all these guys and they never fight. It's the land or irrelevancy. How does Rory only fight once a year when he's healthy? This is a joke and a waste of time. Bellator has become a steaming pile of shit. I still would rather have Bjorn back. At least with Bjorn he would put together great fights and the best prospects/champs would fight each other. Now it's just boring cards filled with trash mismatches to hype up mediocre fighters. Coker is signing all these guys and they don't even fight. This is garbage.

I agree with most of what you said except I don't miss Bjorn. The tournament format worked for the first few seasons, but then it was the same dudes fighting each other all the time (Pitbull-Strauss have fought 4 times now), with the champions sitting out for a year waiting for a season to finish, or taking b.s. non-title fights (Lombard-NFL player).

Bjorn also blatantly played favorites (Warren) while nearly ruining Alvarez's career with years of lawsuits.

Having shat on Bjorn, I do acknowledge that Coker's penchant for Dada/Royce freakshows is disturbing, and I'm sad that the #2 organization in US has been so badly mismanaged by both of its presidents.

 

[Deleted member 510653]

The thing I miss about the Bjorn era was there were fights on every Friday

 

[leto1776]

He chose to sit out for a year. Bellator didn't do that.

 

[noizer]

well Rory wants his titleshot. If Lima isnt ready he has to wait. im sure Coker wants to make this fight asap.

 

[Pakman]

They need to do tournaments again and lose the cage, make it a ring and make it more like Pride

 

[potemkin723]

Bring back the tournament format

 

[Franklin U.]

A big Mousasi supporter and I understand his decision but I hope he doesn't fight twice a year or 5x in 3 but he has options at 205 so I'm hoping not case.I really hope Bellator further evolves otherwise want to see moose back in UFC after his 6 fights and get what would've been his- UFC middleweight title.

 

[TheBrownRanger]

They're paying him a lot (250K, I think) and Bellator can't really afford to pay him if he fights often.

Why do you think we see the prospects fight a lot more often than the stars or champions in Bellator?

 

[qw3rty]

The first wait was to give his nose time to heal. This wait I assume is a result of Lima saying he isn't ready?

Why they give him some squash match like they always do with MVP?

He chose to sit out for a year. Bellator didn't do that.

Are you talking this time or when he was signed?

well Rory wants his titleshot. If Lima isnt ready he has to wait. im sure Coker wants to make this fight asap.

Did he say he will only fight for the title?

They're paying him a lot (250K, I think) and Bellator can't really afford to pay him if he fights often.

Why do you think we see the prospects fight a lot more often than the stars or champions in Bellator?

Well that's a good reason

 

[mjmj]

Surely this can't be surprising.

 

[tithas]

When they signed him they immediately sat him down and made him wait until May 19th to fight. That is 2017. They signed him in August 2016. That is almost a year wait for his first fight.

That fight lasted 2 rounds and Rory took no damage at all. He could probably have fought again the next week. He is waiting for a fight now and hearing nothing back.


He said he heard now he probably has to wait until 2018 to fight again.

What is the point of signing him then sitting him on the sidelines?
2 fights in 2 years???

Probably cannot afford to have him fight a ton. He has a big downside contract and did not really move the ratings needle any last time.

 

[skylolow]

The most easiest answer to this is MONEY.

It's nothing for the UFC to go out and pay a guy 250K vs 100K guy to fight plus the rest of the card. But for Bellator that is a massive amount that they have to build an event around it at the right time and the right location to even have a shot at making money.

Bellator/Spike just can't go throw these names all together on a card and expect advertisers to now pay twice as much for advertising when they don't have the ratings to back it up. Sure they'll get more money at the gate but that is only one slice of the pie. They need to get the avg. ratings up to get more money coming in. They need to show "tent pole" events bring in much more viewers and outside of about two of them they haven't really done a whole hell of a lot better. Once they can accomplish this we'll get a much better product event from event. It just takes time and unfortunately during this time is when investors get cold feet simply because the money is being spent but it isn't coming back very quickly or at all.

 

[Cantalope]

Coker is trying to get Butterbean signed to fight him

 

[null]

They need to do tournaments again and lose the cage, make it a ring and make it more like Pride

"Need", lol. Of all the things that they could do to be more successful, those aren't it.