Bellator and UFC Will Both Run Events In Conn Sept 5th Head to Head

[Source]

No matter the ratings Bellator is sure to put on the better card. UFC will have to stack theirs. If Pitbull vs Curran is on it i'ma try my best to go. UFC has too many watered down fight cards. It's the beginning of the season so Bellator is gonna go big no doubt.

What exactly is your definition of watered down cards? How would this watered down product compare to a "stacked" Bellator card.

I use quotation makes around stacked as I have a feeling if the UFC were to offer a card on the scale of a stacked Bellator card many of you would bemoan its taste of water.

 

[Bigj383]

you'd have to be crazy not to want to see those fights. Etherington should face Butler though. They were trying to set up Kongo vs Johnson before too so that's a good fight. And Lashley vs Thompson 2 is a fight a lot of people want to see and need to happen. Lashley got screwed and it was a pretty good fight. Good scrambles nice flurrys a lot of chances to finish the fight. I expect much of the same from the second.

It's the MW tourney though so those fights won't happen on this card. and titties is employed by mfc so that won't happen but toney is a possibility. still don't want that fight either. The other fights would just be insanely good

I lost respect for Raphael Butler after his last fight. First he got absolutely schooled in the opening round of his fight against a low level journeyman. Then he has to blatantly head but the guy because he didn't know how to defend or escape a backmount.

 

[Lethal_Striker]

The quality of guys fighting on a Bellator main card for the most part is usually about equal to a UFC prelim card.

 

[bk365]

Those saying Bellator is going to "stack" it realize that Irvin vs Ward was announced. And in that article it states it is the start of the Middleweight tourney.

So it will be interesting now to see if knowing they are going against UFC if they completely change plans or not.

But other then potentially ratings, this isn't a battle. As MMA fans most the fans crossover.

We will all end up switching back and forth between them. Heck Bellator may end before UFC is on FS1.

Plan is for Pitbull/Curran main event. If Curran is ready in time. That was the plan before the UFC announcement.. They just haven't officially announced it because they don't know if Curran will be ready in time. He needs to be cleared for the fight before they announce it.

 

[DezWalker]

UFC should do

Mighty Mouse/Dodson Fly title if both win next fights and healthy
Reem/Stipe

or if they dont want to go title fight then do Reem/JDS main event.

UFC wins right there if they do that, dont care what Bellator puts on their card.

Either one of those fights would do it, no need to do both.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Bellator's card will probably be better on paper, as it's gonna be a UFN card. They'll probably have someone like Joe Lauzon headlining.

That's not to say Bellator will have more viewers or a better gate, though.

 

[Cj Bernauer]

Mohegan Sun is Bellators best market in terms of ticket sales.

Bellator also averaged 670k last season but with fights like Kongo or Page or a titel fight they do 700-800k.

Thats what UFC has been doing on alot of fight nights, in the 700k range.

I think UFC will do a bigger gate for sure, maybe sell around the same or more tickets but Bellator can def do better ratings for this card.

...
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2014/2/1...ight-36-averages-1-4-million-viewers-mma-news
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-26-draws-huge-ratings-for-fox-sports-1-debut
Wtf are you talking about? There are just 2 examples of over 1 million viewers. Bellator can't touch that.

 

[bk365]

...
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2014/2/1...ight-36-averages-1-4-million-viewers-mma-news
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-26-draws-huge-ratings-for-fox-sports-1-debut
Wtf are you talking about? There are just 2 examples of over 1 million viewers. Bellator can't touch that.

Haha you literally picked the only 2 FN events on FS1 that topped 1 million.

All the others: most recent fight night (UFC FN40) did 655,000. Bisping/Kennedy did 641,000. Shogun/Hendo did 936,000. Rockhold/Costas did 629,000. Hunt/Bigfoot did 755,000. Belfort/Hendo did 722,000. Fight for Troops did 641,000. Machida/Munoz (on FS2) only did 122,000. Shields/Maia did 638,000. Tex/Bader did 539,000. Condit/Kamp did 824,000. So basically exactly what CC said.

And Bellator 106 hit 1.1 Million. So Bellator definitely CAN touch that..

 

[jamesgalb]

Either one of those fights would do it, no need to do both.

Could you imagine if they both just went all out...

D Johnson vs Dodson
Overeem vs Dos Santos
etc

VS

Rampage vs Tito
Curran vs PitBull
Dantas vs Warren
Kongo vs Ethrington
Lashley vs Thompson 2
+ more locals on undercard (including Brennan Ward)


Who wins that?

 

[CC27]

Haha you literally picked the only 2 FN events on FS1 that topped 1 million.

All the others: most recent fight night (UFC FN40) did 655,000. Bisping/Kennedy did 641,000. Shogun/Hendo did 936,000. Rockhold/Costas did 629,000. Hunt/Bigfoot did 755,000. Belfort/Hendo did 722,000. Fight for Troops did 641,000. Machida/Munoz (on FS2) only did 122,000. Shields/Maia did 638,000. Tex/Bader did 539,000. Condit/Kamp did 824,000. So basically exactly what CC said.

And Bellator 106 hit 1.1 Million. So Bellator definitely CAN touch that..

Exactly and the two big ones were Sat not weekday cards which this will be.

Like I said, weekday UFC Fight Nights do in the 600-800k range, same as just about all Bellator events. So Bellator can absolutely do better ratings with the right card.

 

[CC27]

Could you imagine if they both just went all out...

D Johnson vs Dodson
Overeem vs Dos Santos
etc

VS

Rampage vs Tito
Curran vs PitBull
Dantas vs Warren
Kongo vs Ethrington
Lashley vs Thompson 2
+ more locals on undercard (including Brennan Ward)


Who wins that?

That would be a PPV for Bellator not a free show, they would never put two title fights and Tito/page on Spike.

They also already said its likely to be the MW tournament that card with probably a title fight.

So Curran/Pitbull with Marshall and Ward/Irvin and a few other MW tournament fights are what you will likely see.

Who knows what the UFC card will be.

 

[jamesgalb]

That would be a PPV for Bellator not a free show, they would never put two title fights and Tito/page on Spike.

They also already said its likely to be the MW tournament that card with probably a title fight.

So Curran/Pitbull with Marshall and Ward/Irvin and a few other MW tournament fights are what you will likely see.

Who knows what the UFC card will be.

This wouldn't be the first time Bellator switched things up... They made the announcement before the counter-programming.

Anything is possible. This is the first time we are seeing this, and maybe egos get involved...

 

[MrKilroyT]

Could you imagine if they both just went all out...

D Johnson vs Dodson
Overeem vs Dos Santos
etc

VS

Rampage vs Tito
Curran vs PitBull
Dantas vs Warren
Kongo vs Ethrington
Lashley vs Thompson 2
+ more locals on undercard (including Brennan Ward)


Who wins that?

So, Bellator is gonna put on a free card that is better than the PPV they just ran? I am all for it but it aint happening.

 

[wu]

Bellator gonna crush UFC here

 

[jamesgalb]

So, Bellator is gonna put on a free card that is better than the PPV they just ran? I am all for it but it aint happening.

Hell, that UFC card would be better than most of their PPVs with just those 2 fights... This is hypothetical

If they went 'all out', could Bellator perhaps beat UFC if UFC doesn't put any of its larger PPV stars on the card?

 

[Go Go Plata]

I have a feeling Bellator will surprise us.

 

[DennysGrandSlam]

Probably gunna try to hit up the UFC event. They haven't been to CT in ages. Bellator comes regularly enough.

Is CT still going through the motions of legality? I know it was passed but you'd think they'd try to get in at the XL Center in Hartford or something.

 

[Da Bombers]

I dont like this. Realistically the ufc could follow bellator around putting on p.o.s. cards in smaller nearby venues, charge $50-100 a ticket, put them on fightpass, and bellator would be screwed. They cant afford to lose 50%+ of their ticket sales plus 150,000+ viewers all the time due to this kind of competition. I think the ufc could easily do this for 1 year, break even on those cards, and put bjorn out of business.

Bellator has to address this and imo the invasion angle might be the best way. They could get ufc fans to start switching the channel over to spike to see whats going on, get some mainstream media attention, and back the ufc the f*** up.

 

[bk365]

I dont like this. Realistically the ufc could follow bellator around putting on p.o.s. cards in smaller nearby venues, charge $50-100 a ticket, put them on fightpass, and bellator would be screwed. They cant afford to lose 50%+ of their ticket sales plus 150,000+ viewers all the time due to this kind of competition. I think the ufc could easily do this for 1 year, break even on those cards, and put bjorn out of business.

Bellator has to address this and imo the invasion angle might be the best way. They could get ufc fans to start switching the channel over to spike to see whats going on, get some mainstream media attention, and back the ufc the f*** up.

This whole comment just

 

[irish_thug]

I think I read somewhere that James Irvin is making his Bellator debut against Brennan Ward at this event.

Edit: yup

http://mmajunkie.com/2014/05/james-...t-for-bellator-123-season-11-opener-on-sept-5