Bellator Changing Strategy? Signing Prospects!

[Bubba32]

They lost Chandler and dont look interested in Werdum, but are now signing prospects left and right.

Are they going back to the rebney blue print? they were doing much better average viewership under Rebney at a fraction of the cost.

Bring Back Bjorn!

 

[immyaxl]

They lost Chandler and dont look interested in Werdum, but are now signing prospects left and right.

Are they going back to the rebney blue print? they were doing much better average viewership under Rebney at a fraction of the cost.

Bring Back Bjorn!

I don't get all this love for Bjorn. From what I can remember a lot of the fighters didn't like him and he did some shady stuff. While I liked the tournament format, their champs sat on the shelf for long periods of time. Also they weren't signing top 10 level free agents during his time either. Bellator was small potatoes under his leadership. It's a bigger company with a better roster than at anytime back then.

 

[Pepy]

I don't get all this love for Bjorn. From what I can remember a lot of the fighters didn't like him and he did some shady stuff. While I liked the tournament format, their champs sat on the shelf for long periods of time. Also they weren't signing top 10 level free agents during his time either. Bellator was small potatoes under his leadership. It's a bigger company with a better roster than at anytime back then.

let alone his narcissistic promotional video that was like the last thing he did

 

[2004 account]

Coker has always actively tried to develop new talent.

 

[tehMoose]

What makes you think Coker started now signing prospects?

You already forgot about Pico, Borics, Joey Davis, Ruth, Neiman, Storley etc and all those BAMMA/Cage Warriors champs?

 

[KeeSmyth]

People used to rip into Bjorn all the time on here when he was around and now he gone everyone acts he was a great mastermind

 

[Yrat]

They lost Chandler and dont look interested in Werdum, but are now signing prospects left and right.

Are they going back to the rebney blue print? they were doing much better average viewership under Rebney at a fraction of the cost.

Bring Back Bjorn!

They have Yaroslav Amosov who is 20-0 who they barely market very well

They just do not care, i am so happy Khamzat Chimaev never signed with Bellator.

I was wondering how the matchmakers are working for Bellator, is it Rich Chou ,Jude Samuel and some other Vice-president in that position? What is actually Mike Kogans role in Bellator? I know he speaks russian so i guess he kind of work as a manager for some fighters/nepotism?

You see, the problem is not there are no talents , it is to actually maintain them and show them that you really care about them 100%. How come they are getting Michael Page no namers while there is Andrey Koreshkov and Yaroslav Amosov? Why is Sergey Kharitonov doing boxing instead fighting for Bellator?

It is extremly frustrating as you just see talents and prospects but Bellator just shrugging like "oh great......hey how about Fedor vs Josh Barnett!?"

It is all about Fedor, his fighters and signing no namers to fight veterans. Just look at the card in Paris, fourty-five years old Cheick Kongo against Timothy Johnson? There are like way more talented french fighters who they could have signed for that event or atleast build them up during that card.

I just hope someone from Bellator staff are reading this, you just do not care about prospects!

 

[Yrat]

What was wrong with Bjorn Rebney to be honest? He did actually signed talents.

 

[Blunderbuss]

I think the main issue that I have is the trajectory for fighters rarely makes sense. Fighters coming off a win should (almost) always be fighting another fighter coming off a win, but too often they will fight a no name or a guy coming off a loss, so if that other guy wins, neither guy feels important (mostly)... it does appear to be getting a bit better as of late though and some of their more "homegrown" talents are getting a brighter spot. Or maybe that is just post pandemic bright spots talking.

 

[Yrat]

I think the main issue that I have is the trajectory for fighters rarely makes sense. Fighters coming off a win should (almost) always be fighting another fighter coming off a win, but too often they will fight a no name or a guy coming off a loss, so if that other guy wins, neither guy feels important (mostly)... it does appear to be getting a bit better as of late though and some of their more "homegrown" talents are getting a brighter spot. Or maybe that is just post pandemic bright spots talking.

No that is how Bellator works , Michael Page fought someone who has 3-1 on his record before they fought called Richard Kiely. Huge mismatch, huge mistake , this is how Bellator does.

It is just looking bad when you see someone 2-3 can sign for Bellator but not a 9-0 hot prospect!

 

[careto]

I think its a combination of a couple of things.
1. The UFC is not signing prospect as much as before because they are relying on the DWCS to sign the up and coming talents. The problem with that is that quiet honestly, most of those fighters at the DWCS are jobbers who are just glad to be getting an opportunity in the UFC. Most, if not all of them are probably getting shit contracts but, hey they are UFC fighters now. You do have the occasional true hot prospect making their way to the DWCS but if you look a the past season, and this season in particular, most of them are just fillers for the weekly cards the UFC is putting out.
2. This has opened up the opportunity for Bellator to swoop in and sign some of these prospects that the UFC is passing on. And with the PFL closing its doors until 2021 is open hunting ground for Bellator to sign these fighters without much competition.
3. Bellator is legitimately also looking to change its direction and sign more established prospects, rather than super-green-almost-amateur fighters or old-washed-up UFC fighters. This can be seen with the recent matchmaking and the fact that Bellator has passed on several opportunities to sign former UFC fighters that have become free agents.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

You see, the problem is not there are no talents , it is to actually maintain them and show them that you really care about them 100%.

This.

Bellator has an underrated roster. Specially with the prospects. They have a bunch of them.

They should be spamming youtube and social media with promos and all that. Fuck it, AJ McKee is like 15-0 and looks outstading... the whole MMA community should be talking about him. Same with a lot of other guys like Amosov.

 

[mime]

What they are doing now is signing more established unknown fighters, champs from regional promotions, more than before. They always signed prospects before.

Better mix now, they had old known name veterans and young prospects. Now they are filling in the middle better with unknown but good fighters

 

[skylolow]

I don't think they are doing anything really different. They have always been signing prospects. Seems like they are doing a little more signing with some the top guys in smaller orgs.


But in the end if you can't plan out/manage the roster from top to bottom throughout the year it really doesn't matter and that has really been Bellator's issue.

 

[careto]

I think the main issue that I have is the trajectory for fighters rarely makes sense. Fighters coming off a win should (almost) always be fighting another fighter coming off a win, but too often they will fight a no name or a guy coming off a loss, so if that other guy wins, neither guy feels important (mostly)... it does appear to be getting a bit better as of late though and some of their more "homegrown" talents are getting a brighter spot. Or maybe that is just post pandemic bright spots talking.

This, signing all these great prospects wont mean shit if they continue to put mismatches or matches that dont make sense. The UFC has recently signed a whole bunch of jobbers but at least they are fighting against each other and they are not being used to pad anyones record.

 

[Yrat]

This, signing all these great prospects wont mean shit if they continue to put mismatches or matches that dont make sense. The UFC has recently signed a whole bunch of jobbers but at least they are fighting against each other and they are not being used to pad anyones record.

Take ROQUE Martinez as an example, yes he is not that really impressive in heavyweight, however he had many wins in a row and fought someone in the same level as he so called matchmaking at the best.

You just can't sign fighters coming from many losses in a row and still get the spot in Bellator

If Bellator was a movie production they would only give YouTubers as main stars in blockbuster movies instead of real actors. It's that bad at the moment and I just don't like it at all how much they don't care.


Yaroslav Amosov has better wins then Michael Page, yet Bellator prefers to promote him more.