News Bellator sale talks heating up

[TorontoTO]

should be enough to finance the bellator deal. Now they just need good TV deals.

CBS/Paramount is definitely out since who knows what they are doing. ESPN looks to not be interested and they are losing money, I wouldn’t be surprised if It was Amazon

 

[Bubba32]

CBS/Paramount is definitely out since who knows what they are doing. ESPN looks to not be interested and they are losing money, I wouldn’t be surprised if It was Amazon

They're best hope is for UFC and espn not coming to an agreement leaving a void on on espn plus that needs to be filled. This is what happened when UFC left Spike, Viacom had to buy bellator to try and fill that void. Unfortuantely they later realized no other mma promotion can fill the UFC void.

espn losing the UFC would mean PFL getting the biggest offer in the market. if that doesnt happen i dont see anyone ponying up any serious money. if they have to settle for peanuts then they would have to sign short term deals and perform on the networks in order to get a serious deal before their money runs out. They have to also perform for saudi arabia otherwise that suggar daddy will be gone as well.

Saudi is gonna find out nobody gives a shit about francis vs tyson fury and then theyre gonna find out pfl doesnt draw shit either. what happens after that will be interesting.

 

[skylolow]

PFL Mena league?

Guessing it stand for Middle East something....

 

[skylolow]

They're best hope is for UFC and espn not coming to an agreement leaving a void on on espn plus that needs to be filled. This is what happened when UFC left Spike, Viacom had to buy bellator to try and fill that void. Unfortuantely they later realized no other mma promotion can fill the UFC void.

espn losing the UFC would mean PFL getting the biggest offer in the market. if that doesnt happen i dont see anyone ponying up any serious money. if they have to settle for peanuts then they would have to sign short term deals and perform on the networks in order to get a serious deal before their money runs out. They have to also perform for saudi arabia otherwise that suggar daddy will be gone as well.

Saudi is gonna find out nobody gives a shit about francis vs tyson fury and then theyre gonna find out pfl doesnt draw shit either. what happens after that will be interesting.

Probably would be the best scenario for them..........but there is rumblings that UFC/ESPN will be extending there deal and some rumors say it already a done deal. Either way it sounds like they are not letting the UFC go and will pay what they need to. They need the UFC content for taking ESPN+ global is the mindset behind it.

It won't surprise me one bit if PFL and ESPN come to agreement and run the PFL PPV through ESPN+ just like the UFC.

 

[Stan]

Paramount has never given Bellator respect even with this writer strike Bellator future events are not advertised or even shown. I have also dropped my subscription as I have seen all the Dexter eposides and Star Trek they have. Though most of their boxing is call ShoBox these days it is PBC really, where they are not the owners and do not have to carry them and MMA gives respect to one sad org that being Combate Global as they do a lot of futball and in the USA that is the Latin crowd so Combate Global gives them something else.

Example How Bellator is treated: First line no new events upcoming rarely to never mentioned.

Example How Combate Global is treated: First line is all upcoming events.

Nothing left for me to stick around Paramount+

Yeah agree Paramount did nothing for Bellator for all those years but they actually need them now. With the SAG-AFTRA and writers strike still ongoing with no end in sight Paramount will need all the sports it can get otherwise people will be dropping the streaming subscription service with re-runs and old movies and nothing new to watch. The only thing that would prevent a mass exodus from their streaming service will be sporting events.

Appears they got the Saudi money and Saudi going to also invest heavily into the PPV side of the business and bank roll the PFL MENA league.
https://bloodyelbow.com/2023/08/30/saudi-arabia-purchases-ownership-pfl/

Wonder if its enough to close the Bellator deal.

I doubt Paramount would sell Bellator in full for 100mil its most likely for just a portion of the Org. Saudis paid 100mil for only a minor portion of ownership of PFL so Paramount will hold out for bigger money. Paramount needs as much sports as they can get since the writers strike has no end in sight. Its either that or they risk seeing a mass exodus from their streaming services with 0 new shows and movies for the foreseeable future.

 

[David Street]

Its either that or they risk seeing a mass exodus from their streaming services with 0 new shows and movies for the foreseeable future.

You seem to give Bellator more respect at drawing viewers than they do. Right now if they promoted Bellator and really sold it they would not be adding any new shows and only a few new viewers, not worth the cost of owning and paying the fighters. They are out of the owning sports business they have stated, but they still could still be only looking for a partner as Scott Coker was saying.

 

[Bubba32]

Probably would be the best scenario for them..........but there is rumblings that UFC/ESPN will be extending there deal and some rumors say it already a done deal. Either way it sounds like they are not letting the UFC go and will pay what they need to. They need the UFC content for taking ESPN+ global is the mindset behind it.

It won't surprise me one bit if PFL and ESPN come to agreement and run the PFL PPV through ESPN+ just like the UFC.

I believe UFC will insist on an exclusive deal with ESPN if they havent already. There is no way UFC is going to allow a direct rival to benefit from their fanbase. UFC signed off on pfl years ago because they were competing with bellator more than UFC.

Probably why ESPN let the exclcusive negotiating window with PFL lapse. IF espn keeps the UFC theres like a zero percent chance they'll be in business with pfl

 

[MMALOPEZ]

According to Dana White in his post fight press conference…. PFL was looking for Saudi investors to pay 180-200 mil to buy Bellator…. PFL gave themselves a value of 500 mil (even without making a single penny in their lives) and just got 100 mil from the Saudi’s, or 20% of the company. If you ask me Bellator should be valued at a higher price …

 

[Thesnake101]

That's probably the league where they make slaves fight pro fighters.

So, if they do get a hold of Bellator, the prospect development matchmaking won't really change much, if at all? Well that's a bummer.

 

[Go Go Plata]

Guessing it stand for Middle East something....

Middle East Northern Africa region

 

[skylolow]

According to Dana White in his post fight press conference…. PFL was looking for Saudi investors to pay 180-200 mil to buy Bellator…. PFL gave themselves a value of 500 mil (even without making a single penny in their lives) and just got 100 mil from the Saudi’s, or 20% of the company. If you ask me Bellator should be valued at a higher price …

Maybe the Saudi's end up buying Bellator outright. They already committed to invest heavily in the PPV side of PFL and want to host some of the shows on top of the 100M investment in the PFL. PFL and Saudi's need fighters to make events people are willing to pay for. Run the orgs separate or together who knows. Everyone knows PFL doesn't have the star power to sell diddly squat for PPV's right now.

 

[Bubba32]

The problem is even if you merge both pfl and bellator rosters its still shit. The fact that today pfl raising capital at a valuation of 500m and bellator lets say at 100m can only produce a roster this shitty whereas strikeforce produced a much better roster for a fraction of this is very scary if youre trying to compete with the UFC.

 

[TorontoTO]

The problem is even if you merge both pfl and bellator rosters its still shit. The fact that today pfl raising capital at a valuation of 500m and bellator lets say at 100m can only produce a roster this shitty whereas strikeforce produced a much better roster for a fraction of this is very scary if youre trying to compete with the UFC.

The Strikeforce roster strength is very much hindsight is 20/20. People were poo pooing the Strikeforce guys back then saying they would all get washed if they fought in the ufc.

I imagine much of the same would happen if the Bellator roster joined UFC

 

[Terry_Dak_Tull]

The problem is even if you merge both pfl and bellator rosters its still shit. The fact that today pfl raising capital at a valuation of 500m and bellator lets say at 100m can only produce a roster this shitty whereas strikeforce produced a much better roster for a fraction of this is very scary if youre trying to compete with the UFC.

People look back fondly at Strikeforce's roster simply due to what so many of those fighters went on to do in the UFC. If they never fought in the UFC, people would think of them like they do current fighters in other orgs.

What many fans won't admit to is that they only care about the UFC names. If a fighter doesn't have that affiliation, they are thought lesser of. It's just the reality. It's why these companies are never going to compete with the UFC.

It's why PFL buying Bellator is meaningless. You don't care about fighters in either company now, nothing is going to change with a combined roster. People just watch UFC fighters slumming it in the minors. It's why you have people still talking about Bellator's roster being old. It's because they only care about the former UFC names, so it's all they recognize.

It's why fighters like Eblen come out of nowhere. They didn't care until he fought Mousasi. If that fight never happened, so many of those fans still wouldn't have a clue who he is, even though people like us realize how much more impressive his fight with Tokov was. That's because Tokov doesn't exist in their world either.

 

[TorontoTO]

People look back fondly at Strikeforce's roster simply due to what so many of those fighters went on to do in the UFC. If they never fought in the UFC, people would think of them like they do current fighters in other orgs.

What many fans won't admit to is that they only care about the UFC names. If a fighter doesn't have that affiliation, they are thought lesser of. It's just the reality. It's why these companies are never going to compete with the UFC.

It's why PFL buying Bellator is meaningless. You don't care about fighters in either company now, nothing is going to change with a combined roster. People just watch UFC fighters slumming it in the minors. It's why you have people still talking about Bellator's roster being old. It's because they only care about the former UFC names, so it's all they recognize.

It's why fighters like Eblen come out of nowhere. They didn't care until he fought Mousasi. If that fight never happened, so many of those fans still wouldn't have a clue who he is, even though people like us realize how much more impressive his fight with Tokov was. That's because Tokov doesn't exist in their world either.

Unless the Saudis throw f u money at this and just start bringing over multiple top 5 guys ever year, like from 10-15, most people will still watch ufc regardless of the talent level.

likewise, I don’t even know many 35+ former ufc guys left in Bellator, it’s Bader, Mousasi, Cyborg and…..

Even look at ONE, the only person people bring up from the promotion is DJ and Linekar, even tho I think Fabricio Andrade is much better then both

 

[Bubba32]

People look back fondly at Strikeforce's roster simply due to what so many of those fighters went on to do in the UFC. If they never fought in the UFC, people would think of them like they do current fighters in other orgs.

What many fans won't admit to is that they only care about the UFC names. If a fighter doesn't have that affiliation, they are thought lesser of. It's just the reality. It's why these companies are never going to compete with the UFC.

It's why PFL buying Bellator is meaningless. You don't care about fighters in either company now, nothing is going to change with a combined roster. People just watch UFC fighters slumming it in the minors. It's why you have people still talking about Bellator's roster being old. It's because they only care about the former UFC names, so it's all they recognize.

It's why fighters like Eblen come out of nowhere. They didn't care until he fought Mousasi. If that fight never happened, so many of those fans still wouldn't have a clue who he is, even though people like us realize how much more impressive his fight with Tokov was. That's because Tokov doesn't exist in their world either.

True. I would only add that during strikeforce UFC was only doing like 24 or 30 shows a year so they didnt have any room for most all of the best fighters and this is why strikeforce was able to get talent and fan attention.

Now we have like 46 ufc shows a year plus contender series plus regional mma on fightpass. theres just no room for a competitor to get talent and fan attention.

 

[Cartiac]

People look back fondly at Strikeforce's roster simply due to what so many of those fighters went on to do in the UFC. If they never fought in the UFC, people would think of them like they do current fighters in other orgs.

What many fans won't admit to is that they only care about the UFC names. If a fighter doesn't have that affiliation, they are thought lesser of. It's just the reality. It's why these companies are never going to compete with the UFC.

It's why PFL buying Bellator is meaningless. You don't care about fighters in either company now, nothing is going to change with a combined roster. People just watch UFC fighters slumming it in the minors. It's why you have people still talking about Bellator's roster being old. It's because they only care about the former UFC names, so it's all they recognize.

It's why fighters like Eblen come out of nowhere. They didn't care until he fought Mousasi. If that fight never happened, so many of those fans still wouldn't have a clue who he is, even though people like us realize how much more impressive his fight with Tokov was. That's because Tokov doesn't exist in their world either.

While I do agree with the overall premise of your post. I do not agree that the value of Strikeforce is based on what their fighters went on to do in UFC. If that was the case UFC would never have bought Strikeforce. Like it or not UFC bought Strikeforce because of the value they had created with Ronda Rousey, getting rules changed and defining WMMA as a real thing, UFC could not ignore.

I also believe there are much more shady motives going on at PFL and Bellator that have no legitimate business model or value to offer to the industry but are still somehow attracting big investor money. Saudi can flood all the money they want into those organizations that have already failed to attract or build any legitimate fighters while bragging about paying washed out UFC fighters big money but as we have seen in golf and social media, we know what taking that Saudi money means and fighters willing to take money to literally get pissed on by Saudi's won't be missed in UFC.

 

[TorontoTO]

While I do agree with the overall premise of your post. I do not agree that the value of Strikeforce is based on what their fighters went on to do in UFC. If that was the case UFC would never have bought Strikeforce. Like it or not UFC bought Strikeforce because of the value they had created with Ronda Rousey, getting rules changed and defining WMMA as a real thing, UFC could not ignore.

I also believe there are much more shady motives going on at PFL and Bellator that have no legitimate business model or value to offer to the industry but are still somehow attracting big investor money. Saudi can flood all the money they want into those organizations that have already failed to attract or build any legitimate fighters while bragging about paying washed out UFC fighters big money but as we have seen in golf and social media, we know what taking that Saudi money means and fighters willing to take money to literally get pissed on by Saudi's won't be missed in UFC.

To be fair, that has been the UFC motto, a competitior does something new, you buy them out. WEC started focused on lower weight classes and found some success, UFC bought them up and shut them down. Strikeforce had Ronda, and all the other gals, UFC bought them up and shut them down. Pride was already going down due to the Yakuza fall out but UFC still did the same

 

[Cartiac]

To be fair, that has been the UFC motto, a competitior does something new, you buy them out. WEC started focused on lower weight classes and found some success, UFC bought them up and shut them down. Strikeforce had Ronda, and all the other gals, UFC bought them up and shut them down. Pride was already going down due to the Yakuza fall out but UFC still did the same

What is your point? The ownership of WEC and Strikeforce accomplished exactly what they wanted, creating a business that sold for lots of money. That is the goal of these companies. These people are not stupid thinking they are or will ever be direct competition to UFC, that is impossible. They are just looking to capitalize on another flip in a newly founded, growing market hoping to get bought.

 

[Terry_Dak_Tull]