The UFC just announced that they have partnered with the Russian promotion "Fight Nights" to air their events on Fight Pass. Fight Nights is where Minakov's last fight was and he is expected to fight for them 1-2 more times this year. Can Bellator do anything about their Heavyweight champion being broadcast on the rival promotions streaming service?
Yes, they can celebrate that one of their fighters is getting some spotlight that might garner attention to the Bellator Promotion.
I'm sure Bellator signed away distribution rights to Minakov when they allowed him to fight for another promoter.
So excited they did that, Fight Night puts on some pretty awesome cards. I wonder if they will sign more young Russian prospects who fight for them.
I really wish they would release some info as to why they are not using him, they have a fairly dominant undefeated HW champ and they are ignoring him.
I've heard that Minakov is interested in fighting for the UFC, he also interested in fights with Kongo or Kimbo so maybe he's waiting his contract out?
I'm guessing he wants to leave Bellator (or get a pay raise) and they have to keep him the champion so that it is harder for him to get out of his contract via champions clause so they can block him from going to the UFC.
Problem is nobody knows whats going on and nobody seems to care enough to get to the bottom fo the story. Why isnt a Russian site interviewing him about it? WHy isnt Coker being asked about him at every show?
Think it makes them look worse that their Champ is fighting for another company being put on Fight Pass. Not a great look at all. Awesome news for us, hope he makes it to the UFC. Bellator doesn't have anything left for him.
There was some scuttlebutt at one point that Bellator was very iffy on their TV deal in Russia and so there was just less of an emphasis on bringing in unknown Europeans to develop on these cards. I imagine Minakov is just sort of a residual effect of that TV deal issue. That and I imagine they dont want to lose him for nothing.
