Do you think Bellator will ever surpass the UFC as the #1 MMA promotion in the world?

[Titleboxe]

If their strategy doesn't involve building talent and making stars in-house then no. Strikeforce had a good chance of doing just that, which is the reason they were bought out.

 

[Deleted member 465145]

No. Bellator seems content to follow the UFC down the drain.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Nobody told me

I didn't know until after the event as well.
You have a point about promotion
It was all about the re-launch
Obviously bc they wanted that opening week to be big

No idea why it was not on Roku though
It was not a sudden change. It was months in the making

 

[FrankieNYC]

If their strategy doesn't involve building talent and making stars in-house then no. Strikeforce had a good chance of doing just that, which is the reason they were bought out.

Actually SF owners wanted out because they lost money with Fedor & the GP tourney.
They put it up for sale & UFC bid

 

[MMAJunkie]

The UFC is off to a very rough start right now for 2018. They're running out of starpower and their ratings are dropping to all time lows.

Meanwhile Bellator is off to a very good start, with their recent event Rampage vs. Sonnen hitting very high view counts for Bellator standards.

Is this possibly a sign of things to come in the future? I'm not talking anytime soon, but maybe a decade or 2 down the road.

Yes...if they stick with Cokers vision and keep bringing up young talent and stick with giving the fighters freedom..
than Yes!

 

[SmilinDesperado]

Bellator needs to change their stupid name.
The word "Bellator" will never become a household word

 

[Schoolboy Q]

Hell no, no one gives a shit about Bellator.

 

[Rudeboyben84]

“Do you even train Bellator?”

“This guy put him in some crazy Bellator move choke”

Nah, doesn’t sound right. It’ll never happen. People call MMA UFC, it will never change

 

[Shaddows]

The UFC is off to a very rough start right now for 2018. They're running out of starpower and their ratings are dropping to all time lows.

Meanwhile Bellator is off to a very good start, with their recent event Rampage vs. Sonnen hitting very high view counts for Bellator standards.

Is this possibly a sign of things to come in the future? I'm not talking anytime soon, but maybe a decade or 2 down the road.

it is really hard to predict, because UFC has a very good hype machine and they can change the way they do things.

But it is almost inevitable that at some point, some promotion will improve to the point they can challenge the UFC.

With the deep pockets Bellator has, it can be them. But I do think they will have to change as well to accomplish that.

But the divide is still huge, and no one can truly predict what will happen.

 

[JoeJMMA4]

You remember Vitor and Matt Hughes talking about a division for old guys who cant really compete anymore but dont want to retire? It is in fact already a reality...called Bellator.

 

[dim_]

It's very obvious you didn't pay attention to the part where I wrote "for Bellator standards".

And what do you measure bellator against


to give you some perspective.

Great Britain has a population of 50 million people.. its a tiny country...

Yet they still had more people tune in to the "wonderful world of puppies" last week than watched Bellator..

http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-30/

The wonderful world of fucking puppies.. thats where bellator is right now




in the uk, with a population of only 50m, a 400k viewing figure is so low that a channel will drop you entirely. So how in a country with a population as big as the us they consider that even reasonable is beyond me.

 

[UL]

No

And even if Conor & Brock went to bellator, it still wouldn't surpass the UFC.

 

[dim_]

It's more likely Bellator wolnt be around for 2 decades let alone top UFC.

2 decades time bellator main event will be a roided up, 50 year old might mouse v tj dillashaw, at middleweight

 

[Darkart]

I don't really care, I just want to see good fights. Bellator brings either the quality (Rory/Lima Davis/That Skinny British dude) or the lols (Dada/Kimbo Shamrock/Gracie), it's worth watching.

 

[Baba Ghanoush]

all it takes is Conor to go over and ufc is fooked. They are about to enter a low period in the next couple of years. Once conor and dc go they have nobody. Jones is gone. Ngannou is shit and has the personality of a table. The only up and comer they have is kevin Lee and it remains to be seen whether he can develop a good enough grasp of the english language to go on conan without embarassing himself

This narrative is always stupid as shit whenever someone brings it up.

The UFC existed before Conor, and the UFC will exist after Conor. The UFC strategy has always been brand first, fighter recognition second.

 

[613]

Not with Coker leading them. They push old washed up big names and neglect young up and comers.

 

[Meathead Jock]

I think its more likely Bellator is gone than it surpasses UFC but its not impossible.

If the UFC gets greedy and screws up their next TV deal and they ride the PPV era for too long and Bellator benefits from a rumored Viacom/CBS merger it could pull off a miracle with the help of Pico and Ed Ruth.

 

[Meathead Jock]

This narrative is always stupid as shit whenever someone brings it up.

The UFC existed before Conor, and the UFC will exist after Conor. The UFC strategy has always been brand first, fighter recognition second.

I dislike Conor but... You can't compare him to any other star. PPV is dying and yet he keeps breaking records on the format. Holding the top 4 buyrates on his watch.

 

[MessiJAH]

Probably by default. The UFC is the modern day WCW.

 

[TheBulletwithWings]

If the UFC doesn't start paying their fighters more and or letting them cash in on their own sponsorship's than it is possible. Not very likely but possible.

Hate to say it but paying fighters more will result in fighters fighting less and not worrying about putting on a good fight and certainly wouldn’t build the UFC.