If you were running Bellator: What would you do differently?

First off, they need to pick up the pace of their main event broadcasts. Their shows just drag. More fighting-less talking.
 
I actually preferred the old tournament style set up. It set things up so title shots were earned and not given to whoever will simply get the most PPV buys. It differentiated itself from the UFC in that way. It will never be able to complete with the UFC doing things the same way the UFC does things.
 
I think it's fairly simple to right the ship and see what happens. Not saying it will fix things but it surely can't make things worse.

Move to a format that you have about 16 events a year as your main Bellator Events with about 5 fights on the main card. Other events can be whatever you want to call them "Bellator Challenger Series". Get your top 30 or so draws in a room. Tell them if your healthy we are going to give you three fights a year on these top events. That's as much as 90 slots filled of roughly the 160 slots you'd have for these events. No reason you don't have about 4 to 5 of these guys on each card. Basically, your putting on events that catch the eye of MMA fans. You have multiple names avg mma fan would know and hopefully it's enough to get them to tune in. But you need to plan shit out with your matchmaking. Continue to bring in some named fighters like you been doing but try to move too securing a few guys a year that are in their prime. Continue to sign more top prospects from around the world.

Next thing to do is start spending money on customer acquisition. I don't see much out of Bellator in reaching out to the general public. 99% of any advertising I see for Bellator is on some MMA related website or program. That only goes so far and you can capture those fans simply by having better looking cards. They know you exist, they just don't feel you provide a decent enough product for most events to even care. If don't expand your advertising your going to end up like Strikeforce. Nice stable of fighters, media deals, and in the end because you can't get more viewership (which makes more money) you can't sustain the business long term.

Basically, in the end get your product in order that fans can actually follow and advertise your product. Right now it's just a mess many more times than not. Your lucky if 3 to 4 events even catch the eye of avg. mma fan. This is why you're ratings go nowhere for the most part right now. Hold maybe 12 of these big events on US soil and 4 a year international. The reality is Scott Coker probably isn't the guy that should be in charge. He should be more of talent relations. Bellator needs a team to head up the front office and direction of the company. Not Coker and his skeleton crew around him that have proving for years that they aren't answer.


P.S.: I don't really ever expect Bellator or anyone to push the UFC. In most sports fans seek out the best product of the sport. The UFC has won that battle years ago and has cemented themselves as the premier org for MMA in pretty much most countries and most MMA fighters. But there is room for a few of these second tier orgs to exist and do some good.
 
Their biggest issue is quality control imo. They arent selective enough about what fighters they put on their cards. Dudes with very little experience, former UFC/Pride names who dont have anything left etc. Its very inconsistent because their top end talent is top 10 at their weight UFC level, but then its mixed in with fighters that have less than 5 fights and shit like Fedor/Rampage main eventing shows in late 2019 like Coker thinks its 2010 and hes still running Strikeforce.
 
Honestly.....Make the Matchmakers actually work or get rid of them! UFC Matchmakers pair the right guys up to fight to make it exciting.
You don't do Paul Daily vs Fitch! That Match Maker should be fired! Have a talent scout who knows fighting and what to look for. Coker needs to fire his friends and bring in real talent. The commentators are just plane armature!

Also, fucking Advertise! Coker does 0 hype. He does not understand hyping a match, he thinks coming over from the UFC is hype enough....Just really Amateurish all around..........Look at LFA! They have a shit budget but man they are good at matchmaking and hype!
 
Kingz said:
I disagree on the fighters with less than 5 fights, it’s a good way to get the jump on prospects who come from backgrounds conducive to MMA success. Let’s them build them up and also keep them under the banner for a long time whereas outside they would do one offs and maybe get snagged by UFC who can pick up a fighter at anytime. There’s no cap of fights they wait for either if they really like a guy, they’ll find a way to put them under their sphere whether its an unofficial feeder league , contender series, or TUF. Most of Bellators best current prospects and some of their best overall fighters came into Bellator with less than 5 fights, some with zero fights. Also, Coker has had notable success with scouting newer talent, bringing them up at a slow but pretty good pace going by the results of some of his past prospects

Daniel Cormier debuted in Strikeforce with 0 fights
Woodley and Rockhold were both 2-0
All were pretty much developed to peak form and at the top of organization by the time it ended.


In Bellator AJ McKee debuted with no fights.
Darrion Caldwell debuted with 3 fights
Macfarlane had 1 fight.
MVP debuted with 3 fights
Lovato only had a few
Joey Davis, Storley, Gallagher, Pico, Fortune, Ruth were all brand new.

A lot of their most exciting and long term fighters were guys that were picked up early. If you like a guy either from one performance or hearing some coach you trust rave about him...go for it. It’s certainly not what’s hurting Bellator. If anything, the bad look is the guy with more than 10 fights that is at or sometimes under .500.

As for what I’d change, I’d end the embargo imposed on Dagestan since Bjorn left and start bringing in some guys from that region again. Most any division seems incomplete without at least one Dagestan fighter in there.
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Sorry, I meant something else when I wrote that but I was in a hurry. Get rid of fighters with 3-2 records or 2-2 etc is what I meant. I don't see what's the point in keeping them. People will tune in if there are 10 quality fights on every card instead of just 2,3 good ones
 
I would hire Stephen Quadros or Mauro Renallo and drop Josh Thomson from commentary for one, possibly Big John as well. I would do more tournaments to determine number one contenders and/or new champions for divisions that don't have current ones. Maybe more cross-promotion with other orgs.
 
Right now Bellator has a fire 170 division, they have at least 15 very legit fighters and about 3 making a title-run. The division has enough talent to split it in two: 165 and 175.
Keep Douglas Lima as the 175 champ and have a 4-man tournament to crown the new 165 champion, for example, Amasov, Koreshkov, MVP, and Storley. The 165 division is long overdue and it would attract a lot of fighters who are caught in between 155 and 170. That 15 pound difference causes a lot of problems for fighters cutting weight and many fighters have campaigned for the addition of a 165 division, this could be the right time. The division is strong enough that neither weightclass will be watered down.
 
-Better matchmaking (less emphasis on having old timers headline the cards)
-5 round non title main events
-Better name
-Have an event in Canada
-Have rankings
-Better structure to their tournaments (have it take place over 6 months instead of a year +)

Best thing Bellator has done in my opinion is build up some great prospects from the start of their careers. Mckee, Pico, Cotton, Davis, Fortune etc. Very smart of them to recruit elite wrestlers out of college to pursue mma careers.
 
careto said:
Right now Bellator has a fire 170 division, they have at least 15 very legit fighters and about 3 making a title-run. The division has enough talent to split it in two: 165 and 175.
Keep Douglas Lima as the 175 champ and have a 4-man tournament to crown the new 165 champion, for example, Amasov, Koreshkov, MVP, and Storley. The 165 division is long overdue and it would attract a lot of fighters who are caught in between 155 and 170. That 15 pound difference causes a lot of problems for fighters cutting weight and many fighters have campaigned for the addition of a 165 division, this could be the right time. The division is strong enough that neither weightclass will be watered down.
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Adding 165 and bumping WW to 175 would be a good idea for Bellator IMO. It would help with bringing in more free agents since they would be able to offer 2 divisions the UFC doesn't have 165 and 175.
 
Probably too late to do anything because they just got moved to a channel nobody watches (cbs sports network). Their audience will probably be a 1/3rd of what it was on paramount and that audience was super low to begin with.

They have no gate, dazn is working to get out of the deal and they just got moved to a network nobody watches. What hope is there?

Coker should jump ship to the next promotion he can run into the ground before people realize what happened.
 
Bubba32 said:
Probably too late to do anything because they just got moved to a channel nobody watches (cbs sports network). Their audience will probably be a 1/3rd of what it was on paramount and that audience was super low to begin with.

They have no gate, dazn is working to get out of the deal and they just got moved to a network nobody watches. What hope is there?

Coker should jump ship to the next promotion he can run into the ground before people realize what happened.
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What's the issue with CBS Sports Network? Why does no one watch it? Not trying to be snarky, just don't know much about the network landscape at the moment.
 
NoBiasJustMMA said:
Adding 165 and bumping WW to 175 would be a good idea for Bellator IMO. It would help with bringing in more free agents since they would be able to offer 2 divisions the UFC doesn't have 165 and 175.
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I'm very surprised the UFC refuses to do this change because the jump from 155 to 170 is too much for many fighters, so they are caught in between cutting to much weight or being to small for the next division. Bellator has enough talent in 170 to not water down the division and still have 2 competitive stacked divisions. People like Nate, Benson, RDA, Masvidal, Chiesa, etc. would thrive in 165.
 
careto said:
I'm very surprised the UFC refuses to do this change because the jump from 155 to 170 is too much for many fighters, so they are caught in between cutting to much weight or being to small for the next division. Bellator has enough talent in 170 to not water down the division and still have 2 competitive stacked divisions. People like Nate, Benson, RDA, Masvidal, Chiesa, etc. would thrive in 165.
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For sure, the 15lb gap is a big one, especially since that is the weight range of the average man when cutting weight so there is a lot more fighters at 155 and 170 than almost every other 2 divisions so it makes sense to put a division between.
 
First thing would be FIRE COKER! He does not have a clue about the fight game!
 
careto said:
I'm very surprised the UFC refuses to do this change because the jump from 155 to 170 is too much for many fighters, so they are caught in between cutting to much weight or being to small for the next division. Bellator has enough talent in 170 to not water down the division and still have 2 competitive stacked divisions. People like Nate, Benson, RDA, Masvidal, Chiesa, etc. would thrive in 165.
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It's a dead channel. You cant even get ratings for it.
 
Listening to Miletich on LFA and Jimmy Smith on Titan, they are so much better than terrible announcing Bellator has.

Enough with the bullshit, UFC has-beens and never-wases. You never get your own shine if you are borrowing the fading light of others.

Stop the terrible music between rounds.
 
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