What’s with bellators prospects not panning out?

Istryker

Istryker

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Aj Agazarm, Ed Ruth, Aaron Pico, MVP and James Gallagher are all fighters who have either taken an early L, multiple L’s or just got plain KTFO.


What’s going on with their matchmaking and why are these dudes not panning out?
 
MVP lost to a very good fighter, he just went back to fighting cans. Wouldn't say he is a bust yet.

Also why are you not talking about their prospects that have worked out, like AJ McKee, Nemkov or Amosov?
 
TR1 said:
MVP lost to a very good fighter, he just went back to fighting cans. Wouldn't say he is a bust yet.

Also why are you not talking about their prospects that have worked out, like AJ McKee, Nemkov or Amosov?
Click to expand...



it doesn’t fit the narrative I’m creating


And that’s still not a good ratio of prospects flopping
 
Fighters lose. In Ed Ruth’s case, he’s lost of other guys in his trajectory. As had Pico with the exception of his first fight(a fighter with a strong record and vastly more experience than 0-0) Gallagher as well. MVP isn’t a prospect having fought Douglas Lima, Paul Daley and countless veterans of the sport. I also wouldnt consider 14-0 over several years before your first defeat as losing early...and MVP wasn’t favored to beat Lima

This is just UFC shill logic that dictates any fighter worth a damn that hasn’t fought in the UFC shouldn’t have losses or they are failed prospects because the ladder doesn’t exist in any org but the UFC or they falsely believe that any fighter that gets a little bit of promotion are always matched up to ensure victory and it’s egg on the face when they lose...which is of course BS most of the time. Especially with every single fighter mentioned in the OP.
 
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It’s not like the UFC hasn’t either with Johnny Walker and Mike Perry. If you consider one loss than there’s O’Malley and Shahbazyan also.
 
There's lots of ways to lose in mma. The scoring and judging systems are bad. Almost every elite fighter in the history of the sport has taken losses at some point in their career. Not every prospect pans out the same as any other sport.
 
Bellator i bad at promoting their fighters, build up their cards, and producing events.

Questions to ask oneself:
- Which fighters fight in Bellator? What are the biggest names and where do you see them between fights?
- How do ppl find out about Bellator events? They barely do anything before a card.
- They do not even show the names of the fighters while they are fighting. This must be one of the dumbest decisions ever made. Are we supposed to know every Bellator fighters name (how, since Bellator does nothing to promote them)?

If Bellator wants to improve they need to start caring about what mistakes they are making and develop a plan to address them. I have seen nothing of that sort so far.
 
It happens with every prospect. Honestly mma is a sport and just like any other sport it takes time to reach the equilibrium between skill + experience/age. Just because guys have lost early doesn’t mean they won’t pan out. It’s just gonna take time. There are plenty of fighters who don’t really become elite until they’ve had a lot of fights to get better and more experienced. So we will have to wait and see with most of these guys but most of them are far too young in their careers to be considered busts yet.
 
It's not about the early losses, it's how /if these talented fighters can learn and be better. Not everyone's gonna be a star that's why they're special
 
Istryker said:
Aj Agazarm, Ed Ruth, Aaron Pico, MVP and James Gallagher are all fighters who have either taken an early L, multiple L’s or just got plain KTFO.


What’s going on with their matchmaking and why are these dudes not panning out?
Click to expand...
What about all of their prospects who are panning out?

AJ Mckee, Juan Archuleta, Patrick Mix, Steve Mowry, Joey Davis, Amosov.

In other news, MMA is a zero sum sport. Not everyone can be a winner. Everyone but a select few are going to lose eventually.
 
Not every prospect will pan out, that is an impossible standard set by hardcore fans. Same thing with the UFC prospects Walker, Perry, O'Malley, Shabazayan, Van Zant, Northcut, etc. not every prospect will pan out and there will be other unknowns will surprise everyone and rise to the top.
 
Istryker said:
Aj Agazarm, Ed Ruth, Aaron Pico, MVP and James Gallagher are all fighters who have either taken an early L, multiple L’s or just got plain KTFO.


What’s going on with their matchmaking and why are these dudes not panning out?
Click to expand...
the kid who beat agazarm has looked “beatable” for years. I cornered against him as an ammy and later coached him as a pro for a few years. It’s like an optical illusion or something, he doesn’t appear to be that good on the feet or at wrestling but still always manages to find a way to get it done. He’s a frustrating dude to fight and I thought the AJ fight was at least fun to watch. Lencioni is a jits based fighter and AJ is a better grappler (on paper anyways) so the match up made sense in theory. Bellator is also prone to giving their fighters what they want. If two guys want to fight then they’ll let it happen, and those two dudes hate each other. Cris has way more experience and it would of made sense for agazarm to get more cage time first, but they’re going to let them hang. Lencioni called out Claxton early in his pro career and it was the same thing- a young gun biting off more than he could chew at the moment and not a good way to build a prospect but Bellator let them scrap and Cris lost a decision.

Ed Ruth and Taylor johnson is an example of putting two prospects in there against each other. Taylor is a stud wrestler with surprising stand up and the most violent gnp I’ve seen in years. I wasn’t surprised he won but I get to coach him a little when he’s in pdx so I’ve seen what he can do.

picos a more complex of a case that’s been debated to death here and I don’t have a lot to add except he’s always entertaining to watch and has a sick liver punch. Idk if he’ll ever be a world champion or not (wouldn’t be surprised either way) but that dude is going to fight and win for as long as he likes.

James Gallagher Is a turd.
 
Some of their best prospects have definitely come up short of their expected success -- I feel it is more or less a reflection on just how difficult MMA is as a sport. It's a very particular matrix of skills that have to be fluidly blended. I reckon that some fighters are better at adapting it than others. I would also suspect that their careers may get unnecessarily expedited due to their success in their respective disciplines before starting MMA as well as being surrounded by folks that may not give them the critiques they need. This is my anecdotal observations that I have witnessed firsthand; curious what others feel on the matter...
 
They should be embarrassed with the way they’ve booked MVP. He’s been with Bellator for 7 years now and is still being matched up with mediocre fighters as if he’s still a young up and comer. The few times he’s fought legit competition he got wrestlefucked by Paul freaking Daley or got KTFO altogether.

The most protected can crusher in MMA history.
 
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