What is the best formula for Bellator card success going forward?

[2004 account]

In this past event Bellator 198 Fedor vs Mir we saw Bellator implement a formula that Scott Coker has mentioned before:

The idea of putting on a strong main event fight with two marquee names and then filling up the rest of the card with young talented prospects who will benefit from the attention drawn by the main event. This is different formula from a typical ufc ppv which looks to put on a marquee name main and co main event, and then fill up the rest of the card with filler matches that sometimes have divisional relevance and sometimes doesn’t.

In your opinion (and hopefully Bellator has people who pay attention to the opinions on these forums and take it into account)...What is the best formula for success when creating a Bellator card? Regardless of costs, if you were Rich Chou matchmaker of Bellator - how would the upcoming Fedor vs. Sonnen card look like?


My main card formula would look like this:

Main event
Fedor vs Sonnen (hw gran prix seminfinal match)

Freak show/old timers’ fight
Royce Gracie vs ken shamrock rematch
Or
Chuck Liddell vs Tito Ortiz

2 Bellator vs ufc filler bouts
(The Bellator vs ufc rivalry/narrative is a great idea to push in order to show that Bellator is no longer the Bush leagues and to determine the difference between organizational talent so mma fans can have a clear picture of where the best talent really lies)
In other words put on a lesser known but established Bellator name vs a former ufc fighter. Rory McDonald vs Douglas Lima is an example of this. Make it the new pride vs ufc of now.


Prospect growing Opening bout (prospect Dillon Danis or Aaron pico vs “x fighter that is the next step up in competition”)


Whether economically feasible or not I believe this is the correct formula for Bellator to rise up and become the clear tie for number one org. instead of a distant second place. If they follow this formula every single card while reducing overall cards to once a month/month and a half or so, they will prosper and grow the brand. Create artificial demand through lack of supply and consistent quality.

 

[mime]

im okay with one more liddell fight against someone like ortiz but no more shamrock gracie shit, thats not even "legend" status fights, thats like senior senior citizen level, its embarrassing. if you want to feature royce or someone like that, do a grappling exhibition between fights like pride used to do with fedor sometimes. maybe teach casuals a little bit about grappling through the announcers along the way.

no more dada, royce, shamrock shit, instead focus that time on promoting the chandlers, pitbull bros, etc pump them up like they are awesome and use those ancient dudes like royce and shamrock, couture to talk about how these are the next legends. then also invest in pico, gallagher, mckee, fortune, they have a ton of legit prospects that could be not just the best in bellator but the best overall including the ufc like when strikeforce had rockhold and DC

 

[2004 account]

yea i agree no more dada level off the street type freakshow fights , but royce gracie despite looking like a cancer patient, showed the best offense he has ever shown in his career his last fight vs shamrock...albeit very slowly, he is still evolving showing that an old dog can learn new tricks.

I'd match up supplement enhanced royce gracie vs pat militech or someone from around that era similar in weight and size...

id add coleman vs frye as a potential old timers matchup since coleman just called out frye on twitter. if they pass the medicals let em bang and get paid...why not...

 

[InfinityLens]

DD5K, Royce, and Shammy all drew great #'s.

 

[FKA]

Well adjusted numbers have the event average at 750,000 and the main event peaked at 1.5 million so it's not bad numbers really.

 

[skylolow]

First, get rid of Coker or move his role over. The guy is good with fighter/promotion interaction but isn't very good at the actual running of an org.. He just can't utilize a roster very well over a course of time.

Second, figure out your best 30 draws and up and comers. Hold 10 events a year that feature as many of these guys and girls on it as possible. Rest of your events can be your more typical bellator card or maybe run tournaments on those other cards with up and comers. Bellator has shown in its peak ratings they can get people to tune in. But that is all the fans are doing is just watching the main event. Give it better chance that we will want to watch a 2 hour Bellator event start to finish(I do get main event will always peak higher).

Third, expand the advertising of the product. Sell it to the non MMA people. Hell, right now MMA fans half the time don't even know an event is going on unless they are on MMA sites daily or at least a few time a week.

Last, continue to attack the free agent market.

If non of that works I think you can pretty much forget about it. Not saying it will fold but doing about 500K avg with peaks in the 800's will just be the norm. Once in a while you might get spike like last weekend. I'm not sure if that is enough for Viacom or not to keep it going long term.


P.S.: I believe us hardcore fans of MMA also expect a lot more out of Bellator than we really should. UFC is really the only big org in town. Everyone else is fighting for the scraps and they will always just a be a distance second in MMA scene with little presence on a large scale.

 

[007]

start signing Russians and Brazilians or maybe move into the Asian fighters and build new stars

 

[InfinityLens]

Well adjusted numbers have the event average at 750,000 and the main event peaked at 1.5 million so it's not bad numbers really.

Where did you see that?

 

[fermaPY]

Bellator needs better matchmaking, last event was an exception, typically fights are so one sided that it is not even worth watching....
I also would love to see little 4 man tourneys on the prelims and the final could go somewhere in the main card.... as a way to built a deeper roster without expensive fighters....
They are doing a good job in negotiatios with UFC free agenst, fighters love Coker, the guy have something...
Still going to markets like Israel, Italy and the UK, every yer is a good way of branding, i like it, but without the tape delay thing
Co promotion is good IMO, BAMMATOR looks good, but need deeper cards, they are building more UK prospects with More, Mini Conor, Ward, etc...hopefully they can bring Lohore back and sign other brittish guys....
Co promotion with M1 and KSW are not bad ideas IMO....

 

[TheBrownRanger]

The "prospect building" fights draw most of the criticism when it comes to Bellator cards. These fights don't really have any impact on the division whatsoever.

I completely understand guys like Gallagher and McKee being on the main card. They have paid their dues. It's mostly the cans that they're put up against. What does it say about your promotion when a 2-3 tomato can could be on your main card? You would usually never see that in the UFC (MAJOR exception: CM Punk). CM Punk at least has some name value, however.

Bellator is trying to build up far too many prospects than they can handle. Once these guys make it to the big dogs, then what? Fights with Kyle Walker and Rudy Bears are not going to prepare them for the Chandlers, Warrens, and Koreshkovs of their divisions.

 

[HaulParris]

The "prospect building" fights draw most of the criticism when it comes to Bellator cards. These fights don't really have any impact on the division whatsoever.

I completely understand guys like Gallagher and McKee being on the main card. They have paid their dues. It's mostly the cans that they're put up against. What does it say about your promotion when a 2-3 tomato can could be on your main card? You would usually never see that in the UFC (MAJOR exception: CM Punk). CM Punk at least has some name value, however.

Bellator is trying to build up far too many prospects than they can handle. Once these guys make it to the big dogs, then what? Fights with Kyle Walker and Rudy Bears are not going to prepare them for the Chandlers, Warrens, and Koreshkovs of their divisions.

Very nicely said.

 

[2004 account]

The "prospect building" fights draw most of the criticism when it comes to Bellator cards. These fights don't really have any impact on the division whatsoever.

I completely understand guys like Gallagher and McKee being on the main card. They have paid their dues. It's mostly the cans that they're put up against. What does it say about your promotion when a 2-3 tomato can could be on your main card? You would usually never see that in the UFC (MAJOR exception: CM Punk). CM Punk at least has some name value, however.

Bellator is trying to build up far too many prospects than they can handle. Once these guys make it to the big dogs, then what? Fights with Kyle Walker and Rudy Bears are not going to prepare them for the Chandlers, Warrens, and Koreshkovs of their divisions.

I agree with you. Let’s say they limit it to only one prospect building fight per main card, and it’s a prospect vs an established fighter (winning record + somewhat of a recognizable name) would you be ok with that as long as the rest of the card is stacked ?

 

[Not A Real Fan]

There's no reason that a promotion that has

Rampage
Mitrione
Chael
Fedor
Roy Nelson
Mir
Crocop
Jake Hager aka Jack Swagger of WWE
King Mo
Phil Davis
Ryan Bader
Wand
Shlemenko
Mousasi
LIma
Paul Daley
Baby Slice
Lorenz Larkin
Rory
Dillon Danis
Fitch
Chandler
Bendo

cant put on compelling events on a regular basis. Many of these fighters are past their prime but they still have name recognition.

Bellator needs to mimic Strikeforce in terms of number of events per year. One four fight main card per month. That's it. 8 fighter x 12 events = 96 slots. Make the above guys fight 3-4 times a year.

0-2 in his last two fights Adam Piccolotti should not be on a main card.

 

[dfoster]

no more shamrock gracie shit, thats not even "legend" status fights, thats like senior senior citizen level, its embarrassing. ...
no more dada, royce, shamrock shit,

Lol, you cant possibly put that piece of shit dada in the same group with shamrock and gracie.

 

[2004 account]

There's no reason that a promotion that has

Rampage
Mitrione
Chael
Fedor
Roy Nelson
Mir
Crocop
Jake Hager aka Jack Swagger of WWE
King Mo
Phil Davis
Ryan Bader
Wand
Shlemenko
Mousasi
LIma
Paul Daley
Baby Slice
Lorenz Larkin
Rory
Dillon Danis
Fitch
Chandler
Bendo

cant put on compelling events on a regular basis. Many of these fighters are past their prime but they still have name recognition.

Bellator needs to mimic Strikeforce in terms of number of events per year. One four fight main card per month. That's it. 8 fighter x 12 events = 96 slots. Make the above guys fight 3-4 times a year.

0-2 in his last two fights Adam Piccolotti should not be on a main card.

Yea and they just signed Melvin Manhoeff and Roger Huerta as well

They have no excuse not to have at least 3 good marquee name vs name fights per card at this point. They need to beef cards up on some quality over quantity and promote Bellator as a first rate mma org

 

[sodomanaz]

Allow all fighters under Bellator to unionize.

Profit.