Why bellator fights are so boring

TorontoTO said:
It's literally this, all the bouts on the last Bellator event were entertaining, even Yoel vs. Davis was fun outside of the first round
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I agree Big John is an absolute buffoon I don’t know why he has a job as a commentator.
 
A lot of Bellator fights, especially on the prelims, are squash matches. I like those; don't consider them boring at all.
 
SokoudjouFanboy said:
Part of it is bias. I notice people tend to be preconditioned to hate on Bellator because of the sentiment on forums like this one and r/MMA. For example in the reddit thread people whined about the pacing over and over again when it literally had the same pacing (1 fight per 30 minutes of broadcast time, if a fight ends quickly they have to fill time) as the UFC card that just ended.

That being said it's not all bias. Part of it is the big, round cage. At 35 feet it's 5 feet bigger then the big UFC cage and 10 feet bigger then the smaller, Apex one. Part of it is the fact their roster is weighted towards less exciting fighters. The reason why that's the case is that UFC builds it's roster around excitement which means the divisions are very striker heavy. Bellator doesn't have this luxury so in order to collect world class talent sometimes they need to look at guys with less exciting styles. It's this reason amongst others I regularly encourage people to re-imagine what being the dominant brand in the space truly means.

I thought the card on Saturday was pretty decent myself, I don't really get why people are saying it sucked tbh. Yoel/Davis had 2 good rounds, Gracie should have been matched tougher but he got an over matched opponent out of there quickly, Bennett/Lara wasn't the highest level but was decent action, Georgi/Rogers had it's moments and Ben Parish had one of the biggest upsets of the year. Not card of the year, but not the worst either.
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The pacing complaints are really strange and I agree with the bias. The UFC just puts the same ads for the Nick Diaz, Kimbo, Sakuraba, or Lee Murray docs on repeat to fill time. Part of the problem is also that the talking heads in Bellator sucks generally.

Second point I agree, that's why I imagine MVP gets paid well since he is an entertaining and elite striker, someone UFC would have scooped up long ago. It's also telling that a Bellator washout like Chidi just got signed by the UFC.

And the last card was actually entertaining. None of the prime Bellator snoozefest fighters like Sabatello or Josh Hill, all the fights on the main card were fun and you had a great KO. I better not ever see the people who complain about Rogers/Georgi to be hyping up Islam Makhachev since his fights look exactly like that

Prelims, Adams vs. Khalid was boring. Polizzi vs. Neal was entertaining but I like grappling and that was a good bout in terms of that. The rest were regional debuts so either KOs, domination, or that gracie fight
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Yeah it was one of the better ones recently. Parrish Vs Edwards was a really good feel good moment I enjoyed a lot and even Davis Vs Yoel wasn't that bad.
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After the first round I was dreading the rest, but Davis brought the action in round 2 and 3.
 
TempleoftheDog said:
Right, so why bring up those two Romero fights in particular ?

Which was better Davis/Romero or Costa/Romero?

Unfortunately there are MANY fighters in the UFC that have no business being there. But at least they don’t feature 0-0
fighters all over their prelims. But then the UFC has 40ish cards to fill per year. What is Bellator’s excuse?
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It's no secret that every fighter wants to be in the UFC. Even if they get offered way less then what Bellator offers, they will take that 13K/13K contract for 4 bouts over a 50K per bout contract that Bellator offers. The top end talent guys Bellator has are either homegrown (ala Pico, McKee, Brennan, etc), boring for majority of people (ala Josh Hill, Mamedov, Phil Davis etc.), or they can't get into the UFC because of some reasons, ala US visa issues, Fedor hating Dana so his whole team isn't in the UFC, or Paul Daley getting kicked out for after bout punch
 
Bellator's top end fighters are pretty damn good. Guys like Patricio Pitbull, Douglas Lima, etc but their bottom end fighters are definitely lower tier than entry level UFC fighters. Watched DWCS this past week and Dana turned away a 6-0 dude that won his fight cuz he needs more experience and a more well rounded game. I'll be one of the 1st to argue that "UFC caliber" is not anywhere near where it used to be but there is still standards. Bellator will literally sign debuting pro fighters.
 
For a few reasons.
1. The skill level of the undercard fighters is not even close to the UFC. There are too many fighters with losing records or less than 5 fights total.
2. The majority of the BIG names in Bellator are older fighters who are at the end of their career. Do you think Machida was more motivated when he was winning/defending belts in the UFC or now when he knows he's at the end of his career?
The flip side of this is the other BIG names that are young and hungry usually put on very exciting fights (Mckee, Pitbull, Lima, etc.)
3. BAD BAD BAD matchmaking... Fedor vs Tim Johnson? Who cares. Phil Davis vs Romero or Bader? WHO CARES?!?!
 
Styles a lot of times is what makes fights.

Coker spends very little time planning out his events from a matchmaking stand point. So by default you may get a few more stinkers or at least a greater percentage to have a fight come off bad. No org is immune to some dud fights once in awhile.

P.S.: Undercard of Bellator events I'm not even going to get into that part.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Because Coker is stupid sometimes and signs guys like Danny Sabatello, Islam Mamedov, Rustam Khabilov, Sidney Outlaw, Josh Hill, Valentin Moldavsky, Fabian Edwards and Mike Shipman who are some of the most absurdly boring fighters in the world who routinely stink cards out.
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Those are some boring fighters that Bellator for sone reason signed but that is not the reason some fights are boring. Thats mainly due to poor matchmaking.
 
Human Bass said:
I have this weird feeling with Bellator that nothing really matter much. Maybe it is bias, since the UFC feels more important.
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This is the most important reason, IMO. People are not vested in Bellator so even when they have awesome fights tgey dont seem to trend as much as they do in the UFC.

To give you an example, Neiman Gracie had a great outing this past fight but because he will never fight for the WW title or against the perceived best in the world, then people wont care much. If the same fight had happened in the UFC, Neiman would have been trending in social media.
 
careto said:
This is the most important reason, IMO. People are not vested in Bellator so even when they have awesome fights tgey dont seem to trend as much as they do in the UFC.

To give you an example, Neiman Gracie had a great outing this past fight but because he will never fight for the WW title or against the perceived best in the world, then people wont care much. If the same fight had happened in the UFC, Neiman would have been trending in social media.
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Maybe, but he also wouldn't have been fighting someone as less skilled than him as Leminger in the UFC.
 
EndlessCritic said:
I missed the card live. What are the fights worth rewatching?
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Ben Parrish Christian Edwards, Neiman Gracie vs. Lemminger, I found Yoel vs. Davis entertaining after the first round. Rogers vs. Georgi was Rogers dominating Georgi and kept taking him down. That bout depends on if you like grappling
 
I enjoyed the card Saturday. Phil Davis looked pretty good. Some people will never be happy with Bellator.
 
In the end, we just care more about big names i guess. Same way with boxing undercards, force myself to watch it
 
Because coker is a moron who signs boring fighters and the few entertaining fighters he does have he matches them up with cans.

Havent you heard? Bellator is finished and Combate is the future.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
Maybe, but he also wouldn't have been fighting someone as less skilled than him as Leminger in the UFC.
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It depends on how much the UFC thinks they can market you, tbh. Paddy got a gimme fight because they see dollar signs all around him and Garry is getting a joke of a fight because they know they can market the shit out of him in Europe.

Also, I dont think Lemminger is a horrible opponent, he isnt some regional bum; he is better than Jordan Williams, for example. Neiman is just a horrible match up for him.
 
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