Would Tito winning the championship be bad for Bellator?

[combolock]

Obviously this is far from happening (and probably won't happen), but Tito said he wanted to retire on top in Bellator. So if Tito wins in Bellator would that make their Light Heavyweight Division weak having a way past their prime fighter coming in and winning the title? A fighter whose been losing for the last 8 or so years.

On the flip side: If he does fight for the title I believe it would help Bellator in the PPV buy department, however, as Tito coming all the way back to win a major title would be the perfect redemption.

Like I said, probably won't happen but still interesting to think about.

 

[scottthehero]

That'd be awesome Titos always in pretty good fights
It would say more about bellators lhw division because honestly I don't think that happening is too far off

 

[cOugAr_LIbRe_85]

a guy coming over in his late 30's, having gone 2-1-7 in his last ten fights in the UFC beats your best fighters at that weight and takes the title. that would not look good on Bellator at all!

I don't see it happening anyway, but if it did? it would de-legitimize the org for sure. Rampage, Mo, Newton etc would all handle tito at this point

 

[BisexualMMA]

I don't think people rank the likes of M'Pumbu / Newton and other Bellator LHW champs all that high.

May as well be someone with a name like Tito.

 

[foard32]

a guy coming over in his late 30's, having gone 2-7-1 in his last ten fights in the UFC

Fixed that for you. Agreed though, never going to happen, but if it did it would ruin their legitimacy.

 

[INTERL0PER]

It would be a killing blow to their credibility.

But, you know what? I think it'd do nothing but good things for their ratings/PPV sales. It'd become a story. His name catches the eye of casuals.

Fuck, if Ortiz became their champ, I'd probably pay more attention too just because of what a circus it'd be.


So, I dunno... it'd probably be bad.

 

[savemgs]

if Ortiz became their champ, I'd pay more attention

 

[HUGHPHUG]

it's a really shallow pool Bellator have right now at LHW. Basically you could have Tito/Rampage/Mo/Newton fighting a 4 man tournie every single season.
i really don't think even Vegh and Zayats (who i like as fighters) areaccepted as decent fighters, let alone TonTon

at least they have plenty of fat people to fill the HW fights if needed, but they are really scraping the barrel with the likes of Seth and Noe in the mix

 

[neverwas]

i thought he already won a title.and in keeping with his past great successes,it was by beating a middleweight.

 

[DezWalker]

It would be bad for their credibility but good for short-term business.

 

[Ghos]

It would be bad for their credibility but good for short-term business.

Hell, probably long term too. Casual fans don't care about credibility. Imagine how many people would tune in to watch Tito Ortiz or Rampage defend a title. I bet it would actually be awesome for them.

Now in hardcore circles, yeah, they lose face and of course the UFC light heavyweight division stomps all over it. But for 100,000 people to buy a PPV for any MMA organization not named UFC is pretty incredible.

 

[DezWalker]

Hell, probably long term too. Casual fans don't care about credibility. Imagine how many people would tune in to watch Tito Ortiz or Rampage defend a title. I bet it would actually be awesome for them.

Now in hardcore circles, yeah, they lose face and of course the UFC light heavyweight division stomps all over it. But for 100,000 people to buy a PPV for any MMA organization not named UFC is pretty incredible.

Our definitions of short-term are probably different. My thought in saying that was that it would be a good boost but once he lost the title, they'd be right back where they were before, only the title would have no credibility. I don't necessarily think it would hurt long-term and really, when you're talking about going up against UFC, any success is good success.

 

[CC27]

It would be bad for their credibility but good for short-term business.

This.

But at this point I think business > credibility.

 

[SynthMMA]

Obviously this is far from happening (and probably won't happen), but Tito said he wanted to retire on top in Bellator.

I think he said the same thing after beating Bader too.

 

[jamesgalb]

it's a really shallow pool Bellator have right now at LHW. Basically you could have Tito/Rampage/Mo/Newton fighting a 4 man tournie every single season.
i really don't think even Vegh and Zayats (who i like as fighters) areaccepted as decent fighters, let alone TonTon

at least they have plenty of fat people to fill the HW fights if needed, but they are really scraping the barrel with the likes of Seth and Noe in the mix

Their top LHWs are currently:
Rampage
Newton
Mo
Tito
McGeary
Lins
Vegh
Vassell

Below them I would put:
Beltran
Sokoudjou
Wallace
Anundson
Zayats
MPumbu
Eduardo
Sloan

And then the likes of Valavicius, Oezdimir, Heidlage, Mucitelli, Noe and Seth

Their LHW division has grown substantially... People just act like he fighters ranked #15-50 mean nothing in MMA and have no talent (or in your words, aren't even 'decent') :|

 

[SBC]

No, not at all. Casuals still LOVE Tito. If he could somehow manage to win the LHW championship, which I don't think will happen, they'd have a marque guy to build their division around. It wouldn't make Bellator look bad either. We've always known that they don't excel in the heavier weight divisions.

 

[Slongkong]

i don't see a real problem with it, won't happen though. They got a good LHW division right now, on its way to being really good.

 

[aker2703]

It would be bad for their credibility but good for short-term business.

agree. Also i appreciate your sig.... I didn't realise you cared :icon_twis

 

[Mikedh]

Not at all. Your average ticket buying person or television watcher doesn't contemplate weather or not Emmanuel Newton can compete with the UFC or whatever. They don't care about this like you guys all do. Tito in a Bellator title fight would be one of the more money fights they could do.

 

[Jukai]

I don't think it would be bad for their credibility like so many of you think. C'mon now. Everyone knows Bellator's LHW is 20 notches below the UFC.... why not get a big time fighter as their champ? I'd sure follow it more.