WSOF is on NBC and NBC Sports. I don't think they're going under.
WSOF is doing a lot of similar moves to that of ProElite back in the day. Their promotion, EliteXC, had deals with Showtime and CBS and still managed to fold. They had bigger names as well. They also purchased 3 or 4 other promotions before being folded.
For what? There is no value in WSOF aside from Moraes and Gaethje. Who else is there that's worth money to obtain their contracts?? With ELITE XC purchase you had Lawler, Diaz etc. WSOF has nothing to offer.
I wouldn't say nothing, but nothing to go crazy over. EliteXC had a lot of big stars, like Gina Carano and Kimbo Slice. There was a lot of buzz created with just those two alone, but they had a lot of good fights with names, that had value. That said, the EliteXC purchase happened due to a domino of events, mainly due to Frank Shamrock signing exclusive contracts with two promotions, which led to the co-promotions and that led to an eventual purchase. They also got a good TV deal out of it, but the 50% ownership group backing out, really was the demise of Strikeforce. If only Viacom would have purchased Strikeforce, things would be a lot more interesting in the MMA landscape.
Yeah, they could put some great fights together with the WSOF fighters.
They can still put on great fights together, without having to purchase the promotion. Would it be easier to purchase them and then co-promote? Of course. Is it worth it? I don't know, but I would lean towards no. It's not like these fighters in WSOF have been growing for years. All the stars they have, all could have been signed by Bellator as well. Bellator can easily go about signing talent and developing them. For exciting bouts, they can go about co-promotion or simply share fighters here and there with other promotions.
If anything, WSOF was once upon a time willing to co-promote with Bellator and I still think they would be, but Coker would only do so, if they had the upper hand and they can simply wait it out with WSOF. If WSOF does get desperate, they will definitely make it known and they may be very close to that point now, with all the talk about PPV. If the NBC deals were so sweet, they wouldn't even consider PPV at this point, but that raises some red flags for me. Time will tell of course.