Reply With QuoteAnd next year: UFC buys Bellator.Originally Posted by Tuff_enuff_Toft
People used to say the same thing about Pride....they are backed up by gangsters. Millions!
Bellator are backed by BLING, that is the difference, that is why you don't get Dana bashing Bellator, he knows they have the ability to sink him and the UFC clowns who think they run the show... Now they come up against a dose of reality.
Check out Dana in interviews, he gets nervous when Bellator are mentioned, he always bashed everyone else, but he knows Bellator can bring it.
Also, there is probably a lot of people who hate Dana and his attitude, wouldn't be surprised if Spike are leading the charge....
And next year: UFC buys Bellator.
People used to say the same thing about Pride....they are backed up by gangsters. Millions!
I knew something was going on when I didn't see Randy broadcasting on Fox
To be fair, I don't think Bellator is making competing with the UFC it's goal. To do that, Viacom would have to spend tens of millions per year. And I don't see them doing it. Folks keep talking about Viacom's deep pockets, but they are a business with many channels and each has a budget. They are not going to go crazy on this.
Bellator is looking to create it's own audience and that will take a lot of time and energy. Before they go crazy with money, they have to establish a paying audience. Look at TNA, they don't make money at all. The PPVs do next to nothing and house shows break even. Bellator is not going to follow them and spend tons of money on names from the past. And unless they build a strong PPV base, they can't afford the big name fighters of today. Plus, everyone has seen tens of millions disappear into Affliction, IFL, EliteXC, WFA and Bodog (Ok, Bodog and the WFA only blew millions, not tens of millions). Strikeforce only struggled once they started signing big contracts.
No, Bellator will continue to carefully move forward, spending money when they feel it makes sense. Spike has a grudge with the UFC and wants to poke at them, but Bjorn is smarter than that. And Spike still has to stay within the budget that Viacom gives it. It is Spike, an arm of Vaicom, that is backing Bellator, not Viacom as a whole.
This deal, while likely nice for Randy, almost certainly is not forking out huge bucks to Couture. It is something that makes fiscal sense for the company.
No one thinks Viacom is going to put all its eggs in one basket. What's being said is
Bellator isn't backed by someone like Gary Shaw... Suspect.
Here's a jimmy joke about your momma that you might not like...
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=0xS9h...%3D0xS9hvs5F7s
More importantly, it is not being run by someone like Shaw.
Bjorn appears to have a good head on his shoulders and is not going to get over anxious and start throwing around money he does not have. Bellator has done a great job so far in terms of delivering a quality product and not breaking the bank in the process.
isn't bjorn a lawyer?
Everybody know my gamey. Everytimey. I go for knockouty or submission.
Thank you for my fuzz.
Did the UFC end up signing his kid? That would be a little awkward.
I actually am kind of glad to get him out of the UFC limelight. I really like Randy, he was an awesome fighter and a good coach on TUF...that being said, I can't stand to hear him in the Monday night football style panel they have on the Fox and FX events. He is terrible there, about as bad as he was on the Expendables (notice all the dialogue he got in #2 lol). This is one of those weird signings that makes them look like they are stepping up, but really I think it will hurt. I bet they try and sign Rampage to be the other coach. Unfortunatly, trying to emulate the UFC is what kills the competition, they are way better off trying to be their own brand and sadly they are trying to be UFC now which is a bad sign.
I agree we will see UFC buy Bellator at some point, in a year or two when Bellator hits that threshold of higher contracts without a lot of extra revenue. Or maybe they partner? I think Bellators tourny style events would be great replacements for TUF in the future (if not now). Truly I think their reality show will sink them down a bit though as will matching UFC's offer with Alvarez, they should have let him go and stuck with the up and comers / rejects of the ufc.
Keep dreaming.
Viacom didn't become Viacom by acting like Affliction and wasting the money the earned being good at what they do and blowing it trying to compete with the UFC. They are filling programing on Spike that they think can deliver a certain demographic when paired with TNA Wrestling.
This has ever been their strategy. When you lose the big player in the market (UFC/WWE), get a secondary player (TNA / Bellator), and take what you can get. That and producing inexpensive crap like "1000 ways to die".
What Viacom will not do is exactly what Zuffa did do, and lose millions of dollars year over year to hopefully make a profit one day.
A Black Belt is just a White Belt who didn't quit.
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