Posted by Dave Walsh on 20th October 2009
Finally, Bellator has not only an English language home, but one that is willing to air their shows live on prime time. Fox Sports Net has stepped up to the plate to air live Bellator action, with NBC airing taped highlights early Sunday mornings. If you saw last season, you know that this is awesome, if you missed last season, you missed out.
The upstart MMA promotion Bellator Fighting Championships has announced that it will be back in 2010, with shows airing live on Thursday nights on FOX Sports Net. Taped highlight packages will air in the wee hours of Sunday mornings on NBC, and Bellator has also reached an agreement with Telemundo for Spanish-language distribution.
“Since our launch earlier this year, there has been an overwhelming demand from MMA fans nationwide for us to broadcast our events live and through a widely available platform,” Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney said in a statement. “We are thrilled to have signed this groundbreaking agreement with FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo, which will bring our unique and exciting brand of tournament-based MMA events to a dramatically expanded audience of both English- and Spanish-speaking fans.”
Bellator will continue its tournament format, so at the end of each season it will crown new tournament champions, just as it did in its first season with Joe Soto, Eddie Alvarez, Hector Lombard and Lyman Good. The first event of Bellator’s second season will air live in prime time on Thursday, April 8, 2010 on Fox Sports Net. The second season will run for 12 straight weeks, and then Season 3 is scheduled to begin on August 12, also running for 12 straight weeks.
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Posted by Dave Walsh on 25th June 2009
When the buzz started over Bellator Fighting Championships it all seemed sort of like a bad joke. A promotion run by businessman Bjorn Rebney and Hollywood producer Brad Epstein being broadcast on ESPN Deportes in Spanish that was buying up younger talent, notably Hispanic and relatively fresh fighters into exclusive contracts it seemed doomed from the start. First of all, the concept of a fight company running in Spanish on a premium cable Hispanic leg of ESPN seemed strange. The demographics that the UFC pulls in tends to be the 18 - 34 white male demographic, not the 18 - 34 Hispanic demographic. Building a new promotion from the start with no name value, no major hype and no major players seemed like something we’d be joking about right now after a few failed shows; we aren’t actually laughing right now, though.
Bellator just finished up their first successful season, crowning champions and running some extremely fun cards in front of some extremely energetic crowds and apparently drawing above 1.2 ratings on the obscure ESPN Deportes. Crowning Joe Soto at 145lbs, Eddie Alvarez at 155lbs, Lyman Good at 170lbs and Hector Lombard at 185lbs Bellator as quickly established that they have quality fighters and are already creating stars. The big winners in the initial season of Bellator were easily Eddie Alvarez and Hector Lombard, whose domination through their respective divisions have made them the posterboys for Bellator over the course of the first season. On top of that, they have made some decent money. Tournament wins were $25,000, winning the tournament netted $125,000. While this isn’t Rampage or Chuck money, for young fighters whose name value isn’t that of your average UFC fighter, this money is incredible in a world where your average TUF contestant signs a contract for $8,000 to show and an additional $8,000 to win.
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