As a desperate MMA fan who has loved the sport for years, I’m standing at the top of the highest mountain in the world, screaming at the executives of Bellator for them to no longer put their show on Saturday. Ok, so maybe I’m not, but seriously they need to do all that they can to move the show to Thursdays, Tuesdays, or even Sundays when they move to Spike TV, if not sooner. Bellator 58 was a great card, but unfortunately many fight fans didn’t see due to the elephant in the room.
Competition is a great catalyst for product development. We see it every day in sports, as each team competes for the best athletes to ensure that its organization places the best team available on the field. The same can be said for mixed martial arts, as the sport continues to grow and reach heights that were unimaginable a few years ago. And while the undeniable giant in the industry is the UFC, the emergence of Bellator will play an important role in how much this sport grows in 2012 and beyond.
Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler fought a four-round title fight that lived up to the expectations that were brought by each man into the cage. Alvarez was a long-reigning champion who was known for being downright tough, and finding ways to break all of his opponents. Chandler is an up and coming wrestler turned fighter who had won the season 4 lightweight tournament. Even though many people had high hopes for the fight, I’m willing to bet that few expected to walk away with a legit fight of the year contender on their hands. And yet, in the eyes of a few fans, that wasn’t even the best fight on the card!
Opinions aside, it’s undeniable that Bellator 58 was an exciting MMA show. But who knew? Locked away on MTV 2, and in the shadow of UFC 139, this show did not get the media coverage it deserved before and after the event. It was pushed to the side like an untelevised undercard fight. With Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua putting on an epic fight a mere 30 minutes later, this main event, and the card it carried was left to suffer the results.
But imagine if this event was on Thursday instead of Saturday? Not only would stars such as Alvarez, Chandler, Hector Lombard, and Marlon Sandro have had their moments in the light; this event would have created a buzz of excitement around the upcoming UFC event. Moving Bellator to a strong weekday night would help develop the fan base that the organization needs to continue growing in the right direction, a direction that Bellator needs to remove itself from the headlock that the UFC currently has on it.
We all know that television executives are the people who decide what will air on television, and at what time. Even still, Bellator executives need to do all they can, to ensure that its show gets solid placement as soon as possible, but definitely once it moves to Spike. Being placed in the right timeslot will be pivotal in determining how much success the organization has in the long run.
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