It’s clear that Bellator MMA is currently the number two promotion in mixed martial arts. However, with the bad press the organization has received in recent weeks, and with the emergence of the World Series of Fighting, the fight to hold that position has begun. And while the promotion does have a strong partnership with Spike TV, the first show of this season’s “Summer Series” and the debut of their show Fight Master did not garner the attention both parties had hoped, which could spell trouble for the organization.
According to reports, Bellator 96 brought in 486,000 viewers, while the Fight Master debut was seen by 432,000 viewers. Comparing these numbers to the 900,000 viewers who saw Bellator 95 in April and the average of 800,000 to tune in to the Season Eight cards, this is the kind of drop off that the organization could not have wanted to see.
The main event of the card that was featured on television included one of the promotion’s biggest names in “King Mo” Lawal, as he smashed Seth Petruzelli in quick fashion in the first round of this season’s Light Heavyweight Tournament. However, beyond Lawal, there weren’t a number of other names that would have grabbed the attention of MMA fans, let alone the mainstream media. Moving the show to Wednesday also may have been a factor, as the previous cards were featured on Thursdays. One other factor that should not be ignored is the power of the Stanley Cup Finals, which was in full swing on Wednesday night, and peaked at an audience of 8.192 million viewers.
Going forward it will be very interesting to see what type of viewership figures the next Bellator card is able to generate. Bellator 97 is set for July 31st and will feature two champions and two tournament finals. Michael Chandler and Ben Askren will defend their respective lightweight and welterweight titles, while Lawal will face Jacob Noe in the light heavyweight finals, and Vitaly Minakov and Ryan Martinez will meet in the heavyweight finals. To strengthen the main card on Spike TV, Patricio Freire will also compete. Outside of the heavyweights, each of these matchups features a fighter with a decent following within the sport, and the organization should see a bump in ratings.
Generally speaking, the summer is a slow season for sports, as the only mainstream professional sport in action is major league baseball. Mixed martial arts as a whole should be able to take advantage of this opportunity, and while the UFC does put together important cards during this time of year, Bellator still needs to grow in this area.
Perhaps the fact that Bellator 96 couldn’t have a stacked card from top to bottom affected promotion, but overall the organization needs to improve its efforts in this area — especially moving to a new night, which has the potential to lead to a loss of viewers just due to a lack of knowledge. We’ve seen Bellator do a fantastic job with pushing its highlights, but building up the excitement about upcoming cards is still an area where the organization needs improvement.
Changes to the Summer Series tournament format have helped, as they have moved to featuring four fighters instead of eight. And with names such as Quinton Jackson moving over to Bellator, this will open up more card space to have these kinds of attention-drawing fighters compete in “one-off” style fights when needed. As more mainstream fighters become available, Bellator should begin to revisit its policies regarding which athletes it shows interest in signing, especially when some of these fighters can help build ratings.
The mixed martial arts arena has become more competitive during the last few months, and if Bellator intends to maintain its position, it will have to improve upon the ratings that have started off its “summer series.” Only time will tell if that happens.
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Bellator 96 took place on June 19, 2013 at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
Click the stars to rate how good you think Bellator 96 was.
Bellator 97 will take place on July 31, 2013 at the Santa Ana Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Click the stars to rate how good you think Bellator 97 will be.
