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After 15 years and over 300 events, Bellator MMA is no more. There were many times throughout its history that Bellator was presumed dead, but it survived until the next rumor of pending demise, which it also survived. Now, though, the doors are finally closing. Not because of grossly incompetent mismanagement, as many predicted, but simply because Showtime is pulling out of combat sports and Paramount executives don’t see enough return on investment on the Bellator asset portfolio. In a fitting end, Bellator leaves behind an incomplete Grand Prix, one concussed Pitbull Brother, a stillborn men’s Flyweight division, and several champions who would have already vacated their titles months ago if they had any kind of future in a new weight class. The Devil is a Curly-Haired gently caress from Missouri  Bellator began humbly in 2009, offering weekly shows as part of The Toughest Tournament in Sports. Back before we knew his dad was a deranged Winnebago Man or that he allegedly murdered his rivals’ dogs, Bjorn Rebney helmed the good ship Bellator because North American MMA organizations require a bald white guy to run the show. Things were supposed to be simple. In Bellator, title shots were earned at the conclusion of a season-long tournament. Of course, things quickly fell apart when people realized that the champions then had to wait for the conclusion of the next tournament to determine a title challenger, and not all divisions had a tournament every season. Or, they could take a non-title bout against someone who didn’t make the tournament to keep busy and hope they won. If they lost, well that meant the opponent would be rewarded for beating the champ by uh, getting placed into the upcoming tournament and maybe they win out, setting up a long awaited rematch, or, maybe they don’t, making the whole thing really frustrating and pointless. Bellator is Latin for “unresolved conflicts” Those early days of Bellator were anchored by the likes of Lyman Good, Hector Lombard, and Eddie Alvarez, two impressive muscle men and one JMMA stalwart. But the real stars were coming in seasons two and three from the frigid midwest. Undefeated wrestlers had descended upon Bellator, with heavyweight Cole Konrad and welterweight Ben Askren grinding their way to tournament and ultimately, championship victories. Were they fun to watch fight? Not really, especially in tournament fights where The Wrestler’s Friend, elbows to the head, were illegal. Were they charismatic? Absolutely not, they were two bags of milk made flesh (Skim for Ben, full-fat butter for Cole). Did broke-brained lunatics such as myself try to shoehorn Askren and Konrad into the conversation of guys not in the UFC that could totally compete and even dominate the title picture if only cowardly Dana would sign them? Look, we aren’t here to talk about my past, this is about Bellator. Askren, to his credit, was active, defending the title consistently against kickboxers who had never heard of the eldritch art of the Take Him Down. Sadly, through no fault of his own, Konrad ended up sitting on the couch a lot. If the UFC heavyweight title scene has been marred by a foul witch’s curse, Bellator’s heavyweight division has always been plagued by gremlin infestation. Things still get screwed up, but it’s usually in really dumb ways, as chronicled beautifully by Carl in The Tragedy of Trashweight: Part Two. Bellator had another big time undefeated wrestler show up in those early days. Megumi Fujii left the friendly confines of Pancrase to take part in the inaugural Women’s Strawweight tournament in season three. Mega Megu had won her first 22 fights, mostly by way of armbar, but suffered defeat in the finals by split decision to Zoila Frausto Gurgel. Bellator capitalized on Gurgel’s success at defeating the undefeated by having her take three non-title bouts and deactivating the division when she jumped ship to Invicta, leaving the company a men’s only organization for the next half dozen years. Bellator is Latin for “wasted potential”. I’m Pitbull Brother Number One and This is My Pitbull Brother, Pitbull Brother Number Two  As the calendar flipped over to the 2010s, Bellator dipped further into the international market. There were spinning Russians, gangly Britishes, and a plethora of Brazilians ready to compete. The Freire brothers, Patricio and Patricky, quickly emerged as the top of this new crop of South American talent. The Brothers Pitbull quickly exploded on the scene, making multiple appearances in tournament finals. Granted, only Patricio was winning tournaments and titles, but Patricky was still a solid, upper-level type fighter on the roster. Thanks to guys like Patricio, Pat Curran, and Daniel Straus at Featherweight, plus Eddie Alvarez, Michael Chandler, and Will Brooks at Lightweight, the early 2010s was a great time for Bellator’s premier violenceweight divisions. Chandler and Alvarez put on a Fight of the Year contender that saw Chandler take the Lightweight belt by fourth round submission. Because of the whole “title shots are earned” tagline, Alvarez and Chandler were kept apart for two years while Eddie’s contract disputes and lawsuits were being handled. Then, because cash does in fact rule everything around me, Chandler and Alvarez met without Eddie needing to enter, let alone win, a season tournament. Bellator is Latin for “the rules only hold for as long as they don’t inconvenience things.” Unfortunately, while the smaller guys were having bangers, the larger divisions were going through a bit of turmoil. Cole Konrad retired after his only title defense to enter the much more lucrative and much less concussion-prone world of selling his beloved milks. Down at Middleweight, Hector Lombard, who had been empowered by the Cuban national judo team’s finest chemical concoctions, left Bellator for the UFC in 2012, vacating the 185 lb title. Ben Askren, after racking up four defenses and over 1100 days as champ, left for ONE Championship in 2013, dropping the Welterweight belt in the trash on his way out the door. After regaining the Lightweight belt from Chandler in the much anticipated rematch, Eddie Alvarez promptly vacated it and left for the more lucrative shores of the UFC. Bellator is Latin for “Aw, come on. At least do the pro wrestling thing and drop the title on your way out the door. Fine, whatever, we’ve got tournament winners, they’re already title contenders.” Can I Interest You in Some Gently-Used UFC Dregs?  With so many Bellator champions jumping ship to the UFC, it was only fitting that Bellator got some former UFC fighters to bolster their ranks. While there were mid-level guys like Ben Saunders and Seth Petruzelli sprinkled throughout Bellator’s early days, big names hadn’t made the jump, at least not yet. Rory MacDonald, Benson Henderson, Rampage Jackson and more started showing up in the mid-2010s. Strangely, this was after Bjorn Rebney and the Season Tournament format were both eliminated. Now, Surf Ninja’s very own Scott Coker, the man who answers the bizarre question “What if Bobby Hill became a real flesh boy and then used the Zoltar machine from Big?” was put in charge of Bellator. With him came the sweeping change of turning Bellator into just a regular MMA company. No more weekly shows, no more seasons. Just an event roughly once a month, and instead of like three local feature bouts on the prelims, they ballooned to sometimes double digit affairs. The Bellator prelims got so over saturated, they had to hold some bouts back for after the main card and they called them “postlims”. The former UFC cast-offs were a mixed bag. Guys with a bit of tread still on the tires, like Rory MacDonald, Phil Davis, and Gegard Mousasi, managed to win titles in Bellator that eluded them in the UFC. Benson Henderson made a good showing, but he could never quite reach the same level of success, while completely shopworn fighters like Lyoto Machida, Chael Sonnen, and Rampage Jackson mostly showed up to collect a check and embarrass themselves. Bellator is Latin for “hey, remember that guy? He’s here now, and fatter than ever!” Now Something for the Ladies  In the late 2010s, Bellator finally decided to bring back women’s MMA, introducing the Featherweight and Flyweight divisions. Julia Budd captured the 145 lb belt, while Ilima-Lei Macfarlane took home 125 lb gold, both in 2017. To the company’s credit, Bellator’s Women’s Featherweight division felt like a real thing, with multiple fights per year and contenders that got established by winning fights. What a crazy idea for a division! Of course, it was hampered a bit by the very nature of Women’s Featherweight, which has roughly 3 good fighters globally, and at the time, they were all in the UFC. Women’s Flyweight was a bit better. Ilima-Lei cracked open the Hawaiian market for Bellator, and while she racked up four defenses, the other 125-ers managed to showcase their skills without being immediately rushed to title fights. Both champs lost to Brazilian opposition in 2020, Macfarlane falling to Juliana Velasquez, while Budd lost to one of those aforementioned 3 actually good Featherweights, Cris Cyborg. Cyborg has kept busy, accumulating 5 defenses while also jaunting off to sporadic boxing appearances and attempting to rally a coup in Brazil. Velazquez, a solid fighter with absolutely zero flash, looked good enough to hold on to the belt for a long time, but she lost in her second defense to a fighter who couldn’t quite capture UFC gold in two tries, Liz Carmouche. Liz has since defended the belt thrice, all by stoppage, mostly recently kicking former champ and close friend Ilima-Lei’s leg to smithereens. Bellator is Latin for “We actually have rankings for Women’s Featherweight.” Get These Season Tournaments Out of Here! Now Bring in These Grand Prix Tournaments!  With the moderate success of former UFC fighters, plus some Strikeforce guys like King Mo, Scott Coker became emboldened, which is never a good sign. He starts dreaming too big, and he only has two moves: Grand Prix and Sign Fedor. Like Strikeforce, he couldn’t decide and went with both. As mentioned previously, the Heavyweight title in Bellator wasn’t so much cursed as simply mercy to the whims of malevolent trickster gremlins. After Vitaly Minakov remained in Russia for all of 2015, he was stripped of the title in 2016. There it remained vacant for two years before Coker announced the Heavyweight Grand Prix that would crown a new champ at the finale in 2019. For all that time in between, Bellator heavyweights were in the world famous Circlegon, slopping it up with no light at the end of the tunnel. But finally, there was hope. Eight Big Ol Beef Boys, except only four were lifelong Heavyweights. Three guys were 205-ers and Chael Sonnen, a Middleweight, was also there for some reason. Still, though, a tournament! With a shiny title waiting for the winner! As for the second part of the Scott Coker playbook: Sign Fedor. That technically happened before the Grand Prix started. For whatever reason, Coker decided to exhume the corpse of Fedor, a man who had, a year prior, gone blood-and-guts with Fabio Maldonado, nearly getting finished about three times in the first round and only got saved by way of horrendous Russian refereeing and only won by dint of corrupt judging. Scott couldn’t stay away from his precious Stary Oskol boy, and got him out of the coffin, brushed the worms off, and got him into a nice suit to show off The Last Emperor for one final run, like he was a Victorian-era parent, posing his dead child for a post mortem baby photo. Unfortunately for Coker’s best-laid plans, Matt Mitrione stumbled into the room and pantsed Fedor. Then, Ryan Bader punched him in his exposed dick (Twice). Say cheese, idiot! Bellator is Latin for “At least Rampage was considerate enough to bulk to 265 for the tournament.” The Grand Prixes were another Scotty Cokes Mixed Bag Special. There were some solid fights, but the tournaments all took way too long to complete. When Bellator ran weekly shows, the fights in a tournament happened basically once a month. While that isn’t great for the fighters in terms of constantly being in camp and on weight, it did mean things wrapped up in a timely fashion. The Grand Prixes all took at least 12 months to complete, with several lasting two years due to injuries and other delays. Or you have a situation like the Featherweight Grand Prix that started in 2019, took most of 2020 off due to the pandemic and concluded in 2021 with AJ McKee submitting Patricio Pitbull. Then 2022 saw an immediate rematch of the finals, with Patricio taking back the title by decision. So what was the point of the entire Grand Prix if you just run it back to get the desired result? Sure, there wasn’t a big trophy or check to present the winner, and confetti didn’t fall from the rafters, but it felt like it invalidated the whole tournament to just call do-over. It wasn’t even a controversial finish. McKee clipped Patricio and snatched a guillotine. There wasn’t a missed eye poke or groin shot or headbutt, and they just said “nah, mulligan”. Bellator is Latin for “it all comes back to tournaments.” Are We All Caught Up, Now? Yeah, mostly. This was kind of a microscopic look at some of the bigger items that I felt sort of defined Bellator throughout the years. A fair amount got skipped over, but it’s not super necessary to tell the story of every seasonal tournament winner or title holder to give a fairly ok look at Bellator’s history. Am I sad I couldn’t find a way to talk about Some Dudes I really liked back in the day, like Frodo Khasbulaev, Alexander Shlemenko, and David “Caveman” Rickels? Absolutely, but in the grand scheme, they were the epitome of Some Dude - fun to watch, but ultimately unimportant to the narrative. If Bellator was a going concern for 2024 and beyond, what would things probably look like? Vadim Nemkov is probably ditching the Light Heavyweight title to get revenge on Ryan Bader at Heavyweight on behalf of Nemkov’s mentor, Fedor. The men’s Flyweight division was supposed to happen at various points in time, mostly by having Kyoji Horiguchi fight literally anyone, but when the fight actually happened, an accidental eye poke ended the bout 25 seconds in. Cyborg is content to punch out whatever random woman gets put in front of her every six months, and that would probably continue until the end of time. Liz Carmouch is looking about as good as ever, but she’s 39 and has already hit 13 years as a pro. That being said, Bellator’s got some solid champs. Patchy Mix and Usman Nurmagomedov (when he isn’t guzzling undisclosed but not a big deal banned substances) are very good fighters, as showcased in their impressive Grand Prix runs. Johnny Eblen is just as Middleweight-y as Sean Strickland, if not more so, and when he isn’t jumping weight divisions drastically in a month’s time, Patricio Pitbull is as good as it gets, among 145 lb guys not named Alexander Volkanovski. Bellator will allegedly live on as a separate promotional arm of PFL, with Bellator title holders putting their belts on the line in 2024 against PFL’s 2023 tournament winners. It’s unclear what the divisions that PFL doesn’t promote are going to do, which is Middleweight, Bantamweight, and Women’s Flyweight. Get ready for one (1) weird showcase fight in those divisions before PFL realizes it’s too complicated and just absorbs the marketable fighters and casts the rest to the wind. Or, I don’t know, have Jake Paul fight James Gallagaher to try and entice Conor McGregor into doing something foolish (100% Success Rate) for clout or buyrates or viewer engagement or whatever gets tracked and turned into money. Bellator is Latin for “wait, are you actually getting a little misty-eyed over this nostalgia? Lol, lmao.” Bellator’s Greatest Moments Wow, that was a lot of history for Bellator! Maybe it was more of an autopsy than a eulogy. If you made it this far, congratulations, that’s more of my own writing than I can stomach in one sitting. As a reward, here are some of my favorite all-time Bellator moments. I could have kept going, getting increasingly more niche, but then this list would flip around to being a punishment to get through. The Bellator Special  Sometimes a fighter will have a signature move. Dan Henderson’s H-Bomb, Cody’s McKenzietine, Rashad Evans hitting a double leg, landing in side control and instantly putting himself in half guard. These moves are iconic and for fans, it’s the first thing they think of when that fighter is mentioned. It’s much rarer for an organization to have a go-to technique, but early era Bellator had the inverted triangle. Toby Imada and Richard Hale both won tournament bouts by the same submission. That isn’t a huge amount, but it’s still pretty weird that a rarely seen submission happened twice in the same organization within two years. Also, it looks really cool. The Heavyweight Saga https://i.imgur.com/WMBf5Pf.mp4 In 2011, Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos met in the finals of the season five Heavyweight tournament. Barely one minute into the first round, Santos booted Prindle directly in the taint and bunghole, rendering the bout a No Contest as Prindle was unable to continue fighting, for some reason (Presumably something to do with his newly created vaginal opening). A rematch was set for March of the next year. That bout was pushed back a week after Prindle came down with flu-like symptoms. The rescheduled rematch was called off after Santos missed the 265 lb limit by a dozen pounds. Prindle was declared the winner of the tournament and was awarded an opportunity to get smothered by Cole Konrad. Things weren’t over between “The American Soldier” and “Big Monster”. They were set to meet again in the season seven quarterfinals. With just 6 seconds remaining in the first round, Prindle dropped a Paul Bunyan-sized ax kick on Santos’s groin, obliterating the Brazilian’s nards. God bless heavyweights, first among us all. Fractured Skull, I Choose You!  MIchael “Venom” Page’s Bellator career was a weird one. He came in undefeated and for a long time he remained that way, by virtue of never fighting anyone good. He was a flashy striker who knocked out most of his opponents, but it took him 5 years and 8 wins before he even began the process of getting close to a title fight by being entered in the Welterweight Grand Prix. This moment was three years prior. MVP faced Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, a man 10 years older than Page, and had just been knocked out two months prior. So what happened in this one? MVP threw a flying knee so forcefully that it shattered Cyborg’s skull, and while Santos did his best to keep his brains from escaping his head hole, Page rolled a toy Pokeball at him in celebration. NSane1 Revealed?!?  In 2012, after a loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 153, Stephan Bonnar retired from active MMA competition. Because no MMA retirements ever last, Bonnar returned in 2016, signing with Bellator. Tito Ortiz had also signed with Bellator in 2014 following a final bout in the UFC in 2012. These titans of the sport were on a collision course that would take an insane turn. At Bellator 123, Bonnar entered the cage to announce the upcoming bout with Ortiz. But Stephan wasn’t alone. He had brought with him a figure from Tito’s past, a former friend that Ortiz had screwed over, just as he’d done to all his other friends and training partners. The anticipation rose as the man removed his mask. By god, he had on another mask! Everyone was on the edge of their seat as the second mask was slowly removed as well. Good lord, it was Justin “NSane1” McCully! Wait, where are you all going? Top 10 Anime Betrayal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4DxW6CeO5Y In 2017, Michael Chandler defended the Lightweight title against undefeated Brent Primus. Early in the bout, Primus landed some calf kicks that gave Chandler a bad case of dropfoot, making the champ unable to continue as he stumbled around the cage. With the fight called, Chandler attempted to gain some respite on the stool, but a member of the New York Athletic Commission pulled the stool away right as he sat down, making him fall over. It was pretty funny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdP0AzWbUeA As a bonus, here’s the time Chandler Jib-Jab'd himself into a Purge video calling for a rematch with Primus. This is real weird, Mike! Double Down https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NEmKcatUd7s At Bellator’s big PPV, “Bellator NYC”, Matt Mitrione faced Fedor Emelianenko in “The Last Emperor’s” promotional debut. About a minute into the bout, both men connected with solid punches, sending both men down to the canvas. Would Fedor’s return to the US in 6 years end with a double knockout? Sadly, no. Both men recovered, but Mitrione got up quicker and ended the bout with a TKO inside of 80 seconds. The Greatest Fight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HziG9DBfJf0 Eddie Alvarez was literally at Bellator 1. He was 6-0 in the company, the inaugural Lightweight champion, and at Bellator 58, he was making his second title defense against Michael Chandler. Chandler was 8-0 as a pro, 4-0 in Bellator, a young kid compared to the seasoned 22-2 Alvarez. Chandler came storming out, nearly finishing Alvarez a couple of times in the first round. Alvarez, who as we all know, gets dropped in every fight (Hey, Ed, just a keyboard warrior’s opinion, but maybe shore up the defense a bit if that’s one of the first things people say about your fight career), answered back with devastating body shots that nearly finished Chandler. The fight was incredibly back and forth and full of action all the way to Chandler’s fourth round submission victory. What a Letdown  In 2014, at just 18 years old, Aaron Pico, one of the best high school wrestlers in the country, signed with Bellator. He would forgo collegiate athletics to focus on the Olympics and then become a mixed martial artist. He just missed the cut for the 2016 Rio Games, so he turned his full attention to MMA. He’d get mentioned or show up sporadically to talk about his training and how he was getting ready for his debut, which was surely coming soon. This went on as other blue chip prospects, most notably the Fab Four of Tyrel Fortune, Ed Ruth, Jarod Trice, and Joey Davis, all with similar wrestling background and no pro fight experience, made their pro debuts much sooner than Pico, and with much less fanfare. Finally, three years after his signing was announced, Pico made his pro debut at Bellator NYC, on the main card, above two title fights. He was submitted in 24 seconds by Zach Freeman, a guy nobody had ever heard of. The Oldest, Saddest Men  For completely unknown reasons, Bellator booked Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie for a third bout in 2016, 23 years after their first meeting in 1993, but a mere 21 years after their second bout in 1995 that went to a draw. Despite Ken being in his 50s and Royce just shy at a spry 49, the Texas Athletic Commission saw fit to sanction the disaster. Royce won just past the two minute mark after he hit Ken with a knee to the groin that didn’t get called and followed up with punches. Ken, to his credit, protested the stoppage. Ken, to his detriment, failed the drug test with various steroids, opiods, and a sky-high T/E ratio of 12.4:1. The Other Actual Greatest Fight  The co-main event of Gracie vs Shamrock III was something Bellator called the World Street Fighting Championships as Kimbo Slice faced off against Dada5000, the other Miami-Dade County man who had the brilliant idea of filming backyard brawls and putting it on the internet. Despite, or perhaps because of the similar backgrounds, they had intense childhood beef that could only be contained by the World Famous Bellator Circlegon! For all of Kimbo’s lack of traditional MMA skills, Dada was even less experienced, having just two MMA bouts on his record against complete nobodies back in 2010 and 2011. Early in the fight, like, minute three, both men gassed horrendously, slowing any potential offensive output to a standstill. In the third round, Kimbo landed a few booping punches that were enough to send Dada5000 reeling to the canvas for an exhaustion-based TKO. Post-fight, Dada was sent to the hospital for cardiac arrest and kidney failure, while Kimbo pissed hot for steroids. Dada managed to recover, but Texas barred him from ever being sanctioned for a combat sport ever again. Sadly, Kimbo passed away a few months later.
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Dec 1, 2023 00:01
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 20:37 |
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i want to live in the world where Gracie/Shamrock led to the 'it's okay for old men to do steroids' division Shamrock clearly dreamt about edit: i mean aside from the 'steroids will make your heart explode' part obviously
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Dec 1, 2023 00:07
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Prindle Santos will live on in my heart forever as perhaps the single finest example of Heavyweight MMA, maybe #2 after Mark Hunt & Ben Rothwell going the distance while barely able to breathe in Colorado. What an epic series of fights.
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Dec 1, 2023 00:25
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This is beautiful work and the tribute Bellator deserves. I was biting my nails waiting for Prindle/Santos to get its moment in the sun and I was not disappointed.
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Dec 1, 2023 01:02
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I'm so happy that we now have footage of both Prindle-Santos fights together. For years I had people showing me Prindle-Santos II and I was like "you realize that's only 25% of why that's funny right - you're missing 75% of the comedy by only showing that one clip, you filthy Bella-casual." Also let it not be forgotten that at the post-fight presser Royce admitted to intentionally bagging Ken.
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Dec 1, 2023 01:10
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i got to the part headed by the ufc washouts and thought "oh, thats about where i checked out of bellator" and then got to the shamrock/royce match and i remember for sure watching that match live for i was laughing and laughing thinking no MMA match would ever surpass a geriatric shamrock getting punted in the nards by royce and losing from nut kick tko, but it was made even better when i learned ken probably didn't have testicles larger than a watermelon seed after popping that hot. great write-up, lobmob!
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Dec 1, 2023 01:53
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gg LobMob for having the courage to admit to being a former Askren Truther
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Dec 1, 2023 01:57
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RIP bellator, great write up op
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Dec 1, 2023 02:39
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great work, very enjoyable read I didn't have much experience with bellator but the death of competition (for fighters) it always bad so this still kinda sucks
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Dec 1, 2023 03:24
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Cole The Polar Bear Konrad is my hero and had a perfect MMA career
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Dec 1, 2023 04:42
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This didn't get mentioned in the OP, but it's something that I occasionally think about. Rugby union fans of a certain vintage would have heard of James Haskell, who represented England and spent most of his club career playing for the now defunct Wasps club (originally based in London, moved to Coventry, and collapsed in on itself because their finances were all hosed up, bringing just over 150 years of history to an abrupt, ignominous end), between stints in Japan with Ricoh, New Zealand with the Highlanders (yes, yes, there can only be one, etc) and France with Stade Francais - a club that raises a lot of money by selling a calendar of its players posing nude called Dieux du Stade. Apparently it's huge with the gay community. Can't imagine why. Here he is, during his playing days.  Bellator even did promotional photos and everything.  Sweet Jesus, just look at him. He's built like a statue of a Greek god. Of course, never mind that he spent most of his time playing for England during a recent nadir, in which every new talent was hyped to the heavens as "THE LITERAL GREATEST GREAT THAT EVER GREATED IS THE GREATEST WORLD CLASS TALENT AND IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN (insert player name here, usually from one of the current or former colonies like New Zealand or South Africa)! HE CAN BENCH PRESS AN ENTIRE BUS!" Yes, the English press would always scream and shout about bench press stats. Of course, the players would fail to live up to the hype at the test level, and England would lose to New Zealand, South Africa and Australia at Twickenham anyway more often than not. Anyway, he was apparently meant to be a big part of Bellator's expansion into Britain. He'd had some dabblings with MMA, as a commentator rather than a fighter, doing analysis and commentary for promotions like BAMMA, back when they were a thing. He was set to make his MMA debut for Bellator in May of 2020 in London, at Wembley Arena. I'm sure you know why that got delayed a tad. Unfortunately (or fortunately for him), sanity prevailed, as he decided MMA was not for him after having spinal surgery and called off his career before it really got started, at age 36, after 17 years of doing this for a living: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzAwqLolOg I don't begrudge the guy for wanting to follow his dream and give it a go, but mate, you've got a hosed up spine, you're not too far off of being 40. Either way, we really missed out on a potential fiasco, and Bellator's answer to "CM Punk in the UFC." edogawa rando fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 2, 2023 |
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Dec 1, 2023 06:53
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Aw jeeze, I didn't even talk about Fight Master, Bellator's attempt at TUF. Except the fighters on the show got to pick which coach they trained with. The ratings were bad and Spike shuffled it off to a death slot in the night time lineup for the last like 4 episodes. Joe Riggs won and then went to UFC.
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Dec 2, 2023 00:13
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I watched Slice/Dada 5000 live and laughed hysterically, and that feels really bad now  . I've always enjoyed cursed heavyweight fights though. The OP is an excellent memorial to a funny time, so thank you.
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Dec 2, 2023 01:48
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that fight has a body count of 2
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Dec 2, 2023 01:51
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Dec 2, 2023 05:16
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Whoa, Brian Campbell of Morning Kombat retweeted your article on Fight Island! e: oh dang, a bunch of popular mma twitter people retweeted it. Nice! Fozzy The Bear fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Dec 2, 2023 |
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Dec 2, 2023 17:00
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I will always have fond memories of the Bellator show I went to at Mohegan where I heckled Dan Miragliotta enough that he came into the audience at one point. MEXICO!!
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Dec 3, 2023 17:12
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Fantastic write up. The best thing about Bellator going away is inshallah we do not get any Big John on commentary again. And in honorable mentions of nut shots, Raymond Daniels vs Peter Stanonik
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Dec 3, 2023 18:10
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