Bellator officially announced its debut on Spike TV for Thursday night, January 17th. It will be in a two hour block starting at 10:00PM PT/ET.
Via Bellator Press Release:
Emanating from The University of California’s Bren Center in Irvine, CA, featherweight world champion Pat Curran defends his title against explosive knockout artist Patricio Pitbull, while lightweight world champion Michael Chandler battles former Olympian Rick Hawn in their highly-anticipated Bellator Championship showdown.
The action-packed night also features the Bellator debut of decorated MMA veteran Renato “Babalu” Sobral, who will fight in the quarterfinals of the Light Heavyweight Tournament against Russian submission ace Mikhail Zayats.
“Our Thursday, January 17th premiere on Spike will be an incredible night for MMA fans; two epic world title fights and an amazing collection of tournament fights” said Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Spike TV is the home for MMA and this event will be a great way to kick off that homecoming.”
Payout Perspective:
With the UFC announcing TUF’s move to Tuesday nights on FX, Bellator made its departure from Fridays official. It will be interesting to see how each does on its new nights. TNA’s Impact Wrestling will be the lead-in for Bellator. We’ll see how the new network and new time slot does for ratings for Bellator.
They will do well on Thursday nights. Can’t wait to see their programming start next month.
I like it better on Thursday. There’s too much going on Friday nights now that the new FNF season is coming up.
I haven’t been watching TUF so I don’t really care what day they move to but I hope they boost their ratings.