Spike TV announced its upcoming MMA reality show which will feature Randy Couture, Greg Jackson, Frank Shamrock and Joe Warren. Enitled, “Fightmaster: Bellator MMA,” the show will feature four fight camps with the winner getting a chance to fight in the Bellator tournament and receive a $100K price.
Via Spike TV press release:
The 32 fighters, competing for a spot in the welterweight (170lb) tournament in the Fall of 2013, will live and train together in four camps led by the aforementioned legendary coaches. This series is much more than just a tournament, as it will capture the reality of the competitors and the grueling training regimen it takes to become a world-class MMA fighter.
The concept of “Fight Master: Bellator MMA” is unprecedented in that the fighters control their own destiny. They will choose which camp to train with and which opponent they want to fight next. The premiere will feature 8 qualifying fights with each subsequent episode showcasing at least one fight. The finale will be telecast live on Spike with the winner moving on to an upcoming tournament. Bellator announcer Jimmy Smith will serve as host.
“As the fighters’ control their own destiny, they will need to utilize strategy in and out of the cage if they want to succeed and advance each week,” said Sharon Levy, Executive Vice President, Original Series, Spike TV. “The stakes are high and the wrong decision, whether it is picking an opponent you don’t match up well against or a coach and fight camp that you don’t work well with, can mean all the difference.”
The series will delve into the fighters’ personal stories for a glimpse into the often arduous journey that led them to “Fight Master.” Viewers will get to know the man behind the fighter, and follow them on their quest for victory. These determined contestants come from all parts of the country with a wide variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. However, they all share the same goal – to learn from the sport’s finest trainers and earn a spot in the Bellator tournament.
Spike TV will telecast 10 one-hour episodes of “Fight Master: Bellator MMA.” Production begins in early February in Louisiana. Two of television’s most acclaimed producers, eight-time Emmy® Award winner Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri of Profiles Television Productions, the visionaries behind “The Amazing Race,” serve as Executive Producers. Andrea Richter serves as Executive Producer as well and Levy and Tim Duffy, Senior Vice President, Original Programming, Spike TV, will oversee the project for the network.
Payout Perspective:
Last week the big announcement was Randy Couture’s signing with Spike TV to become involved with Bellator. Today, we found out more details including more names to work with Bellator. The Greg Jackson involvement is intriguing considering White’s choice words for Jackson after the cancellation of UFC 151. He will still corner GSP and Jon Jones in the UFC but it will be very awkward. In the past, fighters from other organizations have cornered UFC fighters in fights but this will be different considering he’ll be working directly for a competing organization.
As for the show, we will see how it will distinguish itself from TUF. The concept seems the similar to TUF. It will be up to the producers to make it something viewers will want to see.
One of the things the UFC needed to change to is focus on a few fighters and follow them around. I think throwing so many suspected low level guys on a show and hoping people stick around to see who is meaningful hurts the show. At the start of TUF you really dont know who to look out for. The guy most people pick out will get beat and the talented ones isnt known until the end. Half the guys that people spent time watching(ussually the personalities) end up being bums and knocked off the show and eventually out of the UFC spotlight. So that attention paid by the viewer was wasted and could have been directed to the winner of the show making him a name. I think it would be best to follow 4 guys as they train and raise up the amatuer ranks and into the undercard of the UFC. Then a 4 man tournament to crown a winner. After its over all 4 are name fighters and all 4 are skilled as their were hand picked prospects to start with. No air time was wasted on the Strange Brews of the TUF world. Past years TUF seems to be an inefficient use of tv air time because there are so many fighters of so little ability who ultimately are never seen after the show. The number of contestants makes it impossible to film them outside of the TUF house. To many guys to follow as they do what they want. Not the case with only 4 guys. So you dont get the tired backdrop of the TUF house and gym.
NOt sure how Bellators show till turn out. But i really enjoy this season of TUF. But not sure how long this TUF model can carry on. Luckily they had a purfect storm of fighters and coaches. We will see going forward.
Randy Couture, Greg Jackson and Frank Shamrock is a cast designed to give Dana heartburn. I think the only person missing is Vadummy – Fedor’s manager – and then you have all the people Dana hates the most. Although I honestly don’t understand why he lashed out at Randy like he did. The guy is just trying to make a buck. But whatever. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this from Dana going forward.
Diego, you forgot the addition of Josh Gross and Loretta Hunt as on-site journalists to truly push Dana over the edge 🙂
I really dislike the name “fightmaster” being levied upon a reality show that will likely show relatively green talent ala TUF (never been a big fan of “The Ultimate Fighter” in this respect as well, but at least “Ultimate Fighting” is right in the UFC’s brand name so it makes a bit more sense), but it doesn’t really matter. It’s interesting that they’re going with 10 episodes instead of 12 like TUF. Perhaps the slightly shorter season will allow them to avoid viewer fatigue? Look forward to checking this out and seeing what angle they take with the coaches.
Someone help me here as it seems like I got “old timers” disease reading this.
It reads like they will not be showing all of the fights as you need 29 “fights” to get from 32 men to 1 champion.
Which of the fighters gets to choose his fight? Can they switch camps? Fighting guys in your own camp? I am very confused (as usual)
I wish them luck.
When I saw Couture, Jackson, and Shamrock all on the same dais–I couldn’t help grinning.
Bjorn and Spike are playing hardball–and their choices are calculated to make Dana White have an apoplectic fit.
Dana’s rant against Couture was especially entertaining–though villifying Randy will not convince most die-hard UFC fans that Couture was once OK, but now he is EVIL. Dana probably gave Bellator some free publicity with his rants–and intrigued MMA fans to watch it.
I never watched the TUF series–as I despise ‘reality’ TV, but when I did briefly watch it, the fighters were behaving like morons in ‘the house’—lurching through scripted melodrama which would only appeal to those fans who opted for frontal lobotomies sometime in their jaded past.
After watching this press conference–my assessment of Bellator has improved. They seem to be touching all the right bases to become genuine competition to the UFC.
Let’s face it, they don’t have the talent–and the jury is out whether they will acquire the talent they need to take it to the next level–but these first steps appear promising.
A rival to the UFC doesnt need talent. No MMA promotion needs talent. They need the perception of talent. Good production and a consistant product while scraping up anyone who leaves the UFC and make an example of them is all you need. History has shown that once you get a steady product. Fans will claim they are the best fighters in the world. The truth is 90% of fans have no clue about the fight game and cant spot talent and ability to save their life. So with Pride, Elite XC, IFL, Strike Force. There is always fans who believed their champs could beat the guys in the UFC and it becomes a big debate. Kind of like how college football fans think their Star player is going to kill in the NFL because he kills against less talented people in college. Then are shocked when he sucks and is baging groceries 3 years later. Perception is reality!
As for Couture. I think by now most people realize he isnt such a nice guys. Even though i know he is a scumbag i cant help but to root for him in fights. But he really looked bad when he held out and lied about his pay with the UFC in the past. It was his second or 3rd hold out. Then you have his failed relationships that also reflects poorly on him. Then he jumps ship to Bellator which is his own decision. But he handles it very poorly. All while knowing his own son is now in the UFC and the possible repercussions it could have on him. Randy Couture has proven time and again to be an extremely selfish and self centered person. But says and does all the right things when the camera is on.
MV,
Maybe they can add Mazzagatti as the ref and have the New York Boxing Commission oversee it.
You guys forgot 1 name that would piss off Dana more than any of those name. Tito Ortiz!!!! Couture doesnt have much to offer as far as personality. So he doesnt do Bellator much good. No one knows Frank as he was part of the UFC during the Black Out years. BUt Tito is a personality and provides everything Couture does but more. Both can coach. But Tito has pissed off Dana more than anyone. HE even had a personal relation ship that goes back to the start of their careers. I dont think Dana really Hates Jackson. He bugs him and may not like him right now. But hasnt done much to really hate the guy. A guy Like Ken would bother him much more. Ken built Zuffa era of the UFC as much as TUF. His first fight with Tito was their first record PPV. His rematch on Spike was their first mega ratings and cross over to Pro Wrestling. He was a huge success for them. They also had a court battle that made Ken very bitter. He could see Ken as being very valuable to Bellator not to mention the slap in the face.
Tito, Couture, Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock
@BranSmasher
“A rival to the UFC doesnt need talent. No MMA promotion needs talent. They need the perception of talent. ”
Sorry, but your comment is jaded and inaccurate. Your thesis is that talent doesn’t matter and that fans won’t recognize it anyway–only marketing matters.
Baloney!
Do you really think the NFL would be successful with second or third stringers–that the fans would not care or notice as long as it was advertised and packaged properly? The same with any pro sport.
Of course knowledgeable fans would notice.
You seem to think of MMA is a commodity and that the talent of the fighters is much less important than a “steady product”. It doesn’t matter who fights–as long as the foolish fans PERCEIVE that they are good fighters.
How supercilious and cynical!
Talent DOES matter. Talent is why the UFC bought out Pride, the WEC and Strikeforce. The value of the promotions WAS the fighter contracts.
The UFC has a virtual monopoly on MMA talent–and the fans KNOW this and it is TRUE.
The UFC is not the big show just because of advertising–or because the fans have been fooled into thinking it has the best fighters.
The UFC has, objectively, the best MMA talent in the world.
This is not FAKE wrestling @BranSmasher, one can easily evaluate the skillsets used.
Evidently–you are unable to evaluate the MMA skills showcased by various promotions, past and present.
Talent doesnt matter. UFC bought Pride for a couple reasons. 1 Ed Fishman was interested in Pride and would have made Vegas Prides home. 2 The fighters were names and names sell. They could careless about whatever talent may or may not have been in pride. Which by the way was very little to begin with.
“Do you really think the NFL would be successful with second or third stringers”
How would anyone know they were 2nd and 3rd stringers? The only thing you see is what is played out on the field. Fans percieve anyone out on that field is the best. Randy Moss played College ball 5 miles from my home. He blew away everyone he played in D1-AA and everyone said it was the low level talent. HE went to D1-A and blew away all the big schools and set all the records. Even with that why couldnt people see that he was the best WR in the country college or Pro? He fell to the 17th pick or so and in his rookie year was the best in the NFL. You can only compare people to who they directly compete against. Anything else is speculation. All Bellator needs is to put fighters out there. Through the process of fighting they will establish a top, middle, and bottom of every division. The best in the division can be argued they are better than the best of other promotions. Fans always do it. Prides fighters for the most part were way overrated. Their fans claimed all their champs were better than UFC champs and had way better fighters from top to bottom. It was a complete joke. Franklin showed he was on par with Hendo and beat Wandy. Chuck beat Wandy. Filho couldnt do anything. Kang sucked. Gomi sucked. Shogun struggled. Heath Herring was supposed to take the UFC by storm according to fans. Then Mirko come to save to day only to get made a fool of time and again.
Pride was built of UFC rejects and Pro Wrestling from its inception. Even Wandy and Hendo were unimpressive UFC fighters who went to Pride. But while there they rose to the top of that promotion and through promotion and being big fish in a small pond people believed they were the best in the world. It was never the case. Fast forward and people did the same thing with Nick Diaz. Washed out of the UFC. Beat some cans in Strikeforce and people are putting a guy lucky to be top 20 in the top 5. Now in the UFC he was given a washed up name fighter to get him over who should have been retired. Then he gets beat by a guy who is identical to him. He has yet to fight the style that ran him out of the UFC. Strikeforce and the UFC has protected him thus far. Again fans are dooped once again. The last few years fans have tried to hype up Malendez and Alverez. Unless you are very experienced or trained in the sport. It is very hard to compare across promotions without any fighter interaction. Even then there is a lot of guess work. Kind of like the NFL draft. If someone goes into Bellator and destroys the very bad fighters they have then fans will clamor. And the fighters are very bad except a couple in each division. I mean really bad.
But on the bright side of that. The bad talent creates lots of mismatches. When someone is even average or a new up and comer emerges they ussually will destroy these cans in impressive fashion. So you get lots of exciting finishes. Where lots of UFC fighters are close even fights. The skill gaps are not as great and you dont get the exciting slaughters.
To show that my theory is right. The UFC has even opportated under that assumption being correct. They have often let their comps go because they know within 6-12 months the fans will accept who ever is holding the belt as the new champ. Look at the best P4P fighter. Anderson Silva. The King. The champ of a division where Marilo Bustamante never lost the best. They never missed a beat replacing him with Tanner, Franklin and then Silva. They were about to replace Pulver with Penn. Then replaces Penn with Hughes. They know you can just plug someone else in their place and not miss a step. It just takes a few months and people forget.
Well @Bransmasher,
I see you have firm convictions that talent doesn’t matter.
Your entire argument is based upon an ulterior and hidden premise.
You believe fans/people are stupid and ignorant.
This is not only about MMA. You are basically claiming that in all sports–in fact, in all of life–talent does not matter–only the carefully cultivated perception.
Perhaps there are some mitigating circumstances for how you arrived at such a distorted, and depressing point of view.
There is no doubt that the “race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong” in life and sports. And yes, there is manipulation, greed and bias ad nauseum.
But that is not all there is.
The UFC’s primary product are the fights, and the fighters are the only means of production. These fights are based upon real competition–where two men bash each other and try to choke each other out. There is nothing fake about it–and that is one of the appeals of MMA–it is competition at its most primal and feral.
Fans of a sport–as a group, become educated about the sport which they view with such passion. In fact, hardcore fans of any sport become experts on the sports–the rules, the odds, the skillsets needed to dominate in that sport.
The recognize talent when the see it.
Fans, as a group, acquire a taste for the best–for the greatest talent. When one beholds someone of great talent in action–it is a thing of beauty–and this beautiful moment is what true fans crave.
Your opinions rely upon a pessimistic world-view where great masses of the unwashed move in herds–ultimately unable to decern the difference between talent–and the perception of talent.
*They recognize talent when they see it.
(cleaning the Y key on my keyboard)
Its not that fans are ignorant or stupid. Even though i feel that 90% of post 2005 fans are clueless. That isnt the reason for my stance. You simply cannot gauge skill 100% by watching. Why do you think there is so much debate on who the best players at each position are in the history of every sport? If skill and talent mattered as much as you say. Then fans would be able to see a guy play and say “That is the best player to ever play the game!” But they cant. The use stats and team awards like championship rings to decide between players.
Here is a question for you. Why were fans, keep in mind these were hardcore fans for the most part, unable to see that Heath Herring wasnt good enough to be champ in the UFC? Why couldnt they see Cro Cop was not good enough to be champ in the UFC? Why did they have to see them lose before they made excuses like Cro Cop got old? If the ability to spot talent and ability was as accurate as you are saying they should have been able to see he wasnt better than the UFC fighters or at very least see he got old before he got smashed.
Now to a trained eye you can see techniques from each style to see if they are technically good. But that alone doesnt make them effective or good fighters. I have seen a lot of highly skilled guys on paper get smashed and suck once the fight starts.
All you have as a fan is perception. IF everything is legit you can compare a guy to others down the line. For example. After years of watching fights. This guy was pretty strong. That guy out powered him so i suspect he is pretty strong so he should have the advantage in this fight here.” Even to do that is takes a lot of assumptions just to make a educated guess. But everything isnt legit. Pride had worked fights which through off everyone perception. Just one fixed fight can through off your assessment of every fighter in a promotion. Then you have match making that maipulates peoples thinking. The UFC can take a guy with 1 or two assetts and they can cater to those skills and make a low lever fighter look good. Or they can get him smashed like the bum he is. Imagine Leanord Garcia. The guys shouldnt be in the UFC. But because the UFC can throw its prospects at him and he makes them look like super stars and the fights exciting because his chin and wild pillow hand punching. He will always be exciting but no threat to good fighters. To keep him in the UFC they throw guys at him that dont match up. I can get dozens apon dozen of guys outside of the UFC who would smash him without breaking a sweat. BUt because the UFC claiming he has power and his exciting back and forth pillow fights. People think he is a quality win. That is manipulation with match making.
Fans can be more educated than others and have a better idea than some of a fighters ability. But just like every pro draft. All that scouting. The game tapes, the IQ test, the interview, the weight lifting numbers, the speed, game stats, etc. It all comes down to a crap shoot. You take an educated guess and hope it works out. In the end you cant see with the naked eye how someone from one group will compare to someone in another group. Out of the 2008 NFL Draft on 16 of the 252 players draft have ever played in a Pro Bowl over the last 5 years.
With fighters from Bellator all you can do is ask your self if they do thinks technically. Do they seem athletic. and run a check list of their strength and weakness. After that its just a wait and see how they would do in the UFC. The only thing you really have to go by is them smashing low skilled fighters. There is just no way to know how someone out of the UFC compares to UFC fighters untess they fight someone who was in the UFC mix. So you have a base to compare against.
But Pride was the perfect example. Wether the UFC was just better, or Pride was just worse, or Pride fighters got worse. The fans were clueless as to how each fighters would compare.
There is much of what that Bsmash says is true. He is giving us a clear unadulterated middle America view of entertainment & sport vs sport & entertainment. I agree that what we see on our screens is what a producer wants us to see. We do not always see the best. The talent does rise, but in some cases it is in spite of some tv production/marketing exec’s input & distorted view of reality. Case in point, “Jersey Shore”. Look at the $$ Pro Wrestling generates. Art or Real Life? What do want on ourscreens?
Side note- anyone notice Frank Shamrock worked someone’s cnr on UFC 140 Toronto. Cant recall who, Joe Rogan never mentioned a thing. My guess is the producer made a call on that.