During the press conference on Wednesday announcing the appointment of Scott Coker as Bellator’s president, Spike TV President Kevin Kay made the initial comment that Bellator would be moving away from the tournament structure to a more “traditional format.”
Coker also reiterated the move as he described evolving the league from tournament to a more traditional format. Coker did state that future tournaments would be determined on a case by case basis.
Payout Perspective:
It’s clear now that the announcement last week by Bjorn Rebney which would grant any past tournament winner “tournament immunity,” was a pre-cursor to what Viacom wanted to see happen (i.e., elimination of tournaments to grant matchmaker freedom). Enter Scott Coker. We might conclude now that Rebney and Viacom did not agree with the future direction of Bellator. Also, Viacom likely saw Coker as the better executive that could steer the company in the direction it wants. It will be interesting to see what Coker does with the fighters that have won tournaments and how he will set up fights especially for its next PPV.
Is Bellator going for MMA domination? Dana needs more Valium to sleep,he should have paid more for a longer non compete, but that would mean even more debt they cant pay back. Nick Diaz will go to Bellator, GSP could too, what others? I’m sure there is a list of fighters, The UFC could have to make better deals with fighters to keep them now, what contracts are ending soon? How many fighters are tired of all the UFC crap? MMA needs healthy competition not some one sided load of bs and crap being run by dictator Napoleon Dana white lol
I have said for a long time the tournament was stupid and it was biting BMMA in the ass. Finally BMMA realized what the rest of the would realized 18 years ago.
Let’s see what happens. The tournament was a differentiator for Bellator. Now that they’re no longer “the toughest tournament in sports” or whatever, I’m not sure how they will position themselves. Maybe as “we’re that other MMA organization; no, not Strikeforce, though it’s understandable that you would think that”.
I can’t decide if this means that Viacom sees potential in Bellator and want to move it in a new direction, or if they think Bellator is a failure and want to move it in a new direction.