MMA Junkie reports that King Mo Lawal, Cheick Kongo and Bobby Lashley have been added to Bellator 123 which takes place on September 5th in Connecticut. Lashley is a pro wrestler with TNA Wrestling and is currently its Heavyweight champion.
In addition to his pro wrestling experience, Lashley has competed in MMA. The move attempts to bulk up an already stacked card which is headlined by Pat Curran defending his Featherweight title against Patricio Freire.
The current card via Bellator press release:
MAIN CARD:
Bellator Featherweight Title Fight: Pat Curran (20-5) vs. Patricio Pitbull (21-2)
Bellator Heavyweight Feature Fight: Cheick Kongo (21-9) vs. Lavar Johnson (18-9)
Bellator Light Heavyweight Feature Fight: King Mo (12-4) vs. Tom DeBlass (9-2)
Bellator Heavyweight Feature Fight: Bobby Lashley (10-2) vs. Josh Burns (8-7)
The Bellator card will go head to head with a UFC Fight Night card that has been bulked up due to the cancellation of UFC 176. The card, which takes place at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut is headlined by Gegard Mousasi taking on Ronaldo Souza.
Payout Perspective:
September 5th will be a big night for MMA fans as it’s the first time the two organizations go head-to-head on television and in the same state. The signing of Lashley is somewhat surprising but it does add name recognition for the crossover pro wrestling fans. With TNA Wrestling taping most of its shows through August already, it’s unlikely that Bellator can take advantage of the crossover on its weekly TNA shows (which draw over 1M viewers) unless it edits in info about Lashley in voiceovers. Lawal and Kongo also make sense as Lawal can sell his fights and the ratings reflect that Kongo (for some reason) produces good ratings for Bellator.
Someone’s not “dick ridin’ ” anymore.
LMFAO the “new” bellator. sit on our asses and let the UFC sign basically ALL the best prospects and then we sign bobby fucking lashley. this isnt looking good. the demo for tna doesnt give a shit about lashley and fight fans wont give a shit either.
when rampage and king mo (yes, this was the “big season 10 debut” which makes the rating even worse) fought on the same card it gathered a paltry .33. kongo headlined the ppv prelims and only managed a .32 and thats with huge promotion to go along with it.
every single fight card of bellators 10th season (from the season opener to the ppv prelims) LOST to an episode of Ultimate Fighter 19 (yes the WORST season EVER). first of all, in MMA a live event should NEVER lose to a pre-recorded program, and if it does it should be a repeat airing of a LIVE EVENT and second of all , the so called “draws”(rampage, king mo, kongo, etc.) didn’t draw at ALL. i just cant repeat it enough but EVERY event they’ve done this year has lost to an episode of the worst, THE WORST, Ultimate Fighter season EVER; really cant get over that
finally, id like to say that this event WILL be a .34 to .37; somewhere between that range or directly on one of those two numbers (if it does even lower than that, then… well, this will be a quick burial)
Interesting, I wonder if they test for steroids on an Indian reservation??