The assumed move of Bellator off Saturday nights was confirmed Monday, but instead of a mid-week air time, the promotion will once again go head-to-head with the UFC quite frequently.
Bellator will now air on Friday nights on MTV2, beginning on March 2nd when their sixth season begins. This next run will feature four tournaments (lightweights, featherweights, welterweights and middleweights) with a fifth to be announced soon, expected to be either light heavyweights or women’s 125-pounders.
In the press release, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said, “Our focus was to find the right night, where the largest number of MMA fans could enjoy the show. We’ve been discussing this move with our partners at Viacom for months. When we looked at the alternatives, we agreed that Fridays provided a great night for us to reach MMA fans with our live, real sport, tournament events every week.”
However, one of Bellator’s issues on Saturdays was running up against UFC pay-per-views and other major sports like college football. While they will be out of the college crosshairs for the most part, Fridays are not traditionally a strong TV night for viewership. Additionally, they will go head-to-head with both the newly-moved The Ultimate Fighter and UFC Fight Night events on FX, M-1 Global and Strikeforce Challengers events if both continue to be aired on Showtime, HDNet MMA events and WWE Smackdown on SyFy.
No official start time or venue was announced for the March 2nd date.