June 18th, 2014. After the ouster of founder Bjorn Rebney, former Strikeforce founder CEO Scott Coker was announced as the new head of operations for Bellator MMA.
It was an odd thing to process. After all, Coker had been working for Zuffa since their purchase of the organization he helped start, and his non-compete clause had expired. It made all the sense in the world, but at the same time appeared to be unreal. If the man that converted a small kickboxing organization into MMA’s Little Promotion That Could™, what wonders could he work for Bellator?
In 2018, and Bellator has had highs and lows as any other sports entity does. But fighters have voiced their dissatisfaction with management and the state of the organization. Ratings are suffering, even for some of their biggest shows with established stars. There’s undeniably a palpable enthusiasm slump from fans all over the internet, and it’s not entirely unfounded. A series of high-level talent has been acquired, but the cards have been underwhelming overall. Just look at the current heavyweight Grand Prix. The only fight that truly had fans on the edge of their seats was Fedor vs Mir, and it was mostly due to the sense of dread that either one would suffer even more unnecessary concussion damage. It has generated very little buzz overall outside of that bout. Sure, the sport as a whole is taking something of a hit, so it makes sense that viewership isn’t where they or even we as fans and media would have expected.
There’s a television deal in the UK that doesn’t even show the fights live, and they’re time delayed by a week, even for events in the U.K. (with exceptions made for their last card in the country). How do you feature fighters from the region and expect to build a loyal viewership like this?
Did I mention Bellator Kickboxing? Do you even remember Bellator Kickboxing? I often do, and they’ve had Raymond Daniels under their banner. Remember him? Yeah, he’s amazing. Fun as hell to watch, and a smart guy that has a great image. And you only get to see him late at night on cards that are also often delayed by up to a week. Joe Schilling even complained about it on social media, and rightfully so. It’s as if there’s no true plan for this offshoot, or the parent company isn’t that thrilled about giving it a better spot on the airwaves. As you can see, they’ve got a bunch of problems on various fronts.
But why not go another route? I’d propose that it’s time for Bellator to go full RIZIN.
What do beer companies do when they want to rebrand? They can’t lose current customers by messing with the formula and flavor, but they can add a gimmick that lets you know when it’s cold enough or attempt to appeal to true patriots with lazy jingoism. The product needs to remain the same in these cases, with window dressing to lure others in. In combat sports, the essence of it all is the intrigue of violence and the showcasing of technique as well as spectacle. Yet there are changes that they can make to differentiate themselves from everyone else. Change your image by altering not just your presentation, but elements of your overall product. It’ll still be MMA, but it won’t be the same old, same old.
Starting with the cage. Ditch it. You have a sister organization that does kickboxing, so you already own a ring. Why not just embrace the ring for both kickboxing and MMA? This solves the problem of separating the events and having to watch kickboxing bouts on a week’s tape delay and after reasonable hours. Throw in some kickboxing fights during MMA events without the awkwardness of a ring and a cage taking up all your real estate that could go towards more seats to sell. Go for grander spectacle and offer as much of an alternative as possible by having a major organization using a fighting environment that’s far more generous to the viewer as it makes for better TV angles.
As much as I’ve disliked resets from the edge of the ring and guys falling out, they could use netting under the bottom rope as M-1 does. They don’t have to go with PRIDE round times and stay with the current unified rules, but using the 10minx5minx5min format for rounds is a change that could prove to be popular if the commissions allow it.
Back to the beer example above, the fights are still there. The matchups can remain as they are, but an alteration to the environment and a possible slight tweak to the rulesets can make a massive difference.
I want to be clear here: I don’t view Bellator as a competitor to the UFC. That’s not an insult, it’s just that nobody is. Not Invicta, not Cage Warriors, not M-1. Even at the height of its popularity, I never viewed Strikeforce as a competitor. An alternative of sorts, sure. Still more of an addition to the MMA ecosystem and not a direct threat that could topple them, and that’s a great thing. Bellator doesn’t need to take over, they need some variety to make MMA fun, and incorporate some outside elements to become even more profitable.
KSW just had a fitness model fight an actor at heavyweight this past week. Wanna hear something funny? It ended with a brutal and amazing knockout. If Coker could get Herschel Walker a fight, surely he could get another famous person. People would pay good money to attend an event where Wiz Khalifa fought some local fighter. Demi Lovato’s been neck-deep into MMA for years now. You think people wouldn’t tune in to see that? It sounds absurd, because it is. But adding some dumb spectacle doesn’t hurt in small doses, and they’re already on basic cable. Besides, paying big money for dumb stuff like that has already been done, and leads to exposure to the legit talents you already have in your stable. That’s how it was done for Kimbo cards during the Elite XC era. It’s why Emmanuel Sanchez got prominent placement in co-main event slots for his last three appearances, including two headlined by Rampage Jackson vs King Mo as well as Fedor vs Frank Mir. You’re not charging a premium for a card that has CM Punk vs Mike Jackson (sorry, Mike), just a wild fight with the odd famous person. Besides, can it really be any worse than Dada 5000?
You don’t like the idea of celebrities fighting? Fine. How about athletes from other disciplines? I already mentioned Herschel Walker, and the payoff looks like it was pretty good, and he actually looked pretty great in his fights. Maybe have a boxer vs boxer fight under MMA rules as KSW just did. And yes, that was dope. Or a boxer vs a kickboxer under MMA rules? Why not get a jump on Zuffa Boxing and have MMA fighters in a boxing match or two? Again – it doesn’t have to be a staple, but a few of these per year isn’t a major inconvenience.
Besides, you have a talent sharing agreement with RIZIN already. That’s a bright spot that could be used for even more compelling combinations of opponents. Bring Jiri Prochazka and Teodoras Aukstuolis over. If Cro Cop could be available, any of the lesser-known but exciting fighters could put on a show.
What I’m proposing isn’t that simple, and not conventional at all. But the theory is easy enough to follow in the name of making improvements. No one needs to reinvent the wheel here and do anything that hasn’t been done, just things that aren’t being done on a major stage here in America. Play with what you already have to make yourself stand out and experiment with things that fans may actually be interested in due to novelty. There isn’t that much to lose, after all. Any of these decisions can be reversed with minimal investment. The ring proves to be unpopular? Go back to the cage. You already own both. Ratings for international livestreams aren’t where you want them? Go back to tape delay as it was. Again, it’s your network. It can’t be that much of a blow to their bottom line if it fails, if it fails at all. It could very well succeed.
Addressing their U.K. television deal is a tricky thing, because it may be something they inherited. But when you’re owned by one of the largest multimedia conglomerates on the face of the earth, you have to have some kind of clout to make deals to alleviate this problem. Finding a distribution partner can’t be hard when you’re at the big kids’ table. If not, at least make the events accessible online sooner for that region.
Also on the subject of international cards and tape delays, what’s wrong with airing the events live on line and then again at the usual start time that night in the U.S.? The fights are going to be spoiled by then anyway, why inconvenience an audience hungry for your content? Just stream the event as it happens, and anyone that misses it can watch it on your network later. Viacom already owns Bellator, and it might make more financial sense to go this route and maximize your ad revenue instead of another marathon of original Star Wars trilogy or some low-level garbage, like in the Spike era.
Look, this isn’t coming from a place of negativity. I love Bellator when it’s at its best. I love what the organization has done and the place it holds in the MMA sphere. It’s great to have another place for fighters to ply their trade and experimentation to take place. The few people I know from there have treated me with nothing but the utmost care and respect, and I appreciate them for it. The hard work is evident, and the desire to succeed and do their best is there. The problem is the lack of overall focus the organization seems to have and the appearance of them simply lurching towards whatever the next thing is. Wherever you turn, the general consensus is that Bellator can and should be doing better, and I count myself among those people. I want for them to succeed.
But by that same token, a lot of this lands at the feet of Scott Coker. I would never mean to disparage the man or anything he’s accomplished in his career, but we’re close to four years to the day in which he took the position to lead Bellator to a new future. He’s carried so much goodwill that none of the numerous maladies are ever blamed on his apparent inaction to address these problems. He’s hailed for his successes (“Cokes gets ‘em done!”), but any negative elements are met with silence. Perhaps the ratings successes of the freakshow fights (whatever you may think of them) led to Viacom opening the pursestrings a bit to sign hot free agents like Rory MacDonald and Benson Henderson. Other than that and the acquisition of Fedor Emelianenko, has it improved in the way it could or should have in four years? Things take time, and it’s unrealistic to think that one man would be able to fix absolutely everything while taking over an organization where we don’t really know the extent of his executive freedoms. Having said that, I can’t help but think of what the reaction was when news got out that leadership had changed. So much hope for improvement and for Bellator to reach greater heights, yet they continue to underperform with ratings.
Meet the fans halfway, and they’ll think the world of you. Make the product stand out in ways that the UFC can’t (or outright refuse to), and you’ll remain viable — essential, even. Maybe keep the cage for smaller events in Thackerville, etc., where the venue size may be inconvenient. Save the ring for events that won’t have any non-MMA bouts if you want, but go big while you break with convention and MMA fandom might reward you.
Come on, Bellator. Rock the boat a little more. You already have what you need to do so.