With Its Head Removed, Where Will Bellator MMA Stumble Next?
The news that Bjorn Rebney was axed as Bellator CEO earlier today was met with mixed reactions; some feel that it will give the ailing promotion a new lease on life in the cut throat market of modern MMA, there are others that feel sacking the man that founded the company is a little short sited, and of course there are whispers of a hostile takeover.
It’s a well known fact that UFC president Dana White and B-Reb didn’t see eye to eye, so perhaps his firing will eventually lead to Bellator being consumed by Zuffa? Rumoured replacement for Rebney, Scott Coker, is only too familiar with being consumed by the UFC as the former CEO of Strikeforce.
The San Jose based promotion was the long standing number two behind the UFC, and eventually caved in a spectacular, and sad display of hopelessness. SF collapsed and is thus no more, but it’s talent lives on within the ranks of the bigger promotional stage. So, it’s time to speculate folks! Why was Rebney fired?
Well, I suspect that Bellator‘s numerous botched attempts at staging a PPV were partly to blame. The promotion took over 120 shows to get on board with the whole pay per view thing, and it was an absolute catastrophe when it finally materialized. An old, irrelevant, and punch-drunk Tito Ortiz submitted a Russian midget, the biggest draw of the night (Eddie Alvarez) was injured and pulled from the card, and it was clear that nobody had any idea how to put on a show.
Perhaps the revealed number of 100K buys was a little over exaggerated? The bout between Quinton Jackson and King Mo turned out to be squat, although Lawall’s antics were probably a more accurate depiction of Viacom’s feelings towards Rebney than we realized. Maybe we’ll never know why B-Reb got cut, but is it for the better?
In my opinion, you probably can’t get any worse than Rebney. It’s clear by the way Bellator is presented, the matchmaking, the poor production and the clearly over hyped WWE-style beefs; Rebney was running the promotion in to the ground, and all we could do was watch, and we weren’t even doing that. So what’s next? See if the former Strikeforce boss can handle it, or possibly merge the promotion so all we can ever watch is UFC…..thoughts?
