Los Angeles, Calif. — November 19, 2008 — Bellator Fighting Championships, a first of its kind Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) promotion, officially launched operations today from offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Three years in development, Bellator has an exclusive television agreement with ESPN Deportes. Bellator season #1 premieres on ESPN Deportes in April, 2009.
Bellator (Latin for warrior), marks a step forward in the evolution of professional Mixed Martial Arts with a business model unique in the fight industry, yet followed in every other major sport. At Bellator, a fighter’s wins or losses control his future. Bjorn Rebney, Bellator founder & CEO states, “We are implementing a tournament structure to determine champions and #1 challengers so that world-class fighters can control their destiny based on their performance.”
Bellator events will showcase highly competitive fights between top competitors with each tournament bout winner earning substantially larger purses and moving closer to a championship fight. “Simply put, at Bellator, fighters fight their way to the title,” Rebney adds.
With a tagline that refers to its fighters as warriors that are on their way to becoming legends, Bellator differentiates itself by making its fighters the focus of the organization. “The fans’ connection to Bellator will be created through our fighters. That understanding will drive the promotion, publicity, marketing and advertising of Bellator’s fighters, making them the centerpiece of what we do,” says Rebney.
On each telecast, leading up to tournament bouts, Bellator Fighting Championships will air back-stories on each fighter. “We will use the simple yet powerful sports programming philosophy of combining elite
competition with compelling feature pieces that tell the story of who these fighters are, where they’re from and why they compete,” says Bellator founder & COO Brad Epstein. “MMA fighters have incredibly rich stories to tell, and we will bring these to MMA fans, allowing our audience to identify with who these warriors really are.”
Bellator’s nationally televised events will be highly competitive sports programming in its purest form and will have no connection to “reality television.” These events are structured as tournament competitions, crowning champions and top challengers at the end of each season.
Bellator’s premiere season consists of 12 two-hour events to be broadcast weekly in primetime on Saturday nights. The nationally televised events will feature a combination of tournament and non-tournament special feature bouts. There will be four simultaneous tournaments taking place in season #1 over a three month period: one in each of the Featherweight (145 lb.), Lightweight (155 lb.), Welterweight (170 lb.) and Middleweight (185 lb.) divisions. Eight fighters from around the world will be represented in each division.
To win the Bellator Championship, a fighter must win a total of three fights, each consisting of three five-minute rounds over a three month period. At the end of the initial three month, 12-event season, Bellator will have crowned four Bellator Champions and will have awarded each Champion $175,000. Opening round winners receive $25,000, semi-final round winners receive $50,000 and final winners receive $100,000.
“Mixed Martial Arts is becoming increasingly popular among Hispanics and we are thrilled to work with Bellator Fighting Championships to showcase these world-class athletes on a national platform,” says Lino Garcia, general manager, ESPN Deportes. “The structure of this championship will give fans a unique opportunity to follow their athletes as the tournament progresses.”
Bellator’s interactive Web site, www.bellator.com, featuring event and fighter information, behind the scenes video footage, fight clips and live interaction with Bellator fighters will go live in late December, 2008.
About Bellator Fighting Championships
Bellator Fighting Championships is a Mixed Martial Arts promotional company with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago. Bellator’s founders, Bjorn Rebney and Brad Epstein, are experienced sports and entertainment professionals with a deep commitment to the purity and integrity of the sport of MMA and its athletes. Bellator Fighting Championships’ executive team is comprised of top industry professionals in the areas of live event production (including Rob Beiner, winner of 12 Emmy awards for sports programming), fighter relations, venue procurement, sponsorship creation/development, international licensing, marketing, advertising, publicity and commission relations.
28 Comments »
“Fighters control their own destiny by their performance”……hmmmm, you mean to tell me a guy with a 2-1 record shouldn’t be the champ?…..say it isn’t so lol.
I got $100.00 that says this LA based promotion that is going to agressively market it’s fighters, is the hew home for Tito Ortiz.
Actually, if they bring a fighter into ther tournament that has a pro record of 0-1 and he wins his first round, semi final fight and then the finals, he would be champion and 3-1.
TUF has had fighters with CRAP records or no records at all in the past, so who’s to say that this little promotion wouldn’t bring in someone along those lines?
So it’s basically pride but in la or chicago from espn deportes
Dana White, just add it to your tombstone now…
The first sentence i read was already stupid. Tournaments determine who the grittiest fighter is that night and has the ability to peak several times not the best fighter. Also can’t say enough about their timing. Also it didn’t mention that the creators are boxing guys so expect a full on G. Shaw treatement.
I don’t care – as long as it’s free & DW is not involved with the fighters
before even finishing the article I knew that Tito would be there in a heartbeat
I like the concept of win and get paid. Someone like tito making 250k a fight regardless, affected him. He was guaranteed money, so who cares!
Well if he’s not guaranteed the money I guarantee he won’t fight.
i know!! I’m just saying i like the concept. not for main gate guys, but for up and comers!
I doubt the loser doesn’t get paid, they would maybe pay 5k instead of 25k in the first round, 15k in the semi’s and maybe 35 in the final round. i understand that guys wan to make a name for them selves but they still need to make a living.
right! I love that. picture that concept in the UFC. A guy guaranteed money may not be as motivated as a must win for “winners purse” may fight!
That also may lead to fighters fighting not to lose instead of fighting to win. Do you want a fighter going out and trying to finish their opponent for a chance to win bonuses (i.e. submission of the night, KO of the night) or a guy who just wants to win a decision? Everyone rips Machida for his style and lack of killer instinct, but having the win be the only focus would cater to that type of strategy.
thats a great point that I didn’t think of greg! Put the bonuses in place too, and it could equal more exciting fights!
Sounds interesting.
This sound like another TUF model. Established fighters like Tito aren’t going to be on this show. Tito doesn’t need the money and doesn’t need the exposure.
If it’s going to be on the spanish espn channel, will it be in spanish (not familiar with that channel)? If so does that means their fighters need to be spanish speaking?
deportes is a spanish language channel. i dont know if the fighters will have to be hispanic or speak spanish im assuming yes, since that who they are catering to.
i hope not. does everyone in the ufc speak english?
that would be ridiculous and probably illegal… i hope that isnt the case but besides that i think this sounds like a cool setup, a reincarnation of the PRIDE tournaments almost
You think Tito wants to fight 3 times to make $175,000. I think not. Besides, he fights at LHW and their highest weight class is MW. I don’t see Tito with them anytime soon.
…….of course they will need a 205 class, but I’m sure they will start one for Tito.
Mania, think you have a typo in the first sentence:
“Bellator Fighting Championships, a first of its kind Mixedartial Arts (MMA) promotion”
Or is it supposed to be “Mixedartial Arts” and that is why its the first of its kind?
Also, I have a question. It says that it will be on ESPN Deportes. Do you know if at this time they plan of having a translated version of the show available online or anything? Cuz I really doubt they put something with subtitles or voice overs on ESPN. Its early, so I’d think that these kind of details have yet to be released, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
I like the concept to start off.
“Or is it supposed to be “Mixedartial Arts” and that is why its the first of its kind?”…LOL
dude thats just 8 fighters per weight class.
Since its most likely that they are unsigned fighters, how will you expect 8 unsigned fighters to be considered “world-class fighters”?
I like the show’s concept. I just hope they really get quality fighters, since they’ll be considered ‘champions’ of the show/promotion.
They will not be world class elite fighters right off the bat. Spain does have some pretty good fighters, and they aren’t doing as bad as expected in the M-1 Challenge. Hopefully MMA will start to gain popularity in Mexico because they can provide some high action 135 lb fighters!
Regarding M-1 Challenge, some of the US fighters are so bad that I wonder how they picked the team. Still, I like the show and I will watch this one if it is made available to the US.
You have to think to that elite XC is goning to lose all of their fighters, that means all those fighters would be able to start over there and use that a another option to get into the UFC. Their are a good group that will most likely end up in the UFC but for the majority they will need somewhere to go.
They have rumored a couple of names like Eddie Alvarez and Paulo Filho, but most of the times the young guys give beter fights since they are more hungry then the vets. Ala Amir Sadollah guy was 0-0 and took the tournament he will be a beast, heart, chin and slick subs and that is not even what he is good at. His background is kick boxing. I know Dana will be paying attention to the show and trying to see who he may be able to pick up he has been trying to get sutable hispanic fighters what better than somebody else finding them for you.
I saw somewhere that Eddie Alvarez and Masvadal are both going to be entering the lw tournament (if his contracts let him). That is not a bad start!