Bellator boss says there are UFC pay-per-views he wouldn't watch for free

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – After much hand-wringing and concern, Bellator MMA has now conducted its first pay-per-view event. But don’t expect them to rush back to the market. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said he’s not making the same mistake as the UFC.

“I used to watch the UFC years ago, and I used to buy pay-per-views when they were significant and every pay-per-view had big fights on it, but that’s not the case anymore,” Rebney told MMAjunkie. “They do one every three weeks, and some of them, I’m like, ‘I wouldn’t watch that if it was on (FOX Sports 1).’”

Tension between the sport’s two leading promotions is certainly nothing new. While Bellator operated largely under the UFC’s radar following its 2009 launch, Rebney, in particular, has started to get a bit more chippy in his recent media appearances.

Recently, the Bellator CEO acknowledged the importance of one of the UFC’s biggest political enemies, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 of Las Vegas and UNITE HERE, and blamed the sport’s largest promotion for the stalled efforts to get MMA legalized in New York.

And after Saturday’s Bellator 120 event, Rebney took another thinly-veiled shot at the UFC as he discussed his company’s cautious plan for another one-night move off of Spike TV and on to pay-per-view.

“I just think that you’ve got load them up,” Rebney said. “You’ve got have cards like the card we had tonight to make it make sense.

“My feeling is you should do pay-per-views when you can do huge depth on the pre-show on Spike and huge depth open the pay-per-view, and we did that tonight. And when we have the opportunity to do it again, whether it’s sometime later this fall to next year – whenever it is – we’ll do it again.”

Bellator 120 took place Saturday at Landers Center in Southaven, Miss. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson edged Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in the evening’s main event.

The promotion returns to Spike TV next week for Bellator 121.

For complete coverage of Bellator 120, stay tuned to the MMA Events section of the site.

Matt Erickson contributed to this report in Southaven.

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