Bjorn Rebney says Bellator will never force-feed PPVs, plans broadcast enhancements

Despite a rough start in the medium, more Bellator pay-per-views are on the way, according to the promotion’s chairman and CEO, Bjorn Rebney.

“There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle with guys that didn’t get on this show, so we’re absolutely looking to do pay-per-views in the future,” he told MMAjunkie Radio on Tuesday. “You’re never going to see our organization where we’re in a position where we’re just force-feeding one every two to three weeks. It’s never going to happen. We’ll do big, significant pay-per-view events.”

The promise is a subtle dig at the Viacom-owned promotion’s chief competitor, UFC, which is on track to run more than 50 events this year. These days, Rebney is more generous in his criticism of the industry-leader and doesn’t hesitate to point out when Bellator wins in TV ratings.

“There’s going to be no fill content; it’s not going to be like the backside of a Rolling Stones album,” he said of future Bellator PPVs. “Every single song is going to matter. Every single song is going to have substance.”

Saturday’s Bellator 120 event represents Bellator’s first formal encroachment into the UFC’s territory, and the CEO is doing his best to ensure the effort is a successful one despite a serious setback this past week.

The event, which takes place Saturday at Landers Center in Southaven, Miss., lost its most intriguing draw, a rubber match between current lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and ex-titleholder Michael Chandler. Alvarez was forced to withdraw when he suffered a concussion in training. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal now headline the show, and Chandler meets Will Brooks for an interim belt in the co-headliner.

Bellator’s first proposed PPV, Bellator 106 in November, was moved to Spike TV after headliner Tito Ortiz suffered an injury and was forced to withdraw from a fight with Jackson.

The immediate question when Alvarez withdrew was whether Bellator would again downgrade the proposed PPV broadcast to Spike TV. Bellator 106 drew strong ratings for the promotion on its longtime cable TV partner.

Rebney, though, said Bellator didn’t hesitate to stay the course. Several additions are planned for PPV portion of the broadcast, including backstage reporters, an enhanced lighting package and super slow-mo cameras for replays. And the promotion already is planning for the future.

“We’ll do probably two or three a year that are going to be big cards that make sense, that have great fights on them, and the rest we’ll do for free on Spike and keep doing big numbers, and we’ll keep building out the next (Douglas) Lima and the next (Alexander) Shlemenko and etc.,” he said.

For the latest on Bellator 120, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.