Bellator boss Bjorn Rebney gets wish with 'Rampage'-Ortiz pay-per-view

(This story first appeared in USA TODAY.)

Bjorn Rebney had a holy grail of MMA. He went after it, and in November he’ll make it a reality.

That’s when the Bellator MMA CEO will cross two things off his bucket list: Seeing a fight between former champions Quinton Jackson (32-11 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and Tito Ortiz (16-11-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), and putting on his company’s first pay-per-view event.

Rebney long has talked about his desire to delve into the pay-per-view landscape with Bellator. After signing former UFC light heavyweight titleholder Jackson earlier this year, he knew coaxing Ortiz out of retirement would be the second piece of the puzzle.

“We targeted him specifically with a ‘Rampage’ pay-per-view in mind,” Rebney told USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com on Monday. “I just took off the CEO hat and put on the fan hat. Of the epic battles that I wanted to see that I never got a chance to see, what was No. 1 on my list? And ‘Rampage’-Tito was No. 1 on my list – a great fight that I never got to see.”

It sounds simple enough. Jackson already was signed to do a mix of MMA for Bellator and professional wrestling for TNA Impact, which also is owned by Viacom. Ortiz, a fellow former UFC 205-pound champion, had been retired since a July 2012 loss to Forrest Griffin. Like Jackson, he parted ways with the UFC more than a little disgruntled.

Both fighters are legends in the sport, but well past their primes. Ortiz, 38, has lost six of his past seven fights, while Jackson, 35, has lost four of his past six.

The wrinkle is that Jackson and Ortiz are friends and former training partners. Both fighters always had said the right deal could get them into the cage against each other. That deal comes at Bellator 106 on Nov. 2 in Long Beach, Calif., with arguably more on the line for Bellator than for the winner of their fight.

“That was a fight I wanted to make,” Rebney said. “I’d watched them inside the cage, outside the cage, how they promoted, how they marketed (themselves), and it made a ton of sense. The genesis of doing the deal was to put this fight together for (pay-per-view).”

Bellator’s first crack at the pay model will come after what will be more than 100 live events that take place weekly during two full seasons a year. In January, the promotion transitioned to a cable deal on Spike TV for its eighth season. Season 9 premieres next month, and its 12-event run will feature 11 live events on Spike, plus the pay-per-view that Rebney said also will feature title fights.

Making the leap to pay-per-view doesn’t mean that will be Bellator’s new business model, but a successful first effort could make the decision easier in the future.

“You can’t force-feed pay-per-views down peoples’ throats month-in and month-out,” Rebney said. “We’re a free TV mechanism. Our partnership and our alliance is with Spike, and when incredible opportunities come up for us … we’ll probably jump back into the pay-per-view arena.

“But it’s not going to be one of those things where every single month, do or die, we keep putting it out where we don’t necessarily have, or someone else doesn’t necessarily have, the fighters to fuel it the way a premium purchase should be fueled.”

For more on “Bellator 106: Rampage vs. Tito,” stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Bjorn Rebney)