Trading Shots: Downes and Fowlkes on Bellator 106, tape-delayed TV, PPV plans

MMAjunkie.com’s resident fighter-turned-writer Danny Downes is back again to help me unravel the sound and the fury (and the awkward interviews) that made up Bellator 106.

Maybe, just maybe, we can put our heads together and figure out what Saturday night’s event on Spike TV taught us about the UFC’s largest competitor, and where it can go from here.

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BF: So Danny, Bellator MMA had its big night on Saturday. As a recent transplant to sunny California, I understand you were among those fight fans hit with the terrors of tape delay. On the whole, how would you describe your Bellator viewing experience?

DD: Like you pointed out, Bellator didn’t air here in San Diego until 9 p.m. local time. As a result, my night was spent trying to find Internet streams based out of Colombia, so I spent Saturday huddled over a laptop clicking out of advertisements for Mac Cleaner and herbal vitality supplements. While it still amazes me that hours of “COPS” reruns preempt Bellator out here, that should be something that’s easily remedied. What’s not easily remedied, though, is presentation. Pacing issues, strange pre-fight interviews and lackluster performances (incredible main event aside) all resulted in an event that was mediocre. What was your impression of Bellator 106?

BF: First of all, you might want to look into that Mac Cleaner after visiting those Colombian websites. Second, my impression of the fights depends on whether we’re talking about the product as a whole or just the main event. On one hand, I feel like Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler did it again (only slightly less so this time). On the other, wasn’t this supposed to be the card with all Bellator’s best stuff? Because it didn’t feel that way to me. Could it be that my expectations were simply too high for guys like Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Pat Curran?

DD: I think there’s a case to be made for that. When you advertise three title fights, fans expect them to be the best of the best. After Mike Richman started the night with a first-round knockout, the energy was gone for about another three hours. The problem with multiple title fights is that there’s the potential for all of them to go the distance, and that’s exactly what happened here. Sometimes things don’t work even if they look incredible on paper. I think the larger question here isn’t about individual fighters who may have under delivered, but Bellator’s place in the MMA landscape as a whole. Should Bjorn Rebney and company resign themselves to being the “other” promotion, or could they truly be a competitor to the UFC?

BF: Remember that thing Woody Allen said about relationships being like sharks, in that they have to be constantly moving forward or else they die? Well, actually I guess it was the Woody Allen “character” in one of his movies who said it, but same thing. Point is, I think fight promotions are kind of the same way. If you tell yourself “We’re No. 2!’ you’ve basically relegated yourself to a lower league. You can’t come back from that. You can’t decide two years from now that you want to try to be No. 1. You also can’t hold on to any really good fighters that way because who gets into this cage fighting stuff because their goal is to be the champ of the No. 2 organization on the planet?

Look at Alvarez and Chandler. Both probably regard themselves as elite lightweights, yet they still have to explain to seatmates on airplanes that, yes, they basically do UFC, but not actually in the UFC. Bummer, right? And yet, I’m not going to sit here and say that they wouldn’t be title contenders in the UFC’s 155-pound division. Are you?

DD: Not at all, and I think anyone who’s watched Bellator knows that it has a lot of talent. Despite your (misguided) opinion that Ben Askren can’t compete in the UFC, I think he would hold his own against the top welterweights if he weren’t currently being used as a pawn in a PR battle. Everyone knows that Bellator is the No. 2 promotion (even though Bellator would never admit it), but it does have room to grow. As the UFC roster swells and it finds ways to put on events to serve that roster, there’s a place for another international MMA entity. The only question is, how do you do it? Something tells me that a second season of “Fight Master” isn’t the answer.

Fighters will tell you that they “want to go to war” and they’ll fight anyone anywhere, but a lot of them can be savvy businessmen behind those obnoxious T-shirts. Can Bellator win by throwing a lot of that Viacom money at them? Getting rid of the tournament format? Designing contracts that aren’t as constricting as my AT&T cable one?

BF: You’re just going to keep on willfully misrepresenting my stance on Askren simply to antagonize me, aren’t you? For the record, I think he could totally compete in the UFC, but wouldn’t be champ. So there. As for the future of Bellator, I think money solves a lot of problems. Throw a bunch of cash at fighters, and they’ll be more likely to forget about all that testing-myself-against-the-best-in-the-world stuff. Trouble is, I don’t see Bellator doing that. Emanuel Newton made $20,000 for beating “King Mo” a second time. Lawal made 10 grand. Ten grand! You know better than me, but that sounds like WEC money right there. Granted, Chandler and Alvarez did a little better, but they’re also by far the two greatest assets Bellator has. You know they’re also going to have to fight a third time now. No way around it. Question is, will you, Daniel W. Downes, be willing to pay to see it?

DD: I took a few economics courses in college, Fowlkes, so I’ll lay some knowledge on you. There’s this thing called “willingness to pay.” To put it in layman’s terms, the WTP is how much an individual is willing to pay for a good or service. When it comes to Alvarez/Chandler III, the truth is I’m not willing to pay $45 for a single fight. MMA pay-per-views get a push from the main event, but we’ve been conditioned to buy events from top to bottom. The boxing model does not work for MMA, and that’s all Bellator seems to offer right now. What could it add to sweeten the deal? We’ve already seen three title fights. Winner of “Rampage” Jackson vs. Joey Beltran against a cybernetic Tito Ortiz?

BF: OK, professor. So what you’re basically saying is Bellator had better put the rubber match on free TV or else it’s back to the Colombian websites and the herbal remedy ads for you. And you know what? I think the majority of MMA fans would be right there battling pop-ups with you. I also think Bellator will refuse to acknowledge that reality until it’s too late. After all, these are the same people who thought Ortiz-Jackson was the fight we were all dying to see. Personally, I’d rather see Bellator focus on its tournaments in an effort to find some new talent we might (eventually) be willing to pay for. Because Chandler and Alvarez can’t keep carrying the show forever, and Ortiz’s neck ain’t getting any younger.

DD: The fact of the matter is that MMA fans are inundated with multiple events every month, and they have a finite amount of dollars. Does Bellator need a pay-per-view event to be considered a serious player? I don’t believe so. It hasn’t been talking about multiple PPV events, but rather about a single one. Is it worth the embarrassment to host a single event? What does Bellator gain from it even if it does become successful?

The fact of the matter is that Bellator is on television weekly and even diehard MMA fans can only name a handful of its fighters. Do you think you could even name all its champions off the top of your head? If MMA’s growth continues at its current trajectory, there’s room for another high level organization. If Bellator keeps looking to stars from decades past to build the brand, though, it won’t be around long enough to see the future.

For more on Bellator 106, stay tuned to the MMA Events section of the site.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie.com and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie.com contributor who also writes for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.