OCTOBER 26, 2011 – Things are moving and shaking in the world of MMA. In a news story first broken by Sergio Non over at USA Today, it has been confirmed that Viacom, parent company of the MTV and SPIKE networks, has went out and bought the Bellator Fighting Championships.
Largely spearheading the mainstream growth of Mixed Martial Arts along with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, SPIKE TV has long been the of the UFC’s trademark reality show, The Ultimate Fighter all the way to this season. With that broadcast contract ending and the UFC headed over to FOX, the powers that be decided to jump even deeper into the world of MMA rather than abandon their faith in what is undoubtedly the world’s fastest sport.
According to the USA Today article, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was quoted in saying that they’ve been in talks for about a year cooking up this acquisition and that Bellator will start airing the promotion’s main card bouts on SPIKE in 2013. “Viacom can guarantee a stable future for Bellator,” Bjorn told USA Today.
“It puts all of those cornerstones of ownership in place for us,” he said. “Which is something that’s been so seriously lacking in the MMA space with so many different companies, including Strikeforce and the IFL and Affliction and all the different failures that have occurred. … It alleviates those issues.”
With Rebney staying on board as the man in charge as he has since been since 2009, look for Bellator to enjoy consistent growth built around their tournament model leading up their 2013 Spike TV debut and increase brand awareness of the promotion through other initiative, like streaming preliminary fights on Spike TV’s website like they’re doing this Saturday, October 29th at 8PM Texas time.
Bjorn and crew will also enjoy a year of renewed capital in which to build up what is already the clear #2 promotion in all of Mixed Martial Arts through other deals and fighter acquisitions to add to a roster that already features names like Hector Lombard, Eddie Alvarez, Ben Askren, and more.
All in all, most believe this is a great deal for MMA as a sport as it now marks the second promotion that will reap the benefits of support from a large network conglomerate. In short, mainstream here we come.
“It’s a very, very good day for mixed martial arts as a whole,” Rebney told USA Today. “Because now you have two groups in the space that have a very substantial presence that obviously isn’t going to go anywhere for a very, very long time.”
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