The UFC is without a doubt the top MMA promotion in the world today. There has never been a time when MMA fighters are known worldwide to the proportions that they are almost like rock stars.
However, throughout this long string of successes the promotion has achieved, there is a competitor that is slowly starting to creep on the MMA promotional king’s position as top dog.
That competitor is named Bellator MMA and is has as of late started giving the UFC a run for it’s money when it comes to certain areas. In fact in some areas the promotion may have the UFC beat.
Pay and Sponsors
When it comes to pay the UFC is typically able to make money offers to fighters that can’t be beat.
However, when it comes to money offers, Bellator can actually afford to dish out what the UFC can as well. The reason for this is that Viacom, Bellator’s parent company, is a billion dollar entertainment conglomerate.
But the first area that Bellator has the UFC beat is in sponsors. This is because the UFC has the exclusive Reebok sponsorship, which helps guys just getting started but not middle tire fighters.
Bellator however, has no such restrictions on sponsors and as a result, many fighters are content heading to Bellator for the sponsorship money in addition to anything Bellator puts on their contracts.
Head to Head Competition
For the most part this really hasn’t happened too much during the actual competitive part of the promotions’ coexistence. However in the past few years there have actually been times that Bellator has come on top.
This first happened when in 2014 Bellator hosted Bellator 131 on the same night as UFC 180. UFC 180 ended up with a buy rate of 185,000 whereas Bellator broke its’ viewership record with an average of 1.2 million viewers which peaked during the main event with 2 million when Tito Ortiz and Stephen Bonnar fought.
Bellator’s record was beat in 2015 at Bellator 138 when Kevin ‘Kimbo Slice’ Ferguson fought Ken Shamrock and the ratings averaged 1.6 million with the peak being 2.4 million. This beat out UFC 194 which had a buy rate of 1.4 million.
To top this all off the UFC had previously scheduled UFC 208 on January 21 this year at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. However, with Bellator scheduling Bellator 170 at the Forum in Los Angeles on the same night, the UFC backed down and scrapped the event.
Are these signs of a changing in the tide of power? Only time will tell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8efc5_Ar00E