Chunk

Ronaldo looks like he's made out of wood. Heavily varnished wood.

Bloke who runs that got on the tube behind me after the Bellator show last week, stil wearing his media credentials.

True story.

how was the Alex Reid fight? im surprised they didn't show it, sounded like he got whooped though.

He looked reasonable on his feet but once he was taken to the ground it was clear he had no answer.

 

 

To be fair, that's pretty standard in my experience of UFC events. Fuck all happens apart from a shit load of awful adverts for future events. I'm not really sure what entertainment you expect between fights to be honest? They expect people to go to the bar for drinks etc.

 

In relation to the pricing, I think it was too high to begin with, but losing Kimbo and the co-main with Koscheck hurt the event badly too. 

 

It was actually the first time I've watched an entire Bellator main card in it's entirety and really enjoyed it. MVP is just so good and as you mentioned, Thompson has got some chin on him.

 

What entertainment do I expect? A shit load of awful adverts for future events!

 

No, fair point. It definitely seemed worse to me then UFC London earlier in the year though. I just thought they could stick a few hype interviews on the big screens, highlights for upcoming fighters, that sort of thing. Basically what the UFC did at UFC London. Instead it was just a silent arena with nothing happening for large periods.

 

 

If it was nothing but dead air that's certainly an odd one. As mentioned even shitty ads provides a bit of background noise to drown out the silence of the arena. 

 

There was some of that, but there was also a lot of silence.

To be fair, that's pretty standard in my experience of UFC events. Fuck all happens apart from a shit load of awful adverts for future events. I'm not really sure what entertainment you expect between fights to be honest? They expect people to go to the bar for drinks etc.

 

In relation to the pricing, I think it was too high to begin with, but losing Kimbo and the co-main with Koscheck hurt the event badly too. 

 

It was actually the first time I've watched an entire Bellator main card in it's entirety and really enjoyed it. MVP is just so good and as you mentioned, Thompson has got some chin on him.

What entertainment do I expect? A shit load of awful adverts for future events!

No, fair point. It definitely seemed worse to me then UFC London earlier in the year though. I just thought they could stick a few hype interviews on the big screens, highlights for upcoming fighters, that sort of thing. Basically what the UFC did at UFC London. Instead it was just a silent arena with nothing happening for large periods.

Assuming the Lesnar second test comes back positive, the fight being in Nevada apparently means it will now be changed to a Hunt win (rather than a no contest). Seems like most bookies only pay out on the originally announced result, but worth checking terms and conditions just in case.

How would they chase people down for money? Surely there's no way they could reverse their payouts. It just wouldn't be practical.

Fun show. They ended up closing and curtaining off the whole top tear. We got some pretty sweet upgrades to the first tier about 20 rows back. The O2 managed the whole upgrade process (once there) really well. Even with the top shut off, I'd say the venue was still only at best about two thirds full.

They messed about with the order of the card for some reason, so I'm not sure what made it onto TV. The delays between fights were silly at times too. Sometimes 20 minutes with nothing else going on in the arena to keep you entertained. MVP was the most over fighter by far, that knock out sounded brutal even from where we were. Oli Thompson took some huge shots before finally getting stopped. After MVPs finish, a huge delay before the main event and then it being 3 rounds instead of 5, the Semtex fight felt a bit flat to me.

All in all a fun card and a good night. We all called it the moment the tickets when on sale but the venue and the pricing was just clearly wrong for Bellator. A real shame to see the place so empty, even if it did make for a sweet upgrade, shorter queues at the bar and an easier journey back home. Hopefully it doesn't put them off running London again. A 5-7k capacity venue, an event not near a UFC event and tickets 20% cheaper and they could pull a good crowd.

To be fair, when I click through on the AXS site now it only shows £40 sold out tickets as the cheapest option.

FUCK THIS BULLSHIT!

At least Alex Reid is still on the card.

Don't think it's whiny at all. Think that's very fair comment to make and was what I was getting at when I mentioned contacting Coker and Bellator directly on Twitter if other means don't fix it for you. Its basically dicking the customers who've provided any revenue to keep this as an actual event over here IMO. Putting cheaper and freebies in better seats. That isn't how it should work.

I've given that a try, for what it's worth. Let's see how it plays out.

Had Lesnar and Nunes come in at 7/1.

The mental Roy Nelson / Derrick Lewis decision and Sanchez getting knocked out (who saw that coming!?) knackered me otherwise.

At risk of coming over like a whiny bitch, the more I think about this the more annoying it is. My reward for showing interest early and parting with my hard earned cash is that I get to sit in a worse seat than someone that was given a ticket for free. It's a bit of a piss take really. The least they could do is try and sort out those of us that bought a ticket early.

 

Bono, if your close by I'd phone up, just be polite to them on the phone and ask. If they say no and your local I'd go ask at the box office. And if not maybe tweet Coker/Bellator account saying dissapointed you laid out early money etc and now people late to the game getting better seats for cheaper.

Thanks for the advice. Gave axs a call and they understood my frustrations so they said. They said they couldnt do anything, that it was an arena thing. They said they would email the o2 and get back to me. I spoke to someone at the o2 and they said its an axs thing :-) in the mean time i havent heard nothing off axs. Probaly just pick a better seat on the night once the shows started.

 

Sent a few moany tweets. That's sort this mess out!

Let me know if you hear anything back and I'll do the same. Not sure how easy it will be to move around the arena during the night - they usually have stewards checking tickets in each area, don't they?

Big price reductions on the bellator seats. Can pick up a seat in the lower tier directly looking at the stage now for £50 and a floor seat for £75 . Paid £115 for seats worse then them ones. Look like there will be plenty of room so ill probably move over closer to the cage. if I went to the box office before the show, would they move my tickets for better seats?

 

 

https://tickets.axs.com/eventShopperV3UK.html?wr=GEN-ac2f-4fe4-a860-9e0f975e8a37&addData=LON&preFill=1〈=en&locale=en_gb&eventid=309611&ec=O2L160716BLE&src=AEGAXS1_WMAIN&skin=axs_theo2&fbShareURL=www.axs.com%2Fuk%2Fevents%2F309611%2Fbellator-mma-tickets%3F%26ref%3Devs_fb

WTF is this bullshit! Bought my ticket straight away, so in exactly the same position as you.

My afternoon coffee break task is to stick a few on.

I fancy Sanchez over Lauzon. I just think he'll drag Lauzon into a war and it's basically impossible to knock Sanchez out.

Edit: Just checked his record and Sanchez has never been stopped, let alone knocked out! Not properly anyway, he's got 1 doctor stoppage loss. That's amazing when you consider the wars he's been in and the way he fights!

The London card is cursed, Linton Vassell is now out due a cut suffered in training. That's 3 of the main card fights dropping off, grim.

Dammit!

Said the Bantom of the Opera

To the Archbishop of Banterbury?

 

(About Twitter. I have no experience with Keith's penis).

 

No-one has.

 

 

 

 

 

 

HI-YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

LADS! LADS! LADS! LADS! LADS! LADS! LADS! LADS! LADS! 

This suggests otherwise: http://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/

(About Twitter. I have no experience with Keith's penis).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=84&v=W18W9EKPZC8

 

a trailer for a biopic about Jose Aldo. It was meant to come out around the time of UFC 194 but got put back due the KO loss to McGregor. Film is due out just before UFC 200 now.

Looks pretty decent! Know if it'll be in English?

Makes sense to me. Was thinking the same thing earlier today, actually.

Michael MVP Page is fighting Cyborg Santos at the o2.

I thought he was already booked to fight Fernando Gonzalez.

Fair point about the Senei.

 

what's Ian Freeman doing?

He's tied up with KSW in Poland isn't he? Swear I posted a clip of his most recent fight were his little kid had the pleasure of sitting cageside watching his dad's head bounce of the canvas.

 

 

Tito's not gonna do numbers for this sadly either though. It's a real shame in a respect that Bellator just don't have one major star in the publics eye over here, the brand name doesn't sell anywhere near like the UFC's either.

 

They were never going to do huge numbers anyway. I was confused as to why they were doing the UK event to begin with, especially considering the fact that they've not even really cracked their home market yet.

 

 

Im sorry to sound like a broken record, but the o2 was likely chosen because its part of the Senei weekend. The weigh-in, meet & greets whatever will all be taking place at the Senei event that is held at the o2 the same weekend. Its a smart piece of marketing, its a shame the card is falling to bits.

Yeah I remember this coming up in a thread, although I still stand by my suggestion of the excel centre being a better fit for both. The problem I personally think more than anything is that tickets are so over-priced for it. They've done some ok marketing to give them credit, posters and TV. Nothing real crazy but it's a start. When people find the cheapest ticket to see Kimbo and Alex Reid is about £50 they're probably gonna give it a miss.

 

Couldn't agree more. Especially when the tickets went on sale pretty quickly after the UFC event in London. If you've just forked out for UFC, you've probably spunked your MMA budget for a while, let alone spending the same sort of money but for Bellator!

Robbie Lawler puts McGregor's prospects at Welterweight into perspective: https://www.instagram.com/p/BGa4IIXrg_r/

I would not want to be Tyron Woodly right about now ...