Other MMA Shows

[Ross18]

Despite winning I thought King Mo was poor again. Im a huge fan of his but he didn't look much better than his previous fight with Newton. Everytime he step in to engage and trade punches he seemed to do a few steps back and then a little run away as if everytime Zayats was throwing he was hurt, when he wasn't. Worried me a tad because that isn't going to look good in the judges eyes. Also from someone who is supposed to be a top wrestler he struggled again with takedowns, again was similar to the Newton fight. Whereas against Noe his wrestling looked on point and as if he'd got back to somewhat his best.

 

Not sure if he just respected Zayats too much.

 

I'd liked to think in 2014 he has enough to put Rampage away. Again I doubted Rampage and thought if M'Pumbu can drag him into the 2nd or 3rd he'd have Rampage in trouble. But again Rampage went after that KO and finished in the first.

 

Definitely an interesting final they have here. Although it did look a bit staged in the cage after and they were also going after each other in the press conference after I think there is hate there and hopefully it can drum up some interest. I for one can't wait to see this fight. Just really hope Mo can get back to his best and destroy Rampage.

 

Nunes vs Bassette overshined both fights though and was FOTN for me. Nothing worth of note from the rest of the card. Bit frustrating to start off the prelims with two no contests because of illegal knees and a eye poke. Fans didn't seem to enjoy that at all.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Ross18

[wandshogun09]

Yeah I really think Mo hasn't been right since the staph infection. That doesn't get brought up enough in my opinion. Didn't he nearly die? For the skills he has he should be looking better than this. It's got to be something to do with the staph and surgeries, I reckon.

 

I'm not sure I buy the Rampage-Mo beef. I thought they squashed it all ages ago. They were all pally and doing interviews together where they were laughing and joking, and Mo said they were the new Harlem Heat. I don't know. I'm not saying it's all bollocks or anything. There's always been a competitiveness between them and I think once they knew they were being lined up in the tournament, a bit of the old heat might've rekindled. But I really don't think there's any real hate there.

 

Still I'm pulling for Mo in this fight. I was a Rampage fan for so many years. Even when he knocked out Wanderlei I still couldn't hate him. But he's such a whining fuck these days I've almost completely 180'd on him. He's pretty much made himself impossible to like. And Mo comes across as a top bloke to me. Plus if Mo can pick up steam and regain some form, there's more upside in him than a late 30s Rampage who's seemed kind of disinterested in MMA for about three years. So yeah, I'm on Team King Mo.

Edited March 2, 2014 by wandshogun09

[GlennCullen]

Yeah I really think Mo hasn't been right since the staph infection. That doesn't get brought up enough in my opinion. Didn't he nearly die? For the skills he has he should be looking better than this. It's got to be something to do with the staph and surgeries, I reckon.

 

I'm not sure I buy the Rampage-Mo beef. I thought they squashed it all ages ago. They were all pally and doing interviews together where they were laughing and joking, and Mo said they were the new Harlem Heat. I don't know. I'm not saying it's all bollocks or anything. There's always been a competitiveness between them and I think once they knew they were being lined up in the tournament, a bit of the old heat might've rekindled. But I really don't think there's any real hate there.

 

Still I'm pulling for Mo in this fight. I was a Rampage fan for so many years. Even when he knocked out Wanderlei I still couldn't hate him. But he's such a whining fuck these days I've almost completely 180'd on him. He's pretty much made himself impossible to like. And Mo comes across as a top bloke to me. Plus if Mo can pick up steam and regain some form, there's more upside in him than a late 30s Rampage who's seemed kind of disinterested in MMA for about three years. So yeah, I'm on Team King Mo.

 

Are these two clowns still training for/doing pro wrestling? Their 'beef' is non existent, but if it sells a couple of buys, fair play to them.

[wandshogun09]

I'm not sure about Rampage but I could swear Mo knocked it on the head a while back. Could be wrong though. I know the MMA Beat lot were saying Mo said the pro wrestling training was harder than he expected. And I think coming back from the staph and surgeries, trying to do MMA and pro wrestling, he was probably asking a bit much of his body. I can't really think of anyone outside of Barnett and Sakuraba who were able to do both and still maintain a successful career in MMA.

[jimufctna24]

I have only seen highlights of Rampage and Mo's fights and confrontation, but here is my 2 cents on the matter.

 

Bellator is becoming the McDonalds of MMA with this. It may not have credibility and it might be cheap, but Rampage is pulling in the masses on Spike (relative to the standard of the times). Rampage was championing Bellator ratings last week, and his first Bellator fight did do very well

 

In regards to what Wand stated above, the beef is meant to be quite real if you believe Frontrowbrian. Mo is meant to legit dislike Page, and only squashed the beef a few years ago to appeases sponsors.

 

I like Mo, I now accept I overrated his talents and potential in the past (I thought he could be something massive in the UFC). Rampage is odd, as said above it is like he is a parody of himself these days. Bit like Tito Ortiz he is in that awkward place of being too fresh in the memory to have the charm of nostalgia, but too over the hill and passe to be relevant in 2014.

 

I hope Mo wins, as despite Bellator bringing in big ratings with Rampage the company has no credibility. If they continue to base their product around Rampage it will be seen as a cheap and cheerful UFC-Lite. Strikeforce built their product up excellently between 2007-2010, in my opinion Bellator is not even close to Strikeforce, which is a shame as they have some decent talent.

 

The MMA climate in 2014 might not be crying out for a Pepsi to the UFC's Coke, but Bellator have zero long-term planning with how they seem to be going about things. There plan to do PPV is baffling. They should stick to TV, which despite being on a network that is seen as the UFC's old network does have a ready-set audience who will tune in if something or someone hooks them.

Edited March 3, 2014 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

In regards to what Wand stated above, the beef is meant to be quite real if you believe Frontrowbrian. Mo is meant to legit dislike Page, and only squashed the beef a few years ago to appeases sponsors.

 

Really? Maybe I read it wrong then but Mo seemed very convincing in how friendly he was with Rampage in interviews. Maybe he should go into acting if he can't get back on track with this MMA lark. Seriously, I'm not sure I believe FrontRowMan on this. Either he's working us or Mo's working him, I reckon.

 

Like I said, not that I think Mo and Rampage are bestest mates or anything, or that the beef is 100% fake. There's always been some needle between them. But I don't buy that there's some real grudge going on here. And I won't be surprised if they go back to the Harlem Heat 2.0 stuff after the fight. Remember they're both big pro wrestling fans. I think they're just trying to generate interest in their fight. They probably haven't sat and planned it out, but they're likely just hamming it up a bit more than usual. If it works good for them I guess, maybe it'll actually add a few PPV buys if they're on that card. Won't make a big difference but it can't hurt.

 

There plan to do PPV is baffling. They should stick to TV, which despite being on a network that is seen as the UFC's old network does have a ready-set audience who will tune in if something or someone hooks them.

 

Yeah, I don't think it's the time to go on PPV. Strikeforce didn't even go on PPV did they? And that was during a hotter spell for MMA. All I can think is that they think they're competing with the UFC by doing this. They're not though. Look at when Affliction started up, Dana put Anderson Silva's 205 debut on free TV against it. I'm sure he did similar stuff a few times when Strikeforce had bigger shows. With Bellator they don't even bother. I like Bellator but I don't know what good it'll do them to go on PPV and do badly. Because I'm presuming they will. I could swear someone (I'm thinking Luke Thomas but it might've been someone else) said the original Bellator PPV with Rampage vs Tito and Chandler vs Alvarez 2 was projected to do something like 17,000-20,000 PPV buys before Tito got injured and they pulled the plug. 17-20K. What's the point? And how's this going to do much better with the same headlining guys but swapping Tito for Mo, who's clearly a better more relevant fighter than Tito in 2014, but is he more of a draw?

 

It's just a bad time to go on PPV. For anyone. It's not a knock on Bellator. The UFC have cornered the market on MMA PPVs, no-one else is even close. And they've got so many shows now. I mean, when you can watch quality fights like Machida vs Mousasi, Gustafsson vs Manuwa and Shogun vs Hendo 2 on free TV, who's going to pay to watch Bellator? Not many. People are getting more than their fill of MMA now. Even if you were a tight bastard and just watched the free cards, look how much free MMA you could watch in America in 2014. Between the UFC Fight Nights, Bellator on Spike, WSOF. There's tons of the stuff. To ask people to pay for something that's not the UFC right now, I just can't see it working. It would have to be some mental show where they've somehow snagged Brock Lesnar, dragged Fedor and Randy out of retirement and all sorts. And that's not happening.

 

This Bellator PPV, if it's what we think (Alvarez vs Chandler 3/Rampage vs Mo), might be the best card Bellator has ever put together on paper. And that's without an undercard. There's potential for sticking a Lima, Shlemenko, Curran, Pitbull or whoever on there as support. That's a seriously strong card. But surely sticking it behind a paywall will put a lot of people off. Imagine how well that card could do on Spike with a ton of promotion behind it, maybe a Countdown type thing? It would reach a far bigger audience and a card like that would do very well on Spike I reckon. It just seems a shame to limit that by sticking it on PPV. Most fans will want to see it, but who'll pay for it? Especially with it on May 17th, the week before Weidman vs Machida at UFC 173.

 

I hope they surprise everyone and do well on PPV. It'd only be a good thing for the sport. If they do well then, at least to other fighters, they become a more attractive second option. And as we saw with the Gilbert Melendez situation, that can lead to better things for the fighters. But I just don't see how they'll make this PPV thing work. UFC aren't exactly killing it at the moment on PPV, it takes something big like 168 or GSP vs Diaz to really do well. I'll be surprised if Bellator do as much as 100-150,000.

[jimufctna24]

Strikeforce never did PPV. They had the CBS slot they took over from Elite XC, and that cushy Showtime deal. Bellator will be lucky to do 50k on PPV. I hope I am wrong, as I do not want Bellator to outright fail.

 

You hit the nail on the head in terms of promotion. If they did this card on TV they could pop a very impressive number, and not incur the massive losses they will sustain for going on PPV.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, I mean look at the Chandler vs Alvarez 2 fight from November. An incredible fight, easily top 5 on most peoples FOTY lists. The best thing that could've happened for those guys was Tito pulling out and the PPV getting canceled. More people saw that fight because it was moved to Spike. That's good for the fighters, good for the fans and it's definitely good for Bellator. It was their best fight as a company last year, maybe ever. And surely you want that kind of fight to be seen by as many eyeballs as possible.

 

That show actually proved the point that Bellator aren't ready for PPV. Look how shite the rest of the card was. I know that can happen no matter what promotion but if that would've been their PPV debut it'd be a disaster bar the main event. Alvarez and Chandler really saved that show. Rampage and Tito wouldn't have been able to follow them either. It'd be a bit embarrassing.

 

Bellator have a strong roster. The core group of really good fighters they have is awesome. I'm a huge fan of Eddie Alvarez and I love Lima and the Pitbull brothers as well. They've got Chandler, Shlemenko, Dantas, Curran, Saunders. These are great fighters. The kind of roster they can do well on Spike with, with the right fights. But PPV? What have they got after Alvarez vs Chandler 3 and Rampage vs King Mo that could even remotely pass as a PPV quality main event? I can't think of one. So unless this is going to be a one off, I think they're really going to be taking the piss with some of their PPV cards after this one. Do they think people are going to pay for a Cheick Kongo PPV? Or will they dust off the Rampage vs Tito plans?

 

If they'd got Hendo when his UFC contract was up, and Melendez recently, they could do something decent. A second PPV with say Melendez vs Alvarez/Chandler and Rampage vs Hendo 2, that's a solid card. Wouldn't be a big hit but it'd make at least some sense. But they've got nothing you could run a PPV with after this, and if it's a one off, why bother at all? Stick to building an audience on Spike. Bellator's only been going what, five years. It took the UFC a good eight or nine years to even start turning a profit. There's no need to rush to PPV, it's just to dickwave and show they can. Which is surely the wrong reason.

 

They've got a good product, I just don't see why everyone ends up trying to get too big too quick. I get why Rebney has started mouthing off about Dana, it gets his company attention. But I don't see how that translates to PPV buys at all.

[Egg Shen]

There's that old saying that the last thing to go in a fighter is power and Rampage proved that, just seriously devastating power from such short distance. The fight was a big non-existant, M'Pumbu seemed to be out to frustrate Jackson, it was working and if he hadn't slipped he may been on his way to trying to eek out a very un-fan friendly decision, but he slipped and Rampage closed the show.

 

In cage beef at the end was fun stuff, people frown on it but i love shit like that, it'll look great in the video packages to the final.

 

 

Mo/Zayats was alright but it got a lot of hate from the crowd...King Mo's becoming one of those types of fighters. His Bellator run seems to flip between brilliant and bad, this was more towards the bad end of the scale but that may be a little discrediting to Zayats who shut down Mo's wrestling.

 

Still Bellator got the final it wanted, and it's one of the first times i think a tournament has played out as people expected.

 

Fight of the night was easily Diego Nunes/Matt Bassette. Bit of a poor 3rd round (and one terrible 30-27 call) but the first two rounds were excellent.

 

Bellator seemed pretty big time in the Mohegan Sun too, i don't know how tickets they comp'd but that place looked packed and they were loud...especially during the Nunes/Bassette fight.

 

Loved the Bellator/McDonalds analogy above

[jimufctna24]

Rampage still draws - http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Bellator-...ages-880K-64551

 

Shouting after the knockout might not have been classy, but at least he still cares.

[Egg Shen]

Rampage made some rash claim last week that Bellator is out-drawing the UFC, he got dissed for it but Bellator is definitely competing now.

[Snake Plissken]

 

BAMMA 15

AT THE COPPER BOX ARENA, LONDON (UK)

5TH APRIL 2014

 

TICKETS GO ON SALE THIS WEEK

 

BAMMA IS BROADCAST ON 5* IN THE UK, AXS-TV IN THE US, KIX IN ASIA, ABU DHABI TV IN THE MIDDLE EAST,THE FIGHT NETWORK IN CANADA, EXTREME SPORTS CHANNEL IN EUROPE, SETANTA IN AFRICA, SONY IN RUSSIA & TRANSYLVANIA MEDIA IN ROMANIA.

 

BAMMA is brought to you in Association with:

Lonsdale & Sports Direct - The Official Equipment Partners of BAMMA

Safe MMA - Independent British Medical Organisation

 

March 4th, 2014 - Europe's flagship Mixed Martial Arts promotion, BAMMA, is proud to announce that BAMMA 15 will take place at the Copper Box in London on 5th April. Located in London's Olympic Park in Hackney Wick, the iconic Copper Box Arena is a multi-sport venue which was famously used for the Summer Olympics in 2012. The fight card is to be announced shortly and tickets go on sale this week.

 

BAMMA's Director, Ashley Bothwell said:

 

"It's exciting for BAMMA to be holding an event in the Olympic Park at the Copper Box, as it carries a huge sporting legacy. 5th April will see the coming together of months of preparation for the fighters as all their hard work and sacrifice boils down to a few explosive, intense minutes. It is fitting that these crucial minutes should share a home with so many elite and aspirational sporting memories."

[Egg Shen]

nice move, the Copper Box looks a quality venue.

 

"He is coming" though? whats all that about?

[The Cum Doctor]

Oli Thompson.

 

Can't say "he" excites me much.

[Egg Shen]

oh yeh, i didn't see the promo video. Not that exciting really but Thompson is a lot of fun to watch. Isn't he fighting Mariusz Pudzianowski in KSW soon?