As ardent fans of the sport we love, we’d like to think there is a better world of MMA outside the UFC. With several promotions and brands like ONE Championship, Bellator and the PFL vying for the number two spot, the market has a fair share of fights for fans to consume. But, how far are they from the UFC, in terms of popularity, brand recognition and fanfare? We’d even argue that the UFC Mexico fight card brought in more eyeballs and media coverage than the PFL’s flagship champ vs champ event did. It certainly seemed that way on social media. The main issue with this equation is that, as far as marketing is concerned, the UFC have that on lockdown. In many ways, MMA is almost synonymous with the UFC. They were the first and certainly, the brand recognition in those three letters is what netted the previous owners $4 billion while Bealltor was sold for what can be described as pennies. It’s a harsh truth that hardcore fans of the sport have to accept.
The fights
In a rather unexpected turn, the Bellator roster almost pitched a complete shutout of the PFL squad with the only two stumbles coming from Ryan Bader against the massive Renan Ferreira and a lacklustre performance from middleweight champ Johnny Eblen against Impa Kasanganay. Other than that, the Bellator boys ran through the best PFL had to offer. AJ McKee walked right through Clay Collard with a series of submission attempts finally leading to a triangle/armbar in under two minutes of the first round. Jason Jackson made easy work of Ray Cooper III with punishing calf kicks, dropping him in the second round and finishing the fight with a flurry of unanswered punches. The man left the cage with barely a scratch on him. Yoel fought off a timid Thiago Santos while former Bellator LHW champ Vadim Nemkov survived an early scare only to rally back and put Bruno Cappelozza out cold with a nast arm triangle. The only highlight for the PFL was Renan Ferreira destroying the ghost of Ryan Bader with a 21-second KO. It was a clear mismatch either way as Renan looked to be twice as large as Bader.
In any other metric, this would be a disaster for the PFL but the one thing that could redeem the promotion would be to shut down Bellator and fold its fighters into the PFL. God knows they need the talent right now. While Bellator did not have the money and promotional muscle behind the promotion, what they did was develop a roster of excellent fighters who were given time to grow into their skills. It’s still unknown how they’d fare against the elite in the UFC, but for now, they seem to be at a much higher level than the guys in the PFL.
What’s next?
So where does Bellator go from here? There is no real value in the brand as they just do not have a dedicated fanbase that promotions like PRIDE, WEC and even Strikeforce had. Maybe the market is more saturated now that the UFC has become a global monolith of MMA but organisations like the PFL would be wise to shore up their rosters with Bellator fighters. It’s a hard pill to swallow but the death of Bealltor wouldn’t even warrant an entire news cycle. We’d maybe get a few articles mourning the loss of another promotion but that’s about it. There is no real reason to run another MMA promotion with its own set of logistical nightmares. The only thing that will do is splinter an already fractured middle ground. The smart thing would be to absorb the Bellator fighters and announce them as the new PFL champs. But whatever the organisation does, it’ll still pale to the reach of the UFC brand and in many ways that needs to change.
