Bjorn Rebney founded Bellator with an eye on making it a true sporting organization, one where talent, not name, would get you title shots. He built his company around the tournament format as a result, hearkening back to the early days of MMA. However, Bellator always seemed to be the minor leagues, no matter how hard they tried. After Viacom picked them up and put them on Spike TV to fill the void the UFC left when it moved to Fox, it was only a matter of time before the corporate parent would want better results. And so after struggling to launch a Pay-per-View for most of 2013/early 2014, then finally getting one off the ground to mixed reviews, Viacom made a move, booting out the founder of the promotion. In came Scott Coker, the man who made Strikeforce a legit competitor to the UFC for a while. Gone were Bellator's tournaments, and any claim Bellator had to sporting legitimacy. No, it's been all freakshow fights since Coker came aboard. He's not above giving a title shot to Joey Beltran despite Beltran having little more than a fading name, apparently. This approach has proven to be successful, somewhat, in the ratings - but lets remember that it was Bjorn Rebney who signed Tito Ortiz, King Mo, and Rampage Jackson, while it has been Scott Coker who signed a washed up Stephan Bonnar, turned the Bellator cage into a pro wrestling spoof, lost Rampage Jackson (apparently), and whose biggest signings to date have been Bobby Lashley and Melvin Manhoeff. The jury is still out on this one.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
