mma / Columns

Sizing Up a Bellator Heavyweight Tournament

October 24, 2016 | Posted by Dan Plunkett

The hiring of Scott Coker as Bellator MMA president in June 2014 promised change. For better or worse, he delivered on that promise. The promotion left behind the tournament format and along with it the “seasons” that brought weekly shows. Coker signed big name fighters that set company ratings records, although some were decades past their prime and probably shouldn’t have been competing. The idea was to use those big names in creating new stars, although as ratings tell it, those experiments haven’t yet yielded long-term benefits.

There has been one area of relative stagnancy since the beginning of the Coker era: Bellator’s heavyweight division. With the exception of heavyweight, every Bellator championship has changed hands since Coker took over. This isn’t the result of some dominant champion, but rather a dormant one. Vitaly Minakov captured the title with an impressive first round knockout in November 2013, then defended the belt in April 2014. Since that time, he’s fought exclusively in Russia. After two years away from the Bellator cage, he was finally stripped of the title in May 2016.

Since that time, Bellator has made no sudden movements toward crowning a new heavyweight champion. Rather, as Bobby Lashley commented after his fight on Friday, it appears they are gearing up for a heavyweight tournament in the new year.

Tournaments used to be Bellator’s entire gimmick, but that’s changed under Coker. Coker’s tournaments are intended to be special occasions, harkening back to the legendary tournaments in Pride FC. His success with tournaments has been a mixed bag.

In some ways, the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix he orchestrated in 2011 was a big success. At first, it brought more attention than ever to the promotion, seemed to take them to a new level as a viable competitor to the UFC, and set ratings records. Then, depending on who you ask, the tournament may have put Strikeforce in a poor financial situation that caused them to sell (although former Strikeforce higher ups, Coker included, have disputed this), and following the sale to Zuffa it struggled to the finish line due to withdraws.

Last year, Coker created a one-night light heavyweight tournament for Bellator Dynamite. The four-man tournament, featuring Phil Davis and King Mo as the marquee names, failed to garner much interest, perhaps overshadowed by the gimmickry of the night. Ratings fell below expectations, and a year later, the tournament is a distant memory.

A heavyweight tournament in 2017 will be a challenge for Bellator. Outside of the totally barren super heavyweight, heavyweight is the weakest men’s division in the sport, with most of the top talent residing in the UFC and little in the way of up-and-coming stars. To their credit, Bellator has assembled a solid core heavyweight group with recognizable names, but beyond that core group, both talent and name value fall of a cliff. However, the tournament concept is still doable, and if done right it could be a much needed momentum boost for the promotion.

If only for lack of talent, a one-night four-man tournament may be the direction Bellator chooses. However, it would benefit the promotion of the tournament to expand to an eight-man field and move to a two-night format – culminating in a one-night four-man tournament sometime after the opening round.

For whatever reason, there hasn’t been a four-man tournament in mixed martial arts that has stood the test of time. Perhaps this is due to a happenstance lack of star fighters, or because the small field doesn’t create enough excitement from the get-go. The eight-man format will allow Bellator to spread the tournament across at least two shows, building anticipation for the finale and spreading a viewership boost for beyond a single show.

As far as talent, obvious candidates for inclusion in Bobby Lashley, Cheick Kongo, Sergei Kharitonov, and Matt Mitrione. Beyond that, there are a few other regular Bellator heavyweights to consider, including Justin Wren, Augusto Sakai, and Tony Johnson. However, Bellator will likely be forced to acquire outside talent or get creative for part of the field. Shane Carwin is looking for a fight, and perhaps Shawn Jordan and Blagoi Ivanov will become available. Internally, King Mo doesn’t much care about weight classes, or maybe they can match Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva in a first round fight – whatever will add interest to the tournament. It doesn’t have to be comparable to Pride’s 2004 heavyweight tournament field, it just has to boost interest in Bellator.

It’s time for Bellator to do something with a heavyweight division that has done little more than exist for the past two-and-a-half years. A simple heavyweight tournament as they did with the light heavyweights at Bellator Dynamite could crown a heavyweight champion and fade from memory as soon as it wraps. However, there is the potential for a grander affair that will increase fan interest in the division and the promotion. If it’s going to be done, it’s worth doing right.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.

article topics :

Bellator MMA, Dan Plunkett