Friday, October 21, 2011

Will Bellator do a 125lb women's tournament?

Yesterday it was reported that Zoila Gurgel blew out her knee in training and is having surgery for a torn ACL. She was preparing for a Nov. 23 match against Carina Damm. That match has now been cancelled. Usual recovery time for that kind of surgery is six months to a year. Karma is a bitch, ain't it? But it brings up the larger picture of Bellator's supposed plans for a 125lb women's tournament. Keep in mind that there have been exactly zero women's matches on their main TV show this year. They have one women's match scheduled between Jessica Aguilar and Lisa Ward-Ellis and the only reason for that match is to burn off their contracts. Bellator president Bjorn Rebney has been blabbing that he wants to do a 125lb tournament. But first he complained that he couldn't find enough fighters for a tournament. There are enough fighters but some of them may not work cheap enough for his liking. I don't think he wants to pay Tara LaRosa's price. He's gone so far to suggest that some of the 115lb fighters could be in the 125lb tournament. How is that for desperation? Jessica Aguilar has already told him that she won't fight at 125. I don't know about others. It doesn't seem likely. And with Zoila injured, it would seem less likely that Rebney would want to to a tournament. Talk is cheap. It just seems like Rebney is giving lip service to placate women's MMA fans. I don't buy his baloney. So what about that title belt that Zoila was given last year? I doubt it will ever be defended. Why? There's nothing wrong with the tournament format if done properly. When you have a tournament, the winner of the tournament defends the title. Bellator doesn't do that. Instead they have a new tournament in the same weight class and the previous tournament winner has non title "superfights". The championship is never defended. That is a fundamental flaw in Bellator's format. He might as well make the title belts out of paper or plastic because they become meaningless after the tournament. It makes absolutely no sense to do that. And today Bellator commentator Jimmy Smith told Mauro Ranallo of The MMA Show that the non title matches devalue the titles. No kidding. This is the wrong way to do things. They need to stop it. Their TV situation is also an problem. It's now unlikely that they will go to Spike TV until 2013. I find their situation is very similar to TNA after WWE left Spike. TNA is cheaper than WWE just like Bellator is cheaper than UFC. Spike isn't looking for comparable ratings. They want more control over the product. And as they have shown with TNA, they are willing to contribute financially to the product. They have paid for some TNA wrestler contracts. It gives Bellator some security but I don't know how Spike feels about the tournament format. They may not like it. Time will tell.

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