Bellator Fighting Championships: A Far Cry from “The Iron Ring”
Published by Jim Genia on April 15th, 2009 in Current Events

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When it was announced that a new organization was going to offer up a Latino-centric version of MMA, complete with a Spanish-language broadcast and a roster stocked with nearly every Latin-sounding last name out there, images of BET’s ill-fated and ill-executed reality show “The Iron Ring” came to mind. When it was announced that this new promotion, dubbed the Bellator Fighting Championships (“bellator” means “warrior”), was going to air on ESPN’s Deportes channel, the possibility that it would end up more like a sporting event than a spectacle surfaced. How hard would the whole Latino angle get pushed? Would production run closer to the antics of a game show on Univision? Would the finished product even resemble mixed martial arts? After watching two installments on TV and seeing one event live, the answers to these questions can be summed up by this statement: the Bellator Fighting Championships is a far cry from the Iron Ring.

There are no gangster rappers overseeing the action, waxing sub-poetic about how they’re from the streets and could kick the asses of those competing. There are no MMA-ignorant celebrity coaches, no martial arts “masters” instructing idling fighters on the best karate chop to counter a takedown, nor any aspect of Bellator FC coming off as contrived. The premise – eight-man tournaments in the featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and middleweight division stretched out over 12 events – is sound, and securing star talent such as DREAM grand prix finalist Eddie Alvarez, Strikeforce veteran Jorge Masvidal and EliteXC champ Wilson Reis has served to lend credibility to what might otherwise be an exercise in a strain of “who the heck are these people and why should I care?” futility. Unfortunately, filling the rest of the roster has meant a lot of relative unknowns, with minor leaguers such as Omar De La Cruz, Eric Reynolds and Aaron Romero stepping up to film intros and spill blood on cable television. But tournaments by their very nature create storylines, so when jiu-jitsu stud Reis makes it to the finals to square off against someone previously anonymous yet now known to be capable of defeating fighters A and B, it’s entirely possible fans will by then care.

Thus far, the ESPN Deportes installments have come across as professional and tight, which is an accurate portrayal of the feel of the live show (the pared-down episodes air on a 24-hour delay). For Bellator FC’s Week 2 event at Mohegan Sun, the nine-bout evening began on schedule (the sign of an experienced production crew), and while the venue was at most half-full, what made it to the broadcast implied energy and life. A neat trick, and vital for a satisfying product.

The one downside to Bellator FC is the gulf between their marquee fighters and the other competitors. Top East Coast welterweight Lyman Good took out a tough King of the Cage veteran in Hector Urbina last Friday, but in the next bracket of the 170-pound tournament he’s to face an overmatched product of Mexico’s MMA circuit in Jorge Ortiz. Reis defeated Greg Jackson-trained fighter Henry Martinez in his 145-pound division opener, but unless he slips on a banana peel during a bout he’ll likely have no trouble winning it all. Only in the lightweight division does the future seem intriguing, as Philadelphia slugger Alvarez and Miami striker Masvidal are on track to clash. Is this dearth of talent something within Bellator FC’s control? Not at all. As the Iron Ring taught us, it’s just an unfortunate byproduct of an ethnocentric MMA event. It does, however, make for a number of sure bets at the season final.

It might be too soon to predict the organization’s longevity with only two installments in the books, but a jump to ESPN2 (one of the network’s major English-speaking outlets) looms, with commentators Jason Chambers and Jon Anik already lending their cageside observations to complement the Spanish dialogue. Yet the tangibles of production, talent and finished product can be judged, and things are looking fine. Bottom line: Bellator FC rates a “so far, so good”.