News Bellator sale talks heating up

TorontoTO said:
Supposedly ESPN/Disney is gonna have PFL and Bellator both merged into one, possibly to replace UFC eventually
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Jesus man, I hope this doesn't mean just absorbing Bellator's roster into PFL. The worst fucking timeline.

Tbh, I like Bellator overall much more than the PFL, not just the format but the overall identity and the events themselves (don't even need to talk about PFL's pacing). Also, I just can't see how apparently investors actually see PFL as a big thing going foward man, every article I read about them make them seem like the next big thing, then you go watch the events and it's worse than a late night Fight Pass random regional event.
 
No idea if it's related to this possibly happening or not, but it's interesting that we are now in May and there's no card announced for after June. The silence about events is usually an end of year thing.

The closest I've seen is Tim Johnson brought up fighting again and mentioned South Dakota. I doubt he'd just mention that, without them floating a location for a future event.
 
Terry_Dak_Tull said:
No idea if it's related to this possibly happening or not, but it's interesting that we are now in May and there's no card announced for after June. The silence about events is usually an end of year thing.

The closest I've seen is Tim Johnson brought up fighting again and mentioned South Dakota. I doubt he'd just mention that, without them floating a location for a future event.
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In a recent coker interview, i think the post fight for the last event he mentioned they have events lined up they havent announced yet. Why the delay in announcing the events is anyones guess
 
USA-man said:
In a recent coker interview, i think the post fight for the last event he mentioned they have events lined up they havent announced yet. Why the delay in announcing the events is anyones guess
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Ya I noticed that as well, usually you get some guys posting about a bout coming up in an unannounced location but it’s been quiet. I think we will get a sale announcement in the next month or two, whether it’s PFL is another story

However getting 100+ guys to agree participate in your stupid season format is gonna be another story.especially guys like Pitbull who remember the Bjorn Bellator tournaments
 
It likely won't lead to anything, but you never know what may happen now with the writers just going on strike. Bellator can provide two or three hours of unscripted content. The strike in 2008 was pretty bad.
 
Anytime you put Scott Coker as president of a company, that said company will die a slow death. Fact.
 
philweed said:
Anytime you put Scott Coker as president of a company, that said company will die a slow death. Fact.
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Eveything dies or ends, wouldnt you want to slowly die enjoying life than quickly dying? Everyone dies , we have to face that reality.
 
USA-man said:
Eveything dies or ends, wouldnt you want to slowly die enjoying life than quickly dying? Everyone dies , we have to face that reality.
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Good god…stfu. Either you didn’t get the point or you just want everyone to think you’re a “glass is half full” kind of guy.
 
Was gonna bet on Wasserman for the buy, but now leaning towards Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Right now they are building a boxing promotion to add, but they still need a guys division to stand beside Invicta's women.
 
David Street said:
Was gonna bet on Wasserman for the buy, but now leaning towards Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Right now they are building a boxing promotion to add, but they still need a guys division to stand beside Invicta's women.
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They seem like it'd be same old/same old, not really noticed any changes at all in Invicta since they took over.
 
David Street said:
Was gonna bet on Wasserman for the buy, but now leaning towards Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Right now they are building a boxing promotion to add, but they still need a guys division to stand beside Invicta's women.
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Anthem does seem the best bet to buy Bellator since they have AXS TV / Fight Network and also there’s a good chance Bellator would use YouTube to broadcast their cards instead of Showtime (having your fights on a premium cable channel like Showtime isn’t good business these days with declining cable subscriptions). Also there’s a good chance that Scot Choker stays on to run Bellator with less corporate interference if Anthem does buy Bellator (Choker would have a seat on Anthem’s board representing Bellator, just like Knapp represents Invicta). I always felt that Viacom corporate disinterest and or interference harmed Bellator similar to how Turner (besides Ted Turner himself) and later Time-Warner / AOL corporate disinterest and interference killed WCW.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
They seem like it'd be same old/same old, not really noticed any changes at all in Invicta since they took over.
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They look to be changing things. They hired a new guy in charge Boxing veteran Schaefer has joined Anthem Sports. Schaefer, who has promoted more than 527 events, will be in charge of relationships with sponsors, agents and athletes. He will be based in Los Angeles. Anthem is also promoting Scott D’Amore to president of Impact Wrestling and vice president of production for Anthem Sports Group. He and Invicta President Shannon Knapp will report to Schaefer.

“There isn’t an entity in the world that combines these three combat sports — wrestling, MMA and boxing — under one umbrella at the same time and also have their own distribution channels,” said Schaefer

As part of a reorganization, Schaefer will oversee Anthem’s Impact Wrestling, its female mixed martial arts brand Invicta Fighting Championships and its Fight Network sports channel.

an expanding set of digital and streaming free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to make its programming more available, especially to younger viewers. “Will we end up having a boxing vertical of content that will be streamed globally? Yes,” Asper said.
 
David Street said:
They look to be changing things. They hired a new guy in charge Boxing veteran Schaefer has joined Anthem Sports. Schaefer, who has promoted more than 527 events, will be in charge of relationships with sponsors, agents and athletes. He will be based in Los Angeles. Anthem is also promoting Scott D’Amore to president of Impact Wrestling and vice president of production for Anthem Sports Group. He and Invicta President Shannon Knapp will report to Schaefer.

“There isn’t an entity in the world that combines these three combat sports — wrestling, MMA and boxing — under one umbrella at the same time and also have their own distribution channels,” said Schaefer

As part of a reorganization, Schaefer will oversee Anthem’s Impact Wrestling, its female mixed martial arts brand Invicta Fighting Championships and its Fight Network sports channel.

an expanding set of digital and streaming free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to make its programming more available, especially to younger viewers. “Will we end up having a boxing vertical of content that will be streamed globally? Yes,” Asper said.
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If anything this sounds like a downgrade to their current situation.
 
careto said:
If anything this sounds like a downgrade to their current situation.
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Hard to say until you see what they do.

I'm more interested in what Ariel said that one suitor is very surprising and would be very interesting if they bought it.
 
skylolow said:
Hard to say until you see what they do.

I'm more interested in what Ariel said that one suitor is very surprising and would be very interesting if they bought it.
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That one buyer has to be Mr Beast.
 
Bellator is my favorite league outside UFC. If you pay attention to the roster and the champions… they have really good main cards and awesome champs. I do not want Bellator to go away.
 
Raynerop said:
Jesus man, I hope this doesn't mean just absorbing Bellator's roster into PFL. The worst fucking timeline.

Tbh, I like Bellator overall much more than the PFL, not just the format but the overall identity and the events themselves (don't even need to talk about PFL's pacing). Also, I just can't see how apparently investors actually see PFL as a big thing going foward man, every article I read about them make them seem like the next big thing, then you go watch the events and it's worse than a late night Fight Pass random regional event.
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Ariel said the 2 buyers were not PFL

https://youtube.com/shorts/xsT9VQwNTck?feature=share
 
JPW328 said:
Ariel said the 2 buyers were not PFL

https://youtube.com/shorts/xsT9VQwNTck?feature=share
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Makes you wonder if the one interesting bidder is ESPN themselves. Be a good way to bolster their MMA content if the UFC and ESPN can't come to a new deal. That is really the only bidder I can think of outside of the PFL(what he says isn't) would be kind of shocking on some level or interesting.
 
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