Wednesday, February 04, 2009
No Holds Barred: Bjorn Rebney of Bellator Fighting Championships; Cheating in MMA and Sports
On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman begins by commenting on the controversy which arose at the recent UFC event in the fight between Georges St-Pierre and BJ Penn. According to numerous reports, St-Pierre's corner had to be stopped by officials from the Nevada State Athletic Commission from continuing to grease his body between rounds. This controversy is discussed in the context of the exposures of widespread cheating in the sports world in general, and also, of course, in society.
In our main interview, we speak with Bjorn Rebney, the founder and CEO of the Bellator Fighting Championships. This new mixed martial arts company will air its shows on the Spanish-language ESPN Deportes network in the U.S. for 12 consecutive Saturday nights, beginning April 4.
In a lengthy interview, we discuss the vision and positioning of the Bellator Fighting Championships, which is primarily targeting a Latino audience. We discuss the fighters they have signed so far, their extended tournament format, the rules, the plans for both live events and televised shows, how they want to approach the non-Spanish-speaking audience, and much more.
You can play or download No Holds Barred here. You can also download No Holds Barred here. If one link does not work, please try another. The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.
The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by musician Ian Carpenter.
No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:
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Labels: Bellator Fighting Championships, BJ Penn, Bjorn Rebney, boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Eddie Goldman, Georges St-Pierre, grappling, greasegate, mixed martial arts, MMA, No Holds Barred, UFC, Vaseline
Rebney may lack the fire to give this thing a go. I believe pro elite and those behind the ifl failed not because of their product exactly, but because they didn't realize they were in a war with zuffa. They certainly didn't behave like it. Bellator may mean warrior, but will a warrior materialize? The one thing I'll give zuffa credit for is ruining their oppositions' reputations. In fact, if they put as much effort into producing mma they might actually put on a decent mma show once in a while. This is what should worry Rebney, assuming he isn't in zuffa's pocket already: finding a way to build bellator's reputation before the fertittas destroy it. Al Capone never went away easily--the fertittas won't.
: 4:47 AM1 Comments:
Guy's got some good ideas but is way too un-analytical, and somewhat childlike, on zuffa's success. The brand name "ufc" has been around the longest (something zuffa's so-called model has no impact on) and therefore is the most widespread; second, they picked up the chris benoit audience when their game show tailed raw is war, something you could give more credit to spike tv programmers for. Zuffa was a bankrupt operation for 4 years. Their model has not changed, their fortune has. They held on long enough and finally won the lotto. It happens. How much aptitude could exist in buying the winning lotto ticket though? Fittingly, their success most resembles kimbo's.
Rebney may lack the fire to give this thing a go. I believe pro elite and those behind the ifl failed not because of their product exactly, but because they didn't realize they were in a war with zuffa. They certainly didn't behave like it. Bellator may mean warrior, but will a warrior materialize? The one thing I'll give zuffa credit for is ruining their oppositions' reputations. In fact, if they put as much effort into producing mma they might actually put on a decent mma show once in a while. This is what should worry Rebney, assuming he isn't in zuffa's pocket already: finding a way to build bellator's reputation before the fertittas destroy it. Al Capone never went away easily--the fertittas won't.
By , at
4:47 AM
