In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani (link below), Chael Sonnen revealed that Bellator makes fighters sign blank contracts.
Unlike a criticism of the UFC where fighters are cherry picking their opponents, Bellator doesn’t even let people know who they’re going to be fighting ahead a time. They sign a contract with the data and the purse, but the opponent field is still blank until the fight is announced.
Why?
So that they can control their fight announcements on their own teams, and not have to worry about fighters or camps leaking it out ahead of time. When Bellator has two guys come out during an event to announce they’re fighting each other, that’s the first of it that anyone really knows, even the fighters don’t know who they’re fighting until the very last minute before the announcement. Then, they’ve still got plenty of time to train and put in a camp for that opponent, but it allows Bellator to announce thins on their own terms. And, again, it lets them do it all on their own terms and prevents fighters from being picky and choosy about their opponents.
Bellator still has a ways to go, but we’re going to keep up coverage and if you’re interested – keep clickin’!
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