Normally we won’t jump on a rumor without having at least 3 unique sources to confirm it because of of the journalistic integrity which is the backbone of FightState, but this one is just too juicy to pass on. We have one source, which we can’t reveal, but let’s just say he’s no longer the president of Bellator and his first name isn’t Bjork and his last name rhymes with Bebney.
None the less, we aren’t revealing our official source and this was told to us off-the-record, so for all intents and purposes take it as a grain of salt, with a big wink like “this isn’t 100% confirmed…WINK WINK.”
Do you remember recently when Bellator brought in a new style of glove, somewhat similar to the old Pride gloves? It seems this was just the first step, and ultimately ended up foreshadowing what is to come. Our source tells us that a big part of im leaving the organization was because Viacom (the company that owns Bellator) wanted it to be more of a spectacle rather than a legitimate sporting tournament, and they were slowly trying to inch closer and closer to adapting the successful parts of Pride, including the professional wrestling style matchmaking along with some of the more dangerous elements.
Our source had to fight them tooth in nail, but the board members insisted that head kicks to downed opponents were going to bring in the big audiences that are necessary to attract a large enough audience to compete with the UFC.
We can’t confirm with 100% certainly that this is actually going to happen, so for now we have to chalk it up as a rumor… we also can’t confirm with 100% certainly the identity of our source, because he told us this over beers while watching Invicta on Fightpass, and it was supposed to be off the record. OOPS! Sorry guy, we put our readers first and they deserve to know what’s coming soon in the MMA landscape.
What do you think about this? Are you excited to see Bellator with Pride rules, or do you prefer the tournament style and true competition, rather than a sports-entertainment spectacle that puts on freak show fights while also putting fighters in much more danger with lenient rules?
All the washed-up UFC fighters who came over from Pride and are now ending up in Bellator are surely going to love this, but what do you fans think of Pride 2.0?
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