The renowned mixed martial arts journalist, Ariel Helwani, has never backed down from dropping warheads on his audience. His interest in MMA and his job usually binds him to not only the UFC but also Bellator MMA. However, given the recent episodes with Bellator MMA, the journalist could not help but wonder about the promotion’s future. Furthermore, he even declared to be curious about the ‘whispers’ that he heard about the fight promotion.
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Ariel Helwani on Bellator: There are whispers that, I'll just say, that they're on the…they're on the market…#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/YpHnRhkPB1
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) January 4, 2023
In an episode of Helwani’s podcast, ‘The MMA Hour’, he revealed he was curious about a couple of things related to the Professional Fighters League (PFL). However, his inquiry about Bellator MMA had the world on its heels.
Fans react to Ariel Helwani’s whispers and link it to Khabib Nurmagomedov
In ‘The MMA Hour’, Helwani acknowledged his curiosity about PFL’s next step. Furthermore, he also revealed his desire to know about the future of Bellator MMA. He revealed that he heard whispers about the promotion being sold. However, if that was true, he had a boatload of questions he wished to be answered.
Helwani said, “Also, what becomes of Bellator? There are whispers that, I’ll just say, that they’re on the… they’re on the market. You know, they’re on the market. And what becomes of them? What is their future? Where are they gonna end up? Can they get back on track? They’ve got the CBS show on February 4th, so, we’ll see what happens there.”
However, fans went ahead onto the comments section and wrote what they had in mind. Many of the fans were conscious of the fall of the promotion. However, many others revealed that they, in fact, enjoyed watching the fights. However, almost all of the fans believed that the fight promotion was in a dire need of renovation. Many of the fans believed that Khabib Nurmagomedov might buy the promotion.
Here is what fans on Reddit said:
- I got my money on Khabib and that Dubai investors picking them up
- This …… only other option I was thinking was PFL, but they have no elbows, so I’ll pass or One FC, but they might be overextending themselves. I don’t think Rizin has the cash to buy them and why would UFC buy it unless it’s at a cut rate price?
- Now that I think about, it’s entirely possible. I think it’s unlikely tho. I could see them pumping money on Eagle FC instead.
- Well whoever buys it i hope they rebrand it and get a better production team lol
- UFC would buy for the right price. They’d get some decent contracts, library, etc.
- I doubt the UFC would buy it. They already get the monopoly label because of their size. I don’t think it would allowed but they are the only ones who could easily buy it.
- Maybe Khabib will buy Bellator and merge it with Eagle FC. The new name… Beagle FC.
Bellator MMA vs. Rizin FF crossover event
Recently, Bellator MMA and the Japanese fight promotion, Rizin FF, had a crossover event where fighters from Bellator MMA fought fighters from the Japanese promotion, at Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo, on New Year’s Eve. The event had about five cards that showed absolute rage inside the cage.
Although Scott Coker believed Japan to be the birthplace of martial arts, his promotion utterly defeated the Japanese during the events. Bellator MMA won over Rizin FF with a score of 5-0. Thereby, enhancing the popularity of the promotion by a notch.
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What do you think about the future of Bellator MMA? Let us know in the comments down below.
