Another week and after a fairly significant ratings jump to start the reason, peaking at nearly 1.5 million viewers for Rampage/M’Pumbu, the true test of Bellator’s potential audience growth comes this week in a card that’s profoundly lacking in star power. It could be full of massive knockouts, though, as this week’s fight card kicks off the heavyweight tournament and is headlined by a bantamweight title fight. Time for a quick viewer’s guide:
Eduardo Dantas makes the first of potentially three compelling title fights in 2014 – Dantas is an odd bantamweight champion for Bellator in that he’s lost as champion but didn’t lose the belt. He was stopped by Tyson Nam in Brazil after defeating Zach Makovsky for the belt in a non-title affair for Shooto Brazil in between winning the title and defending it last year again Marcos Galvao. He actually changed Bellator’s stance of letting its champions fight outside the company with the loss, one which got Nam a solid deal with World Series of Fighting.
So he has a ton to prove and Anthony Leone is a nice warm up for what should be three wins in 2014 for him. Leone is a good, but not great, fighter who’s an injury replacement for Rafael Silva. A win here and he gets Joe Warren, who was gift wrapped a Bellator tournament win to get him a title shot. A win over Warren and he gets Silva. Dantas has all the potential of being a Top 10 bantamweight and three wins in 2014 can get him into the discussion.
Dantas is someone Bellator has high hopes for. Friday could be the start of a huge year for him.
Blagoi Ivanov is the name to watch – Rich Hale isn’t an easy opponent in any aspect but Ivanov, a guy being poised to be a tournament finalist based on the seeding, should be someone Fedor fans should know. Ivanov took Fedor’s combat sambo world title from him in 2008. He’s got a ton of raw athletic talent, having passed up a shot at qualifying for the Olympics in Judo to get into MMA. He’s an interesting heavyweight prospect and this will be a nice step up in talent for him.
Alexander Volkov returns for a heavyweight tournament – Volkov and Vitaly Minakov are two heavyweights I think would more than hold their own in the UFC if given the opportunity. Heavyweight in Bellator is even worse than the UFC because of the shallowness of good heavyweights not already signed by Zuffa. Volkov/Minakov wasn’t competitive but they’re the two best heavyweights Bellator has beside Cheick Kongo.
Volkov should win this year’s tournament and get a title shot.
Heavyweight action en masse – This is a card with a good chunk of Bellator’s heavyweight division n display on both the Spike TV card and the non-televised undercard. So if you’re looking for some big thumping finishes this’ll probably be your Friday night jam.
Ryan Martinez vs. Lavar Johnson is an early candidate for the Just Bleed Fight of the year – Martinez is the guy who famously got Mark Ellis to quit MMA after beating him on a Pro Elite card (captured on “Fight Factory” about AKA). Johnson got tossed out of the UFC for not disclosing his TRT and let’s face it; he was a one dimensional puncher who got exposed to anyone who could take him down and keep him there. Martinez isn’t that guy. It might last less than 60 seconds but we’re going to see some sloppy brawling that brings out the worst in us.
