Bellator Boss Confirms Multiple Title Fights For Rampage vs. Ortiz PPV, Talks Pricing For Event & More

By BJPENN.COM News - August 6, 2013


The Bellator promotion is set to make their debut on pay-per-view November 2nd.

The promotion will be depending on the star power of Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson to create a buzz and make this risky shift into the PPV market a success.

This will be by far the biggest event in the promotions history and as such they held a special press conference yesterday to help promote and to answer the many questions about the recently announced card.

Here are the highlights from Bellator boss man, Bjorn Rebney:

“This is our first foray into this marketplace….. I know what’s coming up over the next six weeks in terms of the other fights that are going to fill out this card, which are epic. I think it will do well. I always look at it from a simple scratch and sniff perspective: I sit around with my goofy buddies who I have been watching fights with the last 19 years and I say, ‘Would you buy it? Is this something you would pay for? Would you watch it?’ It’s a simple scratch and sniff market analysis, but it works very well. I think it will do well…. We’re going to have a lot of title fights on this show — it will be a long PPV…. There is a lot of meat on the bone in terms of title fights for us right now.”

“I just kind of took off the CEO hat and put on the fan hat and was like, of the epic battles that I wanted to see — and never got a chance to see — what was No. 1 on my list? And Rampage vs. Tito was No. 1 on the list of great fights that I never got to see.”

“Price points will vary on the distributor — we’ll have a $35 price point, some $40 and some of the distributors might push it up to $45. It will be distributor-specific based on where they are located throughout the country. That’s because they know, it’s very much like our relationships with our fighters. They’re the experts in the field, they know what their different consumer base is going to withstand for a certain fight or a certain event. So, we leave it more in the hands of the distributors to make that determination as opposed to mandating them or directing them as to what it would be at one singular price point. There are different markets, which are hot beds of mixed martial arts that have shown a propensity to buy huge numbers. There are others that don’t quite buy as much that we want to fertilize and get it to be a better MMA market. We’ve left it in the hands of the distributors to make some of those determinations. There is a very high likelihood we won’t exceed the $50 price point.”

“You’re going to see more of this, but you won’t see it every day. We’re not going to crown a champion this way, you ‘ll see more of this as we continue to grown and continue to evolve…. If there is another huge fan that as an MMA fan you’re like, ‘Whoa! I need to watch that,’ we would probably jump back into the PPV arena. But, it’s not going to be one of those types of things where every single month — do or die — we keep putting it out same time, same place, same channel where we don’t necessarily have the fighters to fuel it the way that a premium purchase should be fueled. We’ll get back into it when the timing is right and we’ve got the right fighters. PPV’s are about great fights between great fighters. It’s not about just sending it out there on a monthly basis and give me $45 or $50 of your hard-earned money. We’ll be back in it when the time is right to be back in it.”

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Bellator