Bellator MMA: Brock Lesnar Vs. Kimbo Slice In The Works?
It was announced this morning that UFC rival Bellator has signed famous street fighter-turned-MMA fighter Kimbo Slice. It’s no secret that Bellator wants to become a legitimate competitor to the UFC on pay-per-view, and the way they’re going about it is to take a little bit from pro wrestling, and a little bit from the now extinct Japanese-based promotion PRIDE.
Ever since it’s been made public that Brock Lesnar’s WWE contract would be coming to an end in March, and that Lesnar is interested in getting back into MMA, Bellator president Scott Coker has said that Bellator intends to make Lesnar an offer. Since Bellator is owned by Viacom, it’s likely that Bellator will be able to offer Lesnar a big-money deal to join them over the UFC.
Bellator’s battle plan to become legitimate competition with the UFC is similar to the plan WCW used in the mid-90s to become competitive with the then WWF. If you’re not a pro-wrestling fan, that plan was to sign as many big names as possible and hope that while the big, recognizable names attract viewers and sell fights, their younger fighters are able to develop and become big-money draws before their established top stars become too old or the audience gets sick of seeing them. Unfortunately, WCW didn’t execute this plan very well, and Bellator is hoping that they can do it right.
Kimbo Slice hasn’t had an MMA fight since 2010, but after his last MMA fight, which was a loss, he transitioned into boxing, where he did pretty well for himself. Nobody ever thought that Kimbo would turn into an elite MMA fighter, however, because of his famous street fights that many people watched on YouTube, Kimbo remained a big draw, regardless of how poorly he performed inside the cage.
Brock Lesnar hasn’t fought since December of 2011, and just like Kimbo, he lost. Before his last fight in the UFC, Lesnar was dealing with a lot of personal and health issues. He also hadn’t fought in over a year. Another thing that Lesnar has in common with Kimbo is that nobody believed that he could become a high-level MMA fighter, and regardless of whether he won or lost, he remained a big pay-per-view draw.
UFC president Dana White doesn’t believe that Lesnar will sign with Bellator. In White’s mind, Lesnar wants to fight the best heavyweights in the world, and the best heavyweights in the world are in the UFC. White is also well aware that money is the most important thing to Lesnar, so if Bellator offers Lesnar a substantially more lucrative contract, Lesnar will join Bellator.
Bellator’s master plan here could very well be to match Brock Lesnar up with Kimbo Slice, hoping to pop a huge rating should they broadcast it on Spike TV. Many MMA fans would expect Lesnar to run through Kimbo, however, that likely wouldn’t take away from how many people would tune in to see the two big names get it on.
[Image via Bloody Elbow]
