In An MMA Weekend Full Of Upsets And Close Fights, The Gap Between Bellator And The UFC Shrinks

It’s been a fun weekend of MMA. The UFC visited Poland, where Donald Cerrone was TKOd by Darren Till and lost his third fight in a row, possibly signaling a changing of the guard. Friday Night in Connecticut, we saw Gegard Mousasi’s Bellator debut nearly soured by a tough former champ in Alexander Shlemenko, who closed Mousasi’s right eye early and, in general, kept one of the best middleweight’s in the world on his toes for nearly fifteen minutes. Both shows were fun, but Bellator’s seemed a little more important.

Over the last few years, Spike’s Bellator MMA has plucked big names from the UFC little by little, and it feels like we’re finally seeing the fruits of their labor pay off as both promotions amp up their event schedule through the end of the year. Aside from a Thanksgiving break for both companies (thoughts and prayers to the fighters who have to cut weight while the holiday rolls on through), the UFC will put on shows in ten of the next eleven weeks, and Bellator has six shows in the next eight weeks. That’s a lot of MMA. Possibly too much.

Thankfully, this fall seems to be where the war between Bellator and the UFC truly begins — right when we need things to heat up. Thus far, we’ve only experienced proxy battles, but now, the campaign for MMA supremacy truly kicks off. Bellator’s stacked Madison Square Garden show was a tap on the UFC’s shoulder — “Hey, we can put on big shows too,” and Bellator main events seem to always have more compelling fights or fighters. Of course, the UFC is still King (or maybe Conor McGregor is king and he just happens to be under UFC contract), but looking at the cards coming up, outside of a few, massive marquee fights like GSP-Bisping, Bellator and UFC don’t seem to be as far apart as they used to be. Seeing Machida back is cool, but does anyone really care about Derek Brunson? Does The Ultimate Fighter finale matter anymore? Swanson vs. Ortega?

Maybe it’s the lack of title implications in the UFC. In Bellator over the coming months, Rory MacDonald is fighting Douglas Lima for the welterweight title. Next week, Ryan Bader will defend his title vs. Linton Vassel, Mousasi will fight the winner of Rafael Carvalho vs. Alessio Sakara sometime next year, and Patricio Freire will defend his featherweight belt against Daniel Weichel.

For the UFC, we have Bisping-GSP, which is awesome but simultaneously chips away at the last remaining integrity of the UFC titles. Max Holloway will defend his featherweight title against Frankie Edgar in possibly the best fight of the year, but under those superior matchups, the UFC still hasn’t had a lightweight title or bantamweight title defended in over a year. The interim titles just keep coming. At this point, the UFC feels more like boxing, with only a few must-watch cards. By no means is Bellator must-watch outside of a tentpole event here and there, but the UFC’s busy schedule is reaffirming a tired and increasingly honest point about the promotion — they can’t build stars, their production is boring, and the lineage of the belts are becoming less pure by the day.

Bellator isn’t to the point of fawning over yet, but it’s showcasing the up and coming stars of the promotion in far more interesting ways than the UFC, which seems clinical and predictable now. Who wouldn’t rather see Rose Namajunas in Bellator, walking down the ramp like a badass? Heather Hardy might’ve lost last night, but the video packages showed her off well. We barely got coverage of Karolina Kowalkiewicz leading up to her fight against Jodie Esquibel at Fight Night 118.

Perhaps it’s on the fan, knowing where to look for coverage is half the battle, or maybe the UFC’s roster has been homogenized enough to only judge cards by their main events, but it feels like there’s a true competition beginning to brew between these two promotions. The question is if Bellator will eventually go head to head with the UFC on Saturday nights. Should they? Would they? Speaking strictly as a fan of MMA, I hope not. It would be annoying to have to choose which card to watch. But also as a fan of MMA, some competition has been desperately needed in this world since Strikeforce folded, and it seems like it’s on the horizon.

The end of 2017 is going to be extremely busy laying the seeds for 2018 and beyond. Who will Bellator sign next? What is the UFC going to do with GSP, a possibly retiring Bisping and Conor McGregor? It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.