Gegard Mousasi, left, will face Rory MacDonald for Bellator’s middleweight belt on Saturday in San Jose, California.
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Bellator MMA
In late June, Bellator MMA held a news conference in New York to announce a landmark nine-figure deal with the streaming service DAZN.
Bellator president Scott Coker revealed that the first event under the new partnership would be Bellator 206 on Sept. 29 in San Jose, California. The fight to kick it off — to jump-start this new, critically important digital platform — would be a middleweight superfight between champion Gegard Mousasi and welterweight titleholder Rory MacDonald.
It’s too early to call this a new era for Bellator, but it feels like it could be the start of one.
This is a promotion that has, at times, been criticized for its reliance on the “circus fight.” It’s a promotion that delivered its highest television rating ever behind Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000, and it tested pay-per-view waters last year with a relatively stale rivalry between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva.
MacDonald versus Mousasi, though? There is nothing “circus” about that. Make no mistake, Bellator has promoted more than its fair share of relevant fights, but Saturday’s 185-pound title matchup features two champions still in their primes with legitimate claims to being the best in the world in their respective weight class.
Perception-wise, that’s something Bellator hasn’t had, and it makes this event feel as much about a promotion making a statement on its future as it does a middleweight title fight.
“There is this shift to a different promotion [other than the UFC], in the whole scene of mixed martial arts right now,” MacDonald told ESPN. “The controversies around pay scale in this sport, and the fact we clearly have a competitive promotion that is on its way up — this event definitely has a different ring to it. It’s more significant than if Gegard and I were just fighting in the UFC.”
MacDonald, 29, was a key acquisition for Bellator in 2016. The Canadian welterweight is at an interesting point in his career in that he has not, by his own admission, lived up to some of the most lofty expectations placed on him early.
From a young age, MacDonald (20-4) was essentially the face of this “new wave” of talent in MMA. Rather than coming from one discipline, MacDonald trained early on in all aspects of MMA. He was pegged as a future UFC champion and an heir to Georges St-Pierre‘s Canadian fan base.
MacDonald had a successful run in the UFC, but he never won a title. He has cemented himself as a cult hero and one of the best in the world, but he has never won it all in the UFC’s Octagon.
“I feel I’ve had some big opportunities, and I kind of flopped in them,” MacDonald said. “I lost my one title fight against Robbie [Lawler]. I lost another fight earlier to Lawler. They were close fights, but I didn’t perform the way I think I should have. There are a few key moments in my career where I could have done better for myself.”
Historically, MacDonald’s opportunity to make good on the early expectations might have ended when he chose to sign with Bellator in 2016, rather than re-up with the UFC. Despite any success Bellator has had, the perception has been that fighters cannot prove they are the best in the world by fighting outside the UFC. The depth of the UFC roster is too much to overcome.
MacDonald is in a position to challenge that perception. A win over Mousasi (who was in UFC title contention before he signed with Bellator last year) at 185 pounds would probably be the crowning achievement of his career. And immediately after, he’s expected to dive head-first into Bellator’s welterweight grand prix, which is loaded with legitimate opposition.
Should he run the table — and keep in mind, he has a win over UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley from years ago — MacDonald will have met those expectations placed on him long ago, and he will have done so in an organization outside the UFC.
It’s been four years since Coker took over as the president of Bellator, and his influence on the product obviously has been felt.
But taking into account Saturday’s elite main event, the recent re-signing of lightweight Michael Chandler, a growing crop of young talent under contract, two concurrently running grand prix tournaments and the launch of a new, multimillion-dollar streaming service deal — perhaps we’re seeing evidence of the product Coker has been working toward.