The Doggy Bag: ‘They Said What?!’ Edition

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What's up with these Bellator welterweight tournament fights? Jordan Smith is going to get smashed by Andrey Koreshkov. Tim Welch versus Michail Tsarev? What? Where's Paul Daley or Ryan Ford or Douglas Lima? Are they saving all these guys for Spike TV? -- Tim from Connecticut.

Mike Whitman, news editor: At the behest of a mind much larger and hairier than mine, I grabbed you a response from the horse’s mouth. Here’s Bellator boss Bjorn Rebney on the Season 7 welterweight tournament field:

“Michael Chandler, Pat Curran and Eduardo Dantas all followed this path. When they started with Bellator, they were virtual unknowns. Now, in some instances just a year later, they are all among the very best in MMA at their respective weights. There are some very talented fighters who will use this 90-day run to establish themselves among the best of the best.”

Oh, did you want my take, as well? I thought you would never ask.

First of all, Rebney is correct. Three of his sturdiest world champs managed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps with little fanfare surrounding them prior to their Bellator careers. Yes, Dantas was Shooto’s reigning South American 132-pound champ and Chandler had fought on a pair of Strikeforce undercards, but I think we can generally agree that the vast majority of North American fans had little clue that these guys were going to perform in the spectacular fashion in which they have.

I agree that it would be foolish to disrespect the talent pool in this upcoming tournament. It might sound cliched, but judging a book by its cover is oftentimes an embarrassing practice, especially when it comes to MMA. That said, Rebney is also speaking as a promoter. As an impartial observer, I can draw my own conclusions, one of which is that Bellator is absolutely saving its heavy ammunition for its Spike debut in January.

Look at that upcoming Season 8 welterweight tournament. You could potentially see Daley, Lima, Ben Saunders, Marius Zaromskis, Bryan Baker, David Rickels and Ford (depending on the constraints of his legal situation). Hell, War Machine might even join that party if he can break out of jail.

Bottom line: it’s not going to make any real difference ratings-wise if Saunders or Daley fight in the Season 7 tournament on MTV 2. Those shows are probably all going to pull fewer than 200,000 viewers, because only the people who have already been made officers in Her Majesty’s Royal Nerd Navy -- like you, me and anyone else who has decided to read this mailbag entry -- are going to make a point of flipping on MTV2 on a Friday night to catch a card that doesn’t have the letters UFC attached to it.

Spike TV, however, is a different ballgame. Spike already has dedicated, built-in audience of faux-hawked, Ed Hardy-loving “Manswers” viewers who remember guys like Saunders and Daley from their UFC stints; not to mention that Spike is available in almost 20 million more homes and in high definition, no less. Considering the promotion is now mostly owned by Viacom, I think it is safe to say that the suits upstairs are also aware of this.

In short, Bellator has every right to save its biggest guns for the Spike debut. Anything less would be about as foolish as talking smack about a tournament we haven’t even seen yet.