More on Spike TV, Bellator and GLORY Potential

Friday, 11 January 2013 13:16

Written by Rian Scalia

Yesterday we posted word via Dave Meltzer that K-1 on Spike was not happening and that GLORY are in talks with Spike TV. Today Dave Meltzer elaborated on the situation on mmafighting.com, this time with Bellator in the equation.

Along with the talks between Spike TV and GLORY, Bellator are apparently in the mix and looking at potentially getting involved. Ideas include cross-promotion between Bellator and GLORY which would include some kickboxers potentially fighting in MMA or some MMA fighters potentially fighting in kickboxing. If both promotions were on Spike, it would allow for fighters to stay active while still being shown on Spike TV while almost still fighting for the same promotion.

Here are some quotes of Spike TV president Kevin Kay and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney from Dave Meltzer's article on mmafighting.com, which can be read in its entirety here. I'd definitely suggest giving this a read.

Kevin Kay: "We're probably not going to move forward and continue with K-1," said Kay. "It was a little bit of an experiment. Those guys are great. We're trying to figure out our kickboxing plans. It did okay. It was a digital play (K-1 aired on Spike.com late 2012). There are other things we can do in the kickboxing spectrum."

"It was a great night of fights (GLORY 4) and we're impressed by the organization and continuing discussions," said Kay. "There are serious discussions also as well as discussions with Bjorn (Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney) with any potential partners we get into kickboxing with. Right now we're launching Bellator. We're all about Bellator. If we do end up in the Glory business, that's going to be a little later down the line. We don't want anything to get in the way of our launch with Bellator."

Bjorn Rebney: "We've got a different view on the fight business from the other guys (UFC)," said Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney. "If we can find the right kind of guys, we'd like those (kickboxing) promoters to keep our guys busy if they'd like to fight as kickboxers. And we'd also like to bring guys in from other organizations. It just depends on the right guys. Kickboxing is wildly fun to watch and it's exciting. Not all our guys can make a great transition from MMA to kickboxing, or from kickboxing to MMA. But for those who can, we'd like to bring that knockout excitement with them to our shows."

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