As new Bellator President Scott Coker said yesterday, Bellator 2.0 has started as the company has transitioned from the previous leadership of Bjorn Rebney and Tim Danaher to Coker. 
Since the announcement of the change, there have been some questions answered on the future of the current number two mixed martial arts promotion.
We know that they are going to a more traditional format of making fights instead of being a tournament base format. The tournament base format was the baby of Rebney and this is one of the reasons he is no longer running the company he founded. Rebney wanted to continue the tournament base format, while his partners at Viacom wanted a more traditional format that we see in other organizations like the UFC and World Series of Fighting.
During the conference call announcing Coker as the new leader of the company, Coker said that he is still open to doing tournaments but they have to make sense. It also appears that they will go away from the season format that has been in place since day one of Bellator and go into a year-round sports organization.
Outside of those two questions, there is still several questions that are currently unanswered. For instance, will previous tournament champions that have not received their title shot still be guaranteed a title shot like Dave Jansen, Frodo Khasbulaev, and Daniel Weichel? Will the current tournament finalist in the lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight tournaments still be fighting for a title shot? What’s the future hold for the current Bellator employees, such as matchmakers Sam Caplan and Zach Light?
While all of those questions are things we all want to know, maybe the biggest question is how will Coker change the perception of Bellator to the fans? We all know that there is a negative feeling towards Bellator and particularly their fighter contracts. One of the issues that did not help Rebney going forward was his relationship with fighters and managers. Coker is well liked with fighters and managers, which could help repair the damaged relationship there were with some of those people.
However, there is still the question about will the language in Bellator contracts change. John Nash of BloodyElbow.com recently did a piece about fighter contracts and some of the language that are currently in those deals. During the conference call yesterday, I asked Coker how he plans to do to change people perceptions of Bellator contracts. He essentially said that he will be reviewing them and see how the company wants to handle them.
It would seem likely that there could be some changes to some of the contract language. I doubt that Coker will eliminate the matching rights clause, which is also in UFC contracts. On the other hand, he could get rid of some of the extensions that were in deals and if the company releases a fights, Bellator still does not have matching right but only time will tell on that.
The future of Bellator is unknown at this time and we will have to wait and see how everything plays out. While a majority of people think that Viacom made a smart decision in making a change with Bellator, there are people who do not like the change that was made. If you happen to not like the change, give Coker an opportunity to show you he is the right man for the job.
He may end up being the right guy to take the company to the next level. This happens all the time in professional sports. An owner evaluates their team after every season and decides if they have the right coach leading the team. The coach may be getting the team to the playoffs every year, but they can not take the team to the next level. They bring in someone new to take their team to the next level and maybe that is why Viacom decided to bring in Coker.
Interesting times lay ahead for Bellator and Viacom. It’s going to be interesting to see how everything plays out and can Bellator evolve as a mixed martial arts promotion.