The biggest event for Bellator is 2015 to this point will take place tomorrow night in St. Louis, Missouri as Bellator 138 will come from the Scottrade Center and this will serve as the second “tent pole” event of the year.
The event is titled as “Unfinished Business” and will be headlined by a bout that was scheduled to take place in 2008 as Kimbo Slice meets Ken Shamrock in a heavyweight bout.
In addition to the heavyweight main event, the main card on Spike will see a title fight in the co-main event as Patricio “Pitbull” Freire defends the featherweight title against season ten tournament winner Daniel Weichel.
Overall, the Bellator 138 main card is a solid card. Yes, I am not a huge fan of the main event and believe that the featherweight title fight should be the main event. However, I realize that Kimbo vs. Shamrock is the main event due to the amount of viewers they could potentially bring to Spike. The question becomes, can tomorrow’s fight card match or exceed the ratings of Bellator 131 last year?
Bellator 131 drew an average of 1.2 million viewers in the preliminary ratings and the average grew to 1.4 million with the +3 DVR ratings. In terms of peak, the show drew 2 million (preliminary ratings) and 2.246 million (+3 DVR). Can Kimbo and Shamrock bring that type of viewership to Spike tomorrow night?
My initial thought is they will bring around the same type of numbers, but doubt they beat those ratings. However, I could see them beating the Bellator 131 numbers. There are a couple of reasons why I believe they could beat those numbers. First, Bellator 131 was during college football season and had to go up against college football, along with a UFC pay-per-view. Second, there really is not much competition for them tomorrow night. The NBA and NHL are finished and they will mainly go up against regional MLB games.
No question that Kimbo Slice was a needle mover in 2008-2010. However, is he a needle mover in 2015? We are going to find out that answer tomorrow night. What I do know is that this fight has gotten the attention of my friends who I consider “casual fans.” Also, I have heard from bar managers that plan to show the Bellator card tomorrow night and typically, they will not put on the Bellator cards since hardly anyone will ask for it.
If Bellator 138 can exceed the ratings from Bellator 131, this is a huge win for the new regime of Bellator as the head into the final five months of 2015.