The latest mixed martial arts reality show will debut tonight as Fight Master: Bellator MMA will premiere at 10 p.m. ET on Spike TV following the main card broadcast of Bellator 96 from Oklahoma.
Fight Master: Bellator MMA is a different concept than The Ultimate Fighter which is the reality show that is produced by the UFC and is currently filming their 18th season.
Instead of having two coaches, Fight Master has four coaches and the coaches on the show are Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, Greg Jackson and Joe Warren. Another example of how this show is different than TUF is that the fighters will pick their coaches and the coaches will not pick who they want on their team.
Nearly every fan of MMA likely knows who Couture, Shamrock and Jackson are. However, casual fans of MMA likely do not know who Warren is. During his appearance on The MMA Report Live, Warren understands that casual fans may not know who he is and used this opportunity on the reality show to introduce himself to them.
“I think the fighting world knows who exactly who I am and the wrestling world,” Warren said. “The casual fan has probably not heard of me. I went in as the Bellator spokesman and the opportunity to show the rest of the world that I am a good coach also, not just a good athlete. I guess I was an underdog a little bit but I know the coaches real well and I believe I brought a lot more to the table than all of them did. To being a current fighter and winning belts in Bellator and being apart of the organization.”
When Spike TV announced the concept of this reality show, many people wonder if a fighter would pick Warren as their coach. The former Bellator champion knew that this would be an issue and he had to sell himself to the fighters.
“It was any selling point that I could. I was doing everything I could. I was trying to sell ice to eskimos out there. I am sitting next to three of the best coaches in the world. My little attitude towards it was, I better get some guys on my team. I am not sure if anyone is going to pick me so that is kind of interesting to watch all of the fighters pick the coaches and the reasons.”
Warren has coached fighters in the past including current UFC bantamweight fighter Scott Jorgensen. If you are watching Jorgensen fight and you hear a loud cornerman, well that is Warren. I remember sitting on press row for Jorgensen’s fight against Eddie Wineland at UFC on FX 3 last year and I could hear the instructions that Warren was yelling.
I have had the ability to interview fighters in the past that have been a coach on a reality show and they have all talked about the lessons they learned from being a coach. Just like other fighters I have talked to about this, Warren said there were things he learned about being a coach on the show.
“I learned the level of talent is so different on these shows from one guy to the next. As a coach, you try to learn how to get your point across to these guys in the quickest and most efficient way so they can understand it in their brain and their muscle memory to be able to do these things. I was really able to see who my fighters were going to fight and maybe take a few points that I thought my fighters could maybe be in the offensive or positive position in the cage and try to keep them there and teach them how to do it. I just learned how to be properly the most efficient in coaching because you do not have a lot of time.”
Fight Master: Bellator MMA will run every Wednesday night until the live finale takes place on Saturday, September 7th. The live finale will be apart of the season nine debut of Bellator and Warren will be fighting on that show. An opponent for Warren has not been announced at this time but Warren did say he will be fighting at bantamweight (135 lbs) and his days as a featherweight (145 lbs) are over.