5 reasons why the UFC is better than Bellator

#4 The UFC has more direction

Dominick Reyes has climbed the UFC's ladder in a logical fashion, showing their clear direction

The UFC has been criticised by fans recently – particularly since WME-IMG took over at the helm in 2016 – for not really having a genuine direction, particularly in terms of its title fights. After years of logical booking, that appears to have gone out of the window somewhat recently with questionable title fights such as Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till and Daniel Cormier vs. Brock Lesnar being put together.

Despite all of this though, the UFC clearly still has more direction than Bellator when it comes to the paths their fighters take to the top. Take current Light-Heavyweight prospect Dominick Reyes, for instance – he debuted against a low-level opponent in Joachim Christensen and beat him handily, and then defeated another low-level foe in Jeremy Kimball easily too.

Those wins earned him a step up against Jared Cannonier, and when he beat him too, he was given another step up the ladder against Ovince St. Preux, a top-ten ranked contender. After beating OSP, it’s now expected that Reyes will next be given a fight that could move him into title contention in 2019.

It’s all logical booking to allow a fighter to move up the ladder in a logical way. Compare that to Bellator’s booking of Michael Page, then. ‘Venom’ is one of Bellator’s most exciting prospects, but in 9 fights in the promotion he’s barely moved up the ladder due to being booked against opponents on a similar level every time. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Throw in odd bookings like the ‘superfight’ between Middleweight champ Gegard Mousasi and Welterweight champ Rory MacDonald – prior to either man actually defending their titles – and Bellator is just one big confusing mess at times.

WME-IMG be damned, the UFC at least has far more direction than that, particularly when it comes to building fighters up from the bottom to the top.