Top 10 MMA News & Rumors of the Week

#5 News: UFC vs. Bellator

As reported by MMAMania, ahead of his all-important Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix matchup against old foe Roy Nelson, Matt ‘Meathead’ Mitrione opined that the UFC is impeding its own progress by mistreating its fighters.

Mitrione raked up the long-running controversy surrounding the lack of brand-diversity in sponsorships after the UFC-Reebok deal came into effect. He reiterated that a move to Bellator allows fighters to avail considerable sponsorship money, whereas UFC’s deal with Reebok has proven to be a huge disadvantage to the promotion’s fighters as they miss out on a ton of lucrative sponsorships owing to said deal. He also criticised the UFC’s handling of its fighters’ social media accounts, and added—

“I feel like they are, not in a colossal nose dive, but I do not think they are in the right spot. I feel like what Mr. Coker does very casually is what he needs to do to bring fans, eyes over to Bellator. And I think the production is completely different over at Bellator. It’s a spectacle, he took a page out of old Japanese MMA and made it bananas.”