Josh Connor
In the last 17 months since Scott Coker was appointed as the new CEO of Bellator MMA, there is no question Bellator and its promotional events have taken on a more grandiose feel. The events as evident at Friday's Bellator 146 are now characterized as having a fun and entertaining element to them in addition to sporting a growing roster of fighter talent that continues to stockpile. In particular, the Bellator men's featherweight and lightweight divisions come to mind as a strategy of home grown Bellator talent and the sprinkling of free agents (Josh Thompson, etc) recipe seems to be paying dividends for the organization. With that being said, while the Bellator 146 main card was an action packed and enjoyable experience on Spike, if you tuned into the streaming prelims on Spike.com, you couldn't help but feel something was amiss. The problem I am referring to has to do with the Bellator women's featherweight division, namely depth of talent.
Since Bellator announced jumping back into the fray of women's MMA in August of 2014 with the return of a women's featherweight division, you got the sense something special was on the way. The announcement of the signing of Julia "The Jewel" Budd and Marlos "Rumina" Coenen, two top 5 consensus women's MMA featherweights, lent further credence to this notion as well. Since August of 2014 however, the seismic growth in the demand for women's MMA as well as the consumer expectation of skills to be on display has increased at an exponential rate as the UFC and Invicta FC have minted numerous women's MMA stars in that time. Top flight women's MMA has seemingly moved from being an order qualifier in a business sense to now being a point of consumer differentiation which is creating order winners where MMA consumers choose one firms MMA goods and experience over those of its competitors. While Bellator 146 saw Julia Budd secure a much needed victory to move on to a future featherweight title bout with Marlos Coenen, the talent and skills gap between those two fighters and the rest of the Bellator featherweight division seems alarming.
For Bellator, a bridge strategy of what to do next with its women's featherweight division in regard to building talent and sustaining fan interest seems to be a glaring issue in need of some Bellator executive level elbow grease. In the 15 months since the announcement of the Bellator women's featherweight division, I can honestly say I thought Bellator would have made greater headway with the division. Given Scott Coker's early adopter and visionary mindset for women's MMA, which brought us the Ronda Rousey movement in Strikeforce, there is no question he has the chops to get at the heart of the problem. In all likelihood, a pending announcement of Julia Budd versus Marlos Coenen seems eminent, but Bellator will also likely need to supplement its featherweight division in a hurry with some top level free agent talent should the market and circumstances present itself (Miesha Tate, Cyborg, etc). Heading into 2016, building the bench of the Bellator women's featherweight division from a talent perspective seems to be a top priority. As the UFC and Invicta FC continue to elevate the level of MMA consumer expectations with its roster of skilled women fighters, this is one area where Bellator can't afford to be left behind as an organization.
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March 2016
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