Bellator MMA on Spike TV coming back soon.

    One of the best things that happened for me as far as watching sports on TV was when professional Martial Arts competition made a successful crossover to TV here in the United States with The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV.  It has become a house hold name under the name of MMA,  I was so happy as a long time fan of the sport that there was something I could watch every week.  I was looking forward to it getting popular enough that other promotions could do shows here in the USA and it almost happened.  Pride Fighting Championships (Pride FC) got one or two shows in before they went under and then that was it, it was all UFC from there.
    I don't want to say I don't like the UFC promotion, if it were not for the way they publicized the sport it would not be making it as popular as it is today and the competition there is fierce.  Outside the cage there should be some competition too, I liked the idea of Pride FC champions and UFC champions going head to head to unify titles.  If one company monopolizes the sport then we lose those super matches and it becomes a little dull in my opinion.  I remember watching a documentary about professional wrestling's Rise and Fall of WCW and one of the former WCW stars mentioned that the competition with the WWE (or WWF at the time) was good for business, I believe the same holds true in the sport of MMA.  There have been other promotions since it got popular and Pride FC disappeared, Elite XC, WEC, and Strikeforce to name a few.  Most of them got bought out by the UFC or went under from overspending or poor management.  Bellator MMA has been around while all the others mentioned were around and seem to now be finding a solid audience after trying out various networks and finding a home on Spike TV.  I think their tournament style of match making makes for good match ups and some of the most exciting competition on television at a more frequent pace every week.  If you have not seen a Bellator show and are fan of the sport I highly recommend you check it out.  They have recently signed former Pride FC , UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson whom I have always enjoyed watching since before he held any title in the Pride FC organization.

Both Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva fought and did well in Pride FC and the UFC

    Maybe, one day these organizations will allow the best of each to go against one another at a certain point of the year and have a true undisputed champion of the sport and not just of one promotion.  I suppose that's bad business from a promoter stand point but it would be nice to see them come together when the respective champs of these organizations have dominated their respective divisions and are looking for new competition.  I would bet I am not alone in wanting to see something like this.  Who knows? The sport is still young...