JL: Is there anything you’re concerned about going into the pay-per-view, or are you good to go?

SW: No, I’m absolutely good to go. I’m an optimist by nature, so I think we’re going to do extremely well. I love the fact that we’re doing a two-hour prelim show on Spike, and we’re going to get people really ramped up for that. We’ll go 8 to 10 eastern on Spike with some really cool fights. Cheick Kongo is fighting as part of that card on Spike TV, and we’ll go right into the pay-per-view.

I’ve done pay-per-views before with PRIDE and with Affliction, so pay-per-views are nothing new to me even though they’re obviously new for Bellator. I’m just really excited about the level of fights, but I get really excited about the level of fights every week. This past week, I was so incredibly fired up about the Joe Warren-Rafael Silva fight, and I would have been no more or less excited had it been on pay-per-view, Spike, or Spike.com. That’s just the way I’m wired as a fan.

It’s the same with soccer. I worked the World Cup in 2006, got back from Germany, and three days later, did a US Open Cup match for MLS.com. There’s no difference in how I was working that, it’s just the way that I’m wired as a broadcaster and probably as a person.

JL: Including the prelims on Spike before the show, what fight are you most excited for?

SW: Alexander Shlemenko vs Tito Ortiz. I love that fight, and that makes me think of those old school fights from PRIDE where they didn’t cap the heavyweights so you’d see Eric “Butterbean” Esch , Zuluzinho, or Giant Silva. There’s a famous fight where Heath Herring fought Giant Silva, and Giant Silva looked like Andre the Giant in there, trying to throw big haymakers at Heath Herring, who’s a pretty big man and running around looking tiny.

You’re not going to see that level of contrast, but still – Tito Ortiz is a big light heavyweight, and after he rehydrates, I’m guessing he’ll weigh in at something like 225 or 230. And Alexander Shlemenko, by modern MMA standards, is a small middleweight. This is a guy who walks at probably 190 or 195, when most top level middleweights in this sport probably walk at about 210 or 215.

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs “King Mo” Lawal is a really intriguing fight, because those guys definitely don’t like each other. Eddie Alvarez-Michael Chandler III is incredibly intriguing, because you have two of the best lightweights on the planet, and their first two fights were probably two of the ten greatest fights I’ve called in my entire life.

But there’s something about that fight between Alexander Shlemenko and Tito Ortiz that I think is just going to be fascinating. It’s a throwback fight like something you would see in the mid-1990s in Japan or something.

JL: We’ve obviously heard of guys like Tito and Rampage. Which fighter on this card do you think can become a household name?

SW: Shlemenko will. I saw that USA Today had Shlemenko in their top ten in middleweight, the only non-UFC guy in the rankings. He’s got 50 wins. He’s a phenomenal fighter. And he’s spent his career in eastern Europe before coming over to Bellator in season two, and if this were someone that had a bigger stage to the North American audience, I think he would be an absolute superstar the way that Fedor Emelianenko broke through and the Belarusian Andrei Arlovski.

If he beats Tito Ortiz, and I’m not making predictions, but if he defeats Tito Ortiz in a fight with that big of a weight difference, career win number 51 on pay-per-view, I think that’s a real breakout star. Hardcore MMA fans definitely know Shlemenko, and I think the casual fans know him and are sort of aware of him, but I think he can cross that threshold and become a really big name with a win.

JL: To close out, I want you to try to sell a fan who has never watched Bellator on ordering the pay-per-view.

SW: What I’m gonna tell you is one thing. I think of this like an interview. One of the ironies of my career is that I’ve worked in two sports that are my absolute favorite sports in MMA and soccer, and yet I’ll meet people that almost apologize and tell me they don’t like it. I get it, soccer isn’t for everybody, but I adore it. MMA isn’t for everybody, I get that. What I focus in on is people who like UFC, or they fondly remember PRIDE, or maybe they watched Strikeforce on Showtime.

If you like MMA, understand that it’s a big wide world in the sport out there, so if you’re unaware of Bellator, this is the show you want to see. See our top fighters, see our top champions. You’re going to be blown away by the presentation. I will match our television product with anything in combat sports, not just MMA, but anything combat sports. And again, the phenomenal TV show. I’m not talking about the commentary, people can make their own judgments about that. Jimmy Smith, my partner, is the best in the business, but people can make their own judgments on the commentary. From a presentation and production standpoint, I think we have a phenomenal show, and I think we have phenomenal fighters, and phenomenal talent.

So people who only watch the UFC and call themselves casual fans, I think if you watch Bellator, you’ll start being a regular Bellator viewer.

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.

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