Smith: Why Bellator puts on freakshows
Jimmy Smith: “Networks and promoters and the people in charge … They don’t care what you say on the blog, they don’t care what you tweet — they care what you watch.”
We have met the enemy and he is us.
-Walt Kelly
Bellator MMA color commentator Jimmy Smith is retired fighter, extremely knowledgeable about the sport. And during the Bellator 149 Kimbo vs. Dada 5000 contest, in a characteristic show of real integrity, Smith made clear that he was not impressed. Dada, whose real name is Dhafir Harris, suffered kidney failure, apparently in the ring, and nearly died. You can say, honestly, that Harris fought very well for a man who was dying.
Smith is not an ass-kissing talking head, he is real. After the event, this is what he tweeted.
F….M….L…Jimmy Smith OUT
— Jimmy Smith (@jimmysmithmma) February 20, 2016
Smith appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and offered some real truth. From a business perspective, it doesn’t matter that the fight was disgraceful, which it was. What matters is that millions of people watched. Bellator MMA 149 averaged 2,400,000 viewers during the Kimbo vs. Dada debacle, and peaked at 2,700,000. That’s what matters.
“What everyone keeps forgetting, and I’ve seen this over and over and I’ve said it to anyone who will listen, when Kimbo fought Ken, 2.1 million people watched that fight,” said Smith Ariel Helwani, as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall? for MMA Fighting. “And when I see ratings like that, I got to tell you at home I kind of went and smashed my head against my desk a couple of times when I read that, when it first came out, because at the end of a fight like that, networks and promoters and the people in charge don’t change policy because of YouTube comments. They don’t care what you say on the blog, they don’t care what you tweet — they care what you watch.”
“When you see ‘Vengeance,’ which is a card we had — Straus versus Pitbull, they went to war, Michael Chandler knocks out Caveman, we had amazing fights that night…Will Brooks defeats Marcin Held…with real, legit, young, hungry talent, and it got about 800,000 viewers. Peaked about a million. Which wasn’t bad. Kimbo/Ken doubled that.
“So when fans ask me, why do they put on these fights, why do you think they put on these fights? It’s because you watched it. That’s what you asked for. It’s like a buffet, we lay out all this stuff, and what you eat the most of, that’s what’s for dinner. And I ever tell fans is look, we have six months of cards coming up. We have the main card, with King Mo versus Phil Davis. We have Michael Chandler versus Josh Thomson. We have a title fight this week. We have Koreshkov versus our brand spanking new signing at 170 for the title shot, that’s huge. If you don’t want to see Ben Henderson take on Koreshkov April 22, if those don’t get numbers you’re going to see more of the kind of fights that do get numbers.”
“That’s why I try and tell fans, man, help us out. Watch the fights that have legit guys, and if those numbers are high, that’s what you will see again. And so in a sense it kind of feeds on itself. When that’s what you watch that’s what you’re going to get, and then you turn around and complain that that’s what you get, well, come on.
“When we show real, legit guys make those numbers high and that’s what you’ll get again. Scott is responding to what the fans are telling him. And like I said you can scream, you can tweet, you can whine, you can do whatever you want — viewership is what drives what you see in Bellator. The fans are in charge of what they see. And if you support the young, hungry talent, then you will see young, hungry talent.
“And that’s what everybody forgets, man.”