Cooper appears to the new age bearded hipsters. Can you Blake Bjorn ? 
Doc T - Cooper appears to the new age bearded hipsters. Can you Blake Bjorn ?Blame
Let me bang bro - aint no way brotha, we want to see more of your topics MMALOGIC.
A lot of people are insinuating that the championship replacement clause for an injured opponent was made up for this fight. But honestly, it felt more like it was brought up to help justify Chandler vs. Alvarez II being a title fight.
Really, if Bellator wanted to ruin the integrity of their tournaments, then they sure wouldn't start by giving Brett Cooper a title shot (no disrespect to Cooper's skills, but he's not exactly a well-known star).
Obviously, giving a title shot to a fighter coming off of a loss, a KO loss at that, is not an ideal situation. But, Alexander Shlemenko needs to fight, and shouldn't have to wait for his challengers to heal up. Depending on how severe and what kind of injury that Doug Marshall suffered, Shlemenko could potentially be waiting a long time to fight again.
It's good to see Bellator hosting more tournaments so that more challengers are on deck for champions to fight. But they do need to find a better way to keep them more active so situations like this don't have to occur. This clause is a nice start, but they will run into cases where replacement challengers are coming off of bad losses and people will be very critical for it, regardless of the opponent's previous success.
The non-title fights were actually a good idea, but after Christian M'Pumbu and Eduardo Dantas lost fights as champions, it screwed things up for everybody else. Had Bellator had an option to award fighters that beat champions in non-title fights with an immediate title shot, that would have been a better option.
It may have had a bit harder to convince fighters to go into tournaments rather than just face the champ in a non-title fight, but it would have been a more simple and credible system to keep champs more active.
CindyO -Yea it doesn't bother me in the sense of I dislike watching but I hate the monicker that Bjorn uses all the time and then creates the clause then pulls a shit move ...Tat2tillidie -RKing85 - I would have more of a problem with this if the UFC hadn't done it however many times in the last year.Big difference when they claim that " title shots are earned not given " he puts this new clause then 6 days later he announces this ... Smh bellator is going down and faster than I thought ...
If they stuck with what they was doing when the promotion first started they would have been better off IMO ...
Yep. epwar made the same point earlier and he was one of their biggest shills:) Perhaps they thought no one would notice. Still gonna watch it, though.
Cindy
I understand the show must go on but c'mon don't be all the UFC gifts fights to undeserving fighters cause of name value than turn around and do it with king mo who I happen to enjoy watching fight and cooper as well as a minority of there roster ...
I enjoy and will take as much free mma as they wanna give me and I'll do my best to support all mma like invicta , bellator , UFC , one FC , and all the other I missed thru ppv and merchandise ...
But Bjorn pulled a plain and simple dick move and went back on his whole concept in a political , promotional aspect ...
Seems to me that bellator mma has officially turned into Viacom mma ...
MoneyMO - A lot of people are insinuating that the championship replacement clause for an injured opponent was made up for this fight. But honestly, it felt more like it was brought up to help justify Chandler vs. Alvarez II being a title fight."The non-title fights were actually a good idea, but after Christian M'Pumbu and Eduardo Dantas lost fights as champions, it screwed things up for everybody else. Had Bellator had an option to award fighters that beat champions in non-title fights with an immediate title shot, that would have been a better option"
Really, if Bellator wanted to ruin the integrity of their tournaments, then they sure wouldn't start by giving Brett Cooper a title shot (no disrespect to Cooper's skills, but he's not exactly a well-known star).
Obviously, giving a title shot to a fighter coming off of a loss, a KO loss at that, is not an ideal situation. But, Alexander Shlemenko needs to fight, and shouldn't have to wait for his challengers to heal up. Depending on how severe and what kind of injury that Doug Marshall suffered, Shlemenko could potentially be waiting a long time to fight again.
It's good to see Bellator hosting more tournaments so that more challengers are on deck for champions to fight. But they do need to find a better way to keep them more active so situations like this don't have to occur. This clause is a nice start, but they will run into cases where replacement challengers are coming off of bad losses and people will be very critical for it, regardless of the opponent's previous success.
The non-title fights were actually a good idea, but after Christian M'Pumbu and Eduardo Dantas lost fights as champions, it screwed things up for everybody else. Had Bellator had an option to award fighters that beat champions in non-title fights with an immediate title shot, that would have been a better option.
It may have had a bit harder to convince fighters to go into tournaments rather than just face the champ in a non-title fight, but it would have been a more simple and credible system to keep champs more active.
^ this I fully agree with and it's a great idea so VTFU
Exactly. It was so odd to see Travis Wiuff have to go into a tournament to earn a title shot after defeating Christian M'Pumbu in a non-title fight. There was no reward for him beating the champion other than bragging rights.
Had a clause like the one I mentioned been in effect, it would have been far more logical. Wiuff would have been rightfully rewarded for beating the champ and M'Pumbu wouldn't have been inactive due to Bellator not running any Light Heavyweight tournaments until the 2012 Summer Series, and Bellator not likely wanting to risk M'Pumbu possibly losing another non-title fight.
A clause to reward fighters for beating champs in non-title fights would also make it easier to attract top level fighters.
It's no secret that bigger name and more experienced fighters aren't exactly fans of the tournament format. Although Bellator has been attracting more recognizable fighters due to some increasing funding from Viacom, they can't do that very often as Bellator is still only a very small part of Viacom.
Making tournaments the only way to get title shots seems to make Bellator even less lucrative of a home for many fighters. At least with a clause for non-title fights, they would be living up to their slogan of title shots being earned and not potentially chase off talent that aren't fans of competing in tournaments.
MoneyMO - A clause to reward fighters for beating champs in non-title fights would also make it easier to attract top level fighters.
It's no secret that bigger name and more experienced fighters aren't exactly fans of the tournament format. Although Bellator has been attracting more recognizable fighters due to some increasing funding from Viacom, they can't do that very often as Bellator is still only a very small part of Viacom.
Making tournaments the only way to get title shots seems to make Bellator even less lucrative of a home for many fighters. At least with a clause for non-title fights, they would be living up to their slogan of title shots being earned and not potentially chase off talent that aren't fans of competing in tournaments.
yes said the same thing, if the true title shot holder is injured the last person beat or new big name to the promotion should get a non-title fight 3 or 5 rounds whichever, and if they win, they to be put in line behing the top titleshot holder who will likely be good to go soon after unless the injury is severe in which case move on with the show, but minor injury should have this system
Same thing happened with huerta didn't it? 
Yes, but Huerta's fight against Eddie Alvarez was non-title.
I'll admit I'm a Bellator nuthugger, but this was a weak move. Caposa's idea (Schlemenko vs Grove) is much better. I do doubt Schlemenko was the first choice though.
omega 2013 - this whole thread is stupid. they gave the runner up the shot. so what? ufc gives shots to guys coming off loses IN DIFFERENT WEIGHT CLASSES...
It's equally inane when the UFC does it. In fact, there are more threads on the UG when they pull this shit than when other orgs do.
It sounds stupid from that point of view but what about the champion's point of view?
#1 contender gets hurt, so now the champ is out a payday for much longer than anticipated. They don't exactly make UFC money there....
Why not just let man fight the #2 contender (or whoever) and if he wins, fight the #1 contender when he's healthy. I can agree with it form that perspective.
CindyO -Tat2tillidie -RKing85 - I would have more of a problem with this if the UFC hadn't done it however many times in the last year.Big difference when they claim that " title shots are earned not given " he puts this new clause then 6 days later he announces this ... Smh bellator is going down and faster than I thought ...
If they stuck with what they was doing when the promotion first started they would have been better off IMO ...
Yep. epwar made the same point earlier and he was one of their biggest shills:) Perhaps they thought no one would notice. Still gonna watch it, though.
Cindy
CindyO, are you even allowed to call another poster a shill?
Storm needed a fight, nothing wrong with a replacement fight, I just think it could have been a better match up and non title
Having the runner up makes some sense, but Shlemenko already beat him so it takes any excitement out of the fight, throw in a brutal KD loss to Marshall and its just a bad match up
Also, the link on the 1st page says there is already a seperate clause to award title fight rematches (Eddie/Chandler 2).
With this new clause, the thing i love is they take the top 3 point earners from the most recent tourny (or 2 if the tourny was 4 man) AND they can add one other fighter of their choosing. So they get to add another fighter who EARNED NOTHING, and he has a chance to be chosen.
omega 2013 - this whole thread is stupid. they gave the runner up the shot. so what? ufc gives shots to guys coming off loses IN DIFFERENT WEIGHT CLASSES...
But does the UFC claim NOT to do exactly that... like Bellator/Viacom MMA? To come out with a new policy and to just so happen to need it a week later is just waaaaay too convenient. They do what they want to, obviously, just like the UFC does. So much for "Bellator! Where title shots are EARNED not just given!"
The athletes are awesome but there are complete idiots are running the show. Do you agree?
Cindy
Rantuckjr -CindyO -Tat2tillidie -RKing85 - I would have more of a problem with this if the UFC hadn't done it however many times in the last year.Big difference when they claim that " title shots are earned not given " he puts this new clause then 6 days later he announces this ... Smh bellator is going down and faster than I thought ...
If they stuck with what they was doing when the promotion first started they would have been better off IMO ...
Yep. epwar made the same point earlier and he was one of their biggest shills:) Perhaps they thought no one would notice. Still gonna watch it, though.
Cindy
CindyO, are you even allowed to call another poster a shill?
Yep=) Its in the handbook! I think this was my very first time doing it, too!
Cindy
Bellator really has put themselves in a bad spot. With the way they promote their title shots it makes it too easy to criticize them when something like this happens.
I agree with Cindy. This happens in the UFC all the time but that is the way the UFC has always worked.