Road to Dubai: Champions Series is set to excite the fight fans on the 25th of January at Coca-Cola Arena, Dubai. But Bellator FC was already in turmoil. In 2023, PFL acquired the fight promotion for less than $100M. So, what is going to happen to the fighters signed with Bellator? Well, Ariel Helwani has tried to clear things up on his talk show. Let’s see what exactly happened to Bellator. 

Taking to his talk show, the famed MMA reporter weighed in on the Bellator buyout and the future of the fight promotion. He announced, “On Monday, January 13th, at 1:20 pm Eastern Time, Bellator is dead. Bellator, as we know it, is no more. Bellator is dead. You will not see Bellator events anymore. In fact, if you have looked at Donn Davis’ social media over the last couple of weeks, he refers to things as all PFL. And if you look at that event on January the 25th, you will see that other than the picture of the belt and other than the press release, it says Bellator lightweight title, there’s no other mention of Bellator. Bellator as we know it is dead. From the Bjorn era to the Scott Coker era to the PFL-ator era, it’s no more.”

So what is going to happen now? The entire world has been making speculations about what is going to happen to the fighters originally signed to Bellator, now that it’s PFL making the big decisions. With the events now being named PFL events, the promotion is indeed planning to commence events that would be headlined by title fights. PFL would have its own champions, and not season or tournament champions. 

However, Helwani seemed unclear about certain things. Even after talking to a handful of entities with intimate knowledge about the PFL-Bellator merger, Helwani seemed oblivious to what was going to happen on January 25. The one question that ate him up was who would become the PFL champion? Would it be the winner of Usman Nurmagomedov vs. Paul Hughes? Or will the 2024 tournament winners be crowned as the champions? Things are unclear, but the MMA reporter has a hunch.

What does the future hold for PFL-acquired-Bellator?

Helwani continued, “My hunch says, given what they get paid and given how everything is structured, the Bellator champions would then become the PFL champions. They’re gonna have these PFL Champion Series events, which are essentially just cards headlined by champions and filled with other talent throughout, and those will be scattered throughout the year.” There would be a single elimination tournament, with 6-8 weight categories and 2 alternatives. And the standings and points are no more. 

The PFL also announced that the $1M prize money will be cut in half. That is, “The winner of that tournament, single elimination tournament, gets $500K.” There would be no belt in this scenario. And the $500K is the amount the fighters would receive on top of their purse. Personally, Helwani seemed to appreciate this plan as a big win for the PFL. These tournaments would be the place where the promotion would search for its future stars. 

And it’s pretty clear that PFL was dealt a bad hand in this deal. During the final days of Bellator, Scott Coker brought in several fighters in massive deals, leaving PFL to deal with them. It was definitely not cost-effective for Donn Davis. And that made Helwani question why the PFL boss wasn’t talking about it.

He said, “My point is, you are not speaking up, you’re not letting people know the truth. And as a result, they’re taking information from the disgruntled fighters and managers, and they’re able to paint their own narrative which isn’t a good one in your favor. And you’re just standing back and letting everyone slide you off! Why?” He simply advised Davis to come out and address the problems in public. 

Well, that’s what made Dana White so lovable in the UFC. He showed up to defend himself and put out his own perspective when people put on their speculation hats. White was skeptical of PFL’s contract to Francis Ngannou as well. So the problems had started way before the merger. Ex-UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub also questioned the financial capacity of the promotion to be handing out such heavy paychecks. And Davis certainly seems to have bitten off more than he can chew, especially with some investors reportedly pulling out and advertiser deals falling through.

However, Davis seemed to have taken the business investor approach, which isn’t healthy in a fight business at all. But one thing was clear. The PFL recognized its mistakes and is trying to make changes. This might actually push them to great popularity pretty soon.  

But what do you think lies ahead of Road to Dubai: championship series? Do you think Davis, through the PFL-Bellator merger, is going to make the promotion more popular than UFC? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.