Bellator 88: Middleweight Title Fight & 145 Quarterfinals (2/7 on SPIKE)

[EmpireWF]

Thursday, February 7th @ 10pm et on SPIKE TV
Live from the The Arena at Gwinnet Center in Duluth, Georgia

VACANT MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT
ALEXANDER SHLEMENKO VS. MAIQUEL FALCAO

FEATHERWEIGHT TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS
Marlon Sandro (23-4) vs. Akop Stepanyan (12-4)
Mitch Jackson (19-2) vs. Mike Richman (13-2)
Popo Bezerra (13-2) vs. Genair Da Silva (12-4)
Fabricio Guerreiro (17-1) vs. Frodo Khasbulaev (18-5)

Prelims on Spike TV.com @ 7 or 8 pm et

[EmpireWF]

I want to see Sandro vs. Guerreiro in the semis.

[Warner2BruceTD]

From the Observer:

Bellator on 1/31 after Impact did a 0.6 rating and 705,000 viewers for the live show (plus 69,000 more on DVR within three days) and 323,000 viewers for the replay. There are two obvious reasons for the 13% decline from last week. The first is that even though the TNA rating was basically the same, the final quarter was down from the past two weeks so Bellator had less of a lead-in. Also, Bellator had title matches and big names the last two weeks and this week was the lightweight tournament with no names. Bellator did to its best numbers to date in Males 18-34, doing an 0.6, but that’s because TNA did unusually high in that demo.

As far as how each match did, Alexander Sarnavskiy vs. Thiago Michel right after Impact did 924,000 viewers. Guillaume DeLorenzi vs. Saad Awad did 699,000. Sam Quito vs. Ben Langan did 736,000. Will Brooks vs. Ricardo Tirloni did 667,000 and Lloyd Woodard vs. David Rickels did 685,000.

After three weeks, the ratings pattern is clear - Bellator is greatly influenced by what TNA is doing as the lead in.

Bellator spikes in 18-34 the same week Impact does higher than usual in the demo, and during a week with no marquee fighters, you see a steady decline from the start of the show until the finish.

After three weeks, I would chalk up the ratings performance as good, but not great. They were fortunate that the stars not only won the first two weeks, but also looked impressive. I would suspect that if you've a TNA fan or casual MMA fan who had never seen Chandler, Mo, or Askren before, you will likely come back the next time they fight to see them again based on how great they looked.

I'd like to see Bellator form their own ratings patterns though and not have their numbers be so dependent on what TNA does. This is another week with no fighters who would be considered even a minor star. I hope we don't see a big dip.

[SHOGUN]

Popo works fast. Took his back and got to the ground really quick before QPD could get started. I'd love to see him in the finals.

[SHOGUN]

Richman has scary power. He is a good story, but I don't want him to KTFO Popo.

Sandro was saved by a point deduction IMO. Akop was hanging in there with him and rocked a few times. The few times Sandro did get it to the ground he couldn't do much with it.

Guerreiro definitely flashed in his Bellator debut, but it looks like he got to content to play guard against someone with some heavy GNP. Definitely should have kept it standing because he was winning there.

[SHOGUN]

Falcao wanted to call it a day after that knee to the liver. Nasty GNP to the body.

Shlemenko gets the well-deserved title. Very happy for him and he dropped a nice little post-fight promo in English, too.

NEW FACE OF BELLATOR.

[Liquidrob]

Really good card

I had Storm winning in the 3rd or 4th after Falcao gassses, but those NASTY body shots speed up the process, Storm is a bad dude, he had Lombard going lay and pray in there fight

FWs looking good, excited about the next round, Akop had Sandro but I think going to the ground saved him, Akop needed to keep it up and pour it on

[EmpireWF]

I want to see Sandro vs. Guerreiro in the semis.

eww. Sandro didn't look too good and Guerreiro showed potential.

Mike Richman's striking display was impressive, he packs a lot of power for a 145er.

Glad Shlemenko won, a consistent fighter plus, how can you not love a guy who breaks his opponent down with body shots?

[Liquidrob]

"I am beat you" - Shlemenko

[SHOGUN]

I hate to say it, but Sandro looked shot last night. Unless he comes out looking rejuvenated, Frodo is going to finish him.

[Liquidrob]

Yeah, this might be Sandros last ride in Bellator, not a good win

[Liquidrob]

Ratings back up to 807k

Alexander "The Face Of Bellator" Shlemenko

[Liquidrob]