That’s a subject Bellator President Scott Coker was big on following Thursday night’s card. The continuation of the grand prix was announced earlier in the evening.

“It feels good to get the tournament on, and I feel great doing it here [at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut]. Because this is where it all stopped,” observed Coker, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press post-fight. “The guys were ready to go, COVID hit, it got worse, a lot of people felt uncomfortable, and so we shut it down on the day of.”

At the time, Coker expected things would be on hold for just a few months tops. “I never would have thought we would be here eight months later, and we still haven’t put this event on,” he admitted. “I thought it was going to be a break for three, four months and then we’d get back in business.”

“To get the tournament back here, to get the tournament back going, and have it on CBS Sports Network, is going to be great,” he added. “We really want to get to the finals sometime early next year,” he continued later, before admitting that it could be as late as sometime in the Spring before the grand prix wraps up.

Coker has been master of the grand prix since he ran Strikeforce, where the heavyweight grand prix pretty much stole the UFC’s thunder. However, note the broadcast arrangement here. Prior to the pandemic, the Bellator featherweight grand prix was aired (or rather streamed) exclusively on DAZN. The promotion’s old traditional broadcast partner, Paramount Network, went dark for those events. Thursday’s press release listed DAZN in addition to CBS Sports Network.

So is it the end of the DAZN exclusive? To that question, Coker replied “No” before expanding on the subject a little.

“Actually we’re just waiting to see what they want to do. And when they’re getting back. They have some issues with Canelo [Alvarez] they’re trying to work out, I don’t think they’ve scheduled anything with Triple G, we have nothing scheduled right now,” explained Coker. “But we’re hoping that we can get back on the books and get something going and get this tournament back on DAZN like it was.”

In the meantime, Coker added, “the show must go on. So we’re going to have it on CBS Sports Network, and that’s what you’re going to see in November, is the continuation of the tournament. And then if DAZN starts re-engaging, then we can continue the tournament there. And do some more great fights. We did some great fights for DAZN. We’re just waiting to see what they want to do.”

Watch the full Bellator 249 post-fight press conference with Scott Coker above.

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DAZN burst on the combat sports scene seven months ago when they began picking up some of boxing’s biggest stars, with GGG and Canelo Alvarez joining the upstart streaming service. They then turned their sights toward MMA, snatching up Bellator and Combate Americas streaming rights. You could have some of the best in MMA and Boxing for only $9.99 a month, but not anymore.

The service had been proclaiming the death of Pay-Per-View as well as boasting about their own prices for months, but apparently, those prices are taking a hike. The new price structure will be $19.99 per month, but a discount for regular subscribers to $99.99 per year, which works out to just under $8.50 per month. Current subscribers will be allowed to continue with the $9.99 monthly price for a year.

DAZN officials announced the switch Thursday, after looking at subscriber patterns. They saw that a large portion of their audience would unsubscribe following a single event, as opposed to staying on board for all the content on DAZN. The price change seems to work upon the idea that those that buy and unsubscribe, will be paying $19.99 for the one time fee as opposed to $9.99.

The price change comes right before the company has multiple major events over the next couple of months. Canelo Alvarez will defend his WBA and WBC middleweight titles against IBF champion Danny Jacobs in May, Anthony Joshua will defend his heavyweight titles in June against Jarnell Miller, and Bellator 220 in April features two title fights. Rory MacDonald will be defending against Jon Fitch, as well as lima-Lei Macfarlane defending her flyweight title against Veta Arteaga.

DAZN has completely changed the Boxing PPV landscape with the signings of Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez. Earlier this month they attempted to sign Deontay Wilder to a 120 million dollar deal, which included two Anthony Joshua fights, which Wilder turned down in order to stay with Showtime Boxing.

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Combate Americas will be joining Bellator in providing MMA content on the DAZN app.  The company announced that they have signed a multi-year broadcast deal with the DAZN and will be providing 13 fight nights per year.  Their deal will begin with their event tonight with Alday vs Lopez for the inaugural bantamweight championship.

Combate Americas joins several combat sports promotions to join the new app.  Per a Combate Americas press release, “Following the announcement of deals across Matchroom Boxing, Bellator MMA, and the World Boxing Super Series, the Combate Americas deal puts the number of fight nights per year on DAZN at 80+.”

DAZN launched earlier this week in the U.S., going live September 10 and already has several notable combat sports events set to air.  Alday vs Lopez will be the first MMA event to air on the app.  Later this month, the app will air Bellator 205 with the fight between AJ McKee and John Macapa as well as Bellator 206 featuring the mega fight between middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi and welterweight champion Rory MacDonald.  The app will also broadcast the boxing match between heavyweight dynamo Anthony Joshua and Alexander Povetkin on September 22.

The broadcast team for Combate Americas will feature returning broadcasters Gilbert “El Nino” Melendez and Julianna “The Venezuelan Vixen” Peña.  Both Melendez and Peña are still signed as fighters in the UFC, but have served as commentators for Combate Americas in the past.  They will be joined by Max Bretos who has been on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes and currently serves as the play-by-play broadcaster on YouTubeTV for LAFC.  Bretos was also previously featured on MMA Live on ESPN.

Combate Americas previously aired in English on UFC Fight Pass and last year aired their Copa Combate tournament on the NBC Sports Network.  The company has not had an English broadcast this year.  Their Spanish broadcast has done extremely well since signing a new broadcast deal with Univision this year.

Tonight’s event, Alday vs Lopez, will be simulcast in English on the DAZN app and in Spanish on both Univision and Univision Deportes.

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Some interesting news from Bellator MMA on Tuesday. The Viacom-owned promotion has announced a multi-year, nine figure distribution deal with streaming provider DAZN which will see Bellator events air live, without tape delay, in multiple markets including the U.S. Bellator will continue to air on Paramount Network, but DAZN earns the rights to seven events exclusively on its service.

“The exciting new partnership with DAZN is a game-changer for Bellator,” said Bellator President Scott Coker via press release. “The investment will enable us to continue expanding our roster with free agents that make sense, so we can put on PPV-worthy fight cards that fans want to see. Plus, on DAZN’s worldwide platform, our fights will be seen live for the first time to new audiences around the globe.”

“It’s simple; fans want to see great fighters in competitive fights so we’ve handed the keys to Scott Coker and his venerable team to go out and recruit even more top-level talent to further stack Bellator fight cards and build on their success,” DAZN CEO James Rushton was quoted as saying.  “With the combination of this investment and our recent announcement to bring more than 30 nights of boxing to the platform annually, DAZN will be a must-have for fight fans in the U.S.”

The DAZN deal is valued at nine-figures, per Tuesday’s release. It will begin in time for the promotion’s hotly anticipated show on September 29 in California, which sees Wanderlei Silva meet Rampage Jackson for the fourth time, as well as a champ vs. champ fight between Gegard Mousasi and Rory MacDonald, and the launch of the Bellator welterweight Grand Prix.

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