A $2 million loss for former UFC light heavyweight champ Tito Ortiz turned out to be a huge gain for fight fans.
As first reported by MMA Fighting, Tito Ortiz fractured his neck in training and as of Friday, has been officially ruled out of his main event bout against fellow ex-UFC staple, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, at Bellator 106 next Saturday.
According to reports, Ortiz would have made roughly $2 million in “show money” alone.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, as well as Spike TV executive Kevin Kay, held a conference call shortly after the news broke to address how the promotion would be handling the setback.
As it turns out, the event will no longer take place on pay-per-view and will now be aired for free on Spike TV.
Rebney did not comment on when the 38-year-old Ortiz would be able to resume training, but indicated he would be unable to train for “a significant amount of time.”
Furthermore, Rebney was optimistic that Bellator would host pay-per-view events in the near future, but with Ortiz out, it didn’t make any sense to keep Bellator 106 a paid event.
"We will do pay-per-views -- there will be PPVs under the Bellator banner, but sitting down literally for the last 24 hours and talking to Kevin and the entire team over at Spike and my whole team, it just made sense to keep this literally where it is right now, to give fans these great fights for free,” Rebney said on the call.
For what it’s worth, the card as it stands is a very solid lineup on paper.
Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler II, a lightweight title bout, is now the main event of the evening, while another heavily anticipated rematch – this one for the interim light heavyweight title – takes place between “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal and Emanuel Newton.
On top of that, a featherweight title tilt between Pat Curran and Daniel Strauss, another part II, is on tap, as is the “Fight Master” finale between Joe Riggs and Mike Bronzoulis.
Also, while a Twitter campaign has been mounting to pit Rampage against Muay Thai champion Tyrone Spong, that bout seems borderline impossible since Spong is currently under contract with the World Series of Fighting.
However, Rebney did remark that he plans on having Jackson fight in the Bellator cage “as quickly as possible.”