På senare tid har det varit en del negativ publicitet för den amerikanska organisationen Bellator FC. De negativa vindarna är starkt kopplade till den fortfarande pågående tvisten med Eddie Alvarez och att andra fighters i samband med detta uttryckt lättnad över att de tidigare i karriären valt att inte skriva på för Bellator, även att de inte skulle vara villiga att göra det i dagsläget.
Men frågar man forne Bellator-mästaren Joe Warren (8-3), som närmast är aktuell med TV-serien Fight Master, har han bara god ord att säga om sin arbetsgivare.
– Bellator found me as an upcoming fighter, a guy that had a great pedigree outside of MMA. They gave me a great opportunity to sign, build my brand, build me, gave me opportunity for success. Granted, as an athlete, I needed to open that door of opportunity myself. I was able to win the tournament, win the belt and everything they promised me I was able to reach out and get. The problem with a lot of people is they promise things, but at the end of the day, you have to go out and get it. We’re all professionals and we all sign into contracts. We have to understand this is big business, this is big money. The talent that we have, we try to keep and I believe in the talent that we have. Look at guys like Michael Chandler, Ben Askren and Pat Curran, all starting with some of their first fights in Bellator and turning into stars, säger Warren till MMAmania.
– Bellator is focused on building a brand. It’s only been going for three or four years. When I started with Bellator it was on ESPN Deportes and now we’re on Spike. There’s good management and business relationships at the top and the majority of the apples in the tree are happy. Of course there’s a couple bad apples but that’s business. It’s big money. It’s business and entertainment. I’m interested to see how it plays out, but everything that’s ever been promised to me by Bellator, they’ve given me and they kept options for me to do things like Fight Master, to color commentate, to move into more of a business relationship with Bellator and Viacom instead of just an athletic one. They have that brought variety of options with me. They’ve definitely built me as a fighter and given me some options outside of fighting.
– They take care of my family. I work for them, Fight Master was part of the job, color commentary, getting ready for the rest of the tournament. Any time I’ve ever needed help, they were there for me when I needed it. I’ve always had some extra money in my pocket, they kept me happy and it keeps me smiling and working hard.
Warren är närmast aktuell för deltagande i Bellators kommande nionde bantamviktsturnering som sätter igång i september.
