If Bellator PPV Is A Success, How Big Of A Threat Will They Be To UFC's Future ?

If Bellator 180 was to draw 250k - 350k buys, which if they promote the Sonnen v Wanderlei rivalry to its fullest potential, is a realistic possibility, can they become what WCW was to WWF in the 90s. (For Those Who Don't Know What I Mean)

They have already started to sign high level fighters away from the UFC. Showing that they can compete with the UFC in the PPV market can become another selling point when trying to sign free agents away from the UFC, adding to the sponsorship & fully guaranteed money. The average UFC PPV buy rate in 2016 was 666,538, but if you remove all the McGregor & Rousey PPV's, both whom might not compete in 2017, it drops down to 366,444 avg buys. So if they were to get 350k buys for Bellator 180 that would put them right up there with the average UFC PPV.

With the amount of high level fighter voicing they're displeasure with the UFC, weathers it being skipped in line for a title shot,reebok or the money they're being payed. Bellator, especially a Bellator that can compete with the UFC in terms of PPV buys, will become a much more attractive place to be. 

I think you're underestimating how steep the divide is.

Bellator 120 did between 65K-100K PPV buys.  UFC can do those numbers with a crappy card. Bellator did that with the best lineup they could throw out at the time. With that being said Bellator 180 is pretty nice so far and now has Coker instead of Rebney but still, even if 180 doubles 120 which is unrealistic thats still a subpar number compared to a UFC PPV. The only way Bellator becomes a WCW to UFCs WWF is if WME turns UFC into a steaming pile of ****, which they are trying to do but it would take a lot to flip UFC on its back.

Edit: The return of GSP is 2 weeks later, im sure thats no accident. So even though Bellator has that weekend to themselves a lot of people are gonna save their money for the GSP return a few weeks later.

* Edited at 03.21.2017, 3:41 PM ET *

It will be lucky to break 100k and considering the likely cost of the payroll that won't be good.

Eh, for one, I think the UFC can just drown them out by sheer number of cards (and number of marketable fighters). Bellator can put on 2-3 mega-cards a year tops. While as most UFC fight nights are maybe one notch under a Bellator mega-card in marketability (that's fighter's marketability because the UFC brand also makes them more marketable, but I'm not counting that for the sake of this argument) and probably 1 notch over that mega-card in top-to-bottom talent level and quality of fights.

But let's say for a second they do become somewhat of a threat. All the UFC need to do is counter their blockbuster cards with one 3 times better for the first 2 or 3 times and Bellator drops out of competition faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Viacom won't lose bazillions of dollars just to try and compete with the UFC. Bellator is a side business for them.

So far, the UFC have "let" Bellator have their monster cards, they've spent truckloads of money, put Fedor's whole team on the payroll on top of what they're paying him and don't have too much to show for it yet. PPV sales have been chump change, Benson flopped, Rory, Davis, Bader aren't exactly box office monsters, Rampage is getting fatter and fatter, Chael is "Bob Sapping" away his high paychecks, Kimbo died, Royce is 109 ... the list goes on. They're not even on the UFC radar apart from Dana's personal ego. Most of Bellator's marketable fighters are north of 35 years old and are all back fighting just because they can half-ass it and get payed good money and I don't really see Bellator managing to use their names to build REAL marketable stars to succeed them once they're all gone again.

If they ever get on that radar, the UFC will crush them, but as of now, every UFC fighter that signs with Bellator only helps the UFC with their monopoly lawsuit so they're fine with it. The only ones who do that are ones who feels they've just maxed out their title chances (at best) and need to start taking care of the financial aspect of their careers. None of the guys who are up for proximate contention make the move. So the UFC are basically "losing" guys that don't sell and/or need to work their way back to shots. So they're not really losing them are they.

* Edited at 03.22.2017, 4:50 AM ET *

Bellator would have to do a lot more than one 250K buy PPV to be a real threat to the UFC. It doesn't help that more promotions are becoming threats so even with all of the UFC's questionable cuts some guys are going to ACB, some to WSOF, some to RIZIN, so on. They just don't have the resources available to really compete unless things keep changing.

No way can Bellator keep up with the UFC.