As MMA's default B-League, Bellator is constantly fighting an uphill battle to divert fans' attention from the "big brother" UFC and turn eyes towards their product. Bellator President Scott Coker knows that the promotion is not nearly as deep as the UFC when it comes to quantity of top level talent, but at his best he is very capable of finding clever ways to make his cards look and feel unique. For Bellator 206 in San Jose, CA, Coker pulled out all of his usual tricks to make the promotions' premier event on streaming service Da Zone feel special. The card boasted Bellator standards such as a rematch featuring yesterday's favorite fighters (Wanderlei Silva vs. "Rampage" Jackson IV), a "superfight" between established Bellator champions who made their names in other promotions (Gegard Mousasi vs. Rory MacDonald), a fight from one of Bellator's two Grand Prix tournaments (welterweights Douglas Lima vs. Andrey Koreshkov), and a feature bout for a legitimately exciting homegrown talent (Aaron Pico vs. Leonardo Higo).

A Slow, Plodding Pace

American fans did not have access to this card on the Paramount network -- unlike most Bellator events Americans could only watch via a paid streaming service and not on cable TV. Even without the impetus to take commercial breaks, the broadcast seriously dragged. The main card opened with a fight featuring Gilbert Melendez's wife in a low-quality bout that could not be called top level MMA by any stretch of the imagination. The fight seemed to drag on for an eternity, as did the post-fight analysis that ran after the fight.

Somehow an hour passed before the second fight started. For American viewers, the broadcast's heavy emphasis on showmanship and sports desk analysis robbed the show of momentum and excitement. For European fans, it actually robbed them of the main event -- apparently the European cable stations showing Bellator 206 only allotted three hours of airtime to the event, and cut out to children's cartoon Peppa Pig as the Mousasi/MacDonald bout was about to begin. Missing the main event is always a refund-worthy error, but this particular botch must have felt especially unforgivable for European fans who endured such a poorly paced card so late into the night.

Size Does Matter

Those who did get to see the main event matchup between the promotion's Middleweight Champion and Welterweight Champion were not treated to the sort of inspirational underdog story that UFC has been lucky enough to produce in its two most recent superfights. Both Daniel Cormier and Conor McGregor managed to step up to higher weight classes and dethrone the champions above them. In both of those bouts, the challenger from the smaller weight division had the benefit at least of being large for his class. In fact, Daniel Cormier was originally himself a heavyweight fighter before dropping down in divisions, and McGregor just the same had experience fighting at lightweight prior to challenging for the 155 title. The same could not be said of Rory MacDonald, a true welterweight who actually fought in the lighter 155 pound division early in his career, and had no middleweight experience heading into this opportunity. Some questioned the timing of MacDonald fighting a larger champion just as Bellator commenced a tournament in MacDonald's own weight class, but that sort of illogical toughness is part of the appeal of MacDonald as a fighter.

Tough pluckiness was not enough to compensate for the difference in size, though. In the opening round Mousasi dominated MacDonald on the feet, walking down the smaller man and frequently utilizing a head-snapping jab that MacDonald could not answer. When the round broke, commentator "Big" John McCarthy cautioned that MacDonald would need to land something to earn Mousasi's respect, lest Mousasi continue walking MacDonald down and picking him apart with his jab. MacDonald looked for the single leg takedown a handful of times, but Mousasi was able to easily disregard the takedown attempts.

Floundering on the feet and unable to secure a takedown, MacDonald rolled the dice on a desperation imanari roll. Though he successfully got the fight off the feet and down to the mat, Mousasi easily denied the leglock attempt and swept into top position, and did not take long passing into full mount. From there Mousasi wasted no time employing heavy ground and pound strikes, and MacDonald had no choice but to tap to strikes.

While the idea of MacDonald trying to defy the idea of weight classes was a somewhat fun and enticing one, the end result was not an exciting, gutsy war, but a brief showcase of how a larger fighter can bully a smaller one in the cage. Hindsight is of course 20/20, but right now one has to wonder if Bellator was wise to book one of its biggest name stars in MacDonald in a fight against a larger man who was a -290 favorite to beat him.

A Slow, Plodding Pace II

The fourth match between Quinton Jackson and Wanderlei Silva could not be called a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but it at least delivered a satisfying finish. Rampage scored a knockout to even the four-fight series, but up until the finish there wasn't much to chew on. Neither man seems to possess the cardiovascular endurance to put on an exciting MMA bout; Silva in particular was wilting before the end of the first round, retreating as Rampage marched forward and taunted him.

While this particular outing was not an embarrassment like some of Bellator's past retreads of decades-old grudge matches (such as the Ken Shamrock v. Royce Gracie rematch, or Silva's previous bout against Chael Sonnen), this was likely more the exception than the rule. If Bellator has any ambition to attract new fans, they'll have to do better than continuing to retread rivalries from the mid-00's.

Something Better

Bellator's handling of rising prospect Aaron Pico has been so masterful that it's a wonder that the same promotional machine still relies so heavily on washed up stars of decades past. This latest bout was a big step-up in competition for Pico on paper, but Pico looked every bit the rightful favorite in his rapid dismantling of former title challenger Leonardo Higo. Pico didn't have to use any tools besides his boxing to dominate Higo with jaw-dropping power shots to the head and body. By the time the referee finally called the fight, Higo was stumbling badly and seemed unaware of where he was and where the shots were coming from. One may worry that Pico throws his power shots too wildly and openly, but when the opponent has no answer for them, it's very hard to doubt the heavy-handed hitter.

Young fighters with wrestling and boxing chops like Pico certainly don't grow on trees, but there is a clear dichotomy between the product Bellator offers with Pico compared to its usual gamut of unimpressive fighers with semi-relevant names. Bellator would be wise to retool its playbook to emphasize the legitimate talent on its roster rather than to fish for freakshow attractions. A promotion that promotes "yesterday's stars," or "the wife of yesterday's star" (in the case of Keri Melendez) may make you do an initial double take, but won't hold prolonged attention. Even the Mousasi/MacDonald matchup seems fishy -- a cobbled together freakshow matchup between two UFC "names" who one would never expect to cross paths, when instead each champion could be continuing to defend against homegrown talent in their own respective divisions.

When Bellator can get out of its own way, there is some decent action behind the smoke and mirrors. But based on Bellator 206, fans can expect more of the same mixed bag moving forward.