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Bellator MMA (formerly known as Bellator Fighting Championships) is a mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion in the United States. Bellator was founded in 2008 by Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney. Bellator features "The Toughest Tournament in Sports", which has a single-elimination format that awards the winner of each eight-person or four-person tournament a check for $100,000 and a guaranteed world title fight against the current Bellator world champion in the applicable weight class. In December 2011, Viacom acquired a majority stake of Bellator and in January 2013, all Bellator events began airing on Spike TV. Bellator produced nearly 25 live events annually until 2015, as well as shoulder programming including fighter features, highlight shows and reality-based programming. In May 2014, Bellator hosted the company's inaugural pay-per-view event from the Lander's Center. The event featured a Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Final fight between Rampage Jackson and King Mo, Michael Chandler vs. Will Brooks for the Lightweight Interim World Title, Alexander Shlemenko vs. Tito Ortiz, the Bellator Season 10 Heavyweight Tournament Final between Alexander Volkov vs. Blagoi Ivanov and a feature fight between Ricky Rainey vs. Michael Page. Bellator's exponential growth has now exceeded 140 countries around the world, including Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, The United Kingdom, France, Russia, and several African nations. The word ''Bellator'' means "warrior" in Latin. ==Company Timeline== * Sept. 2008 – Bellator was founded by Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney * Nov. 2008 – Bellator announces broadcast agreement with ESPN Deportes. Bellator becomes the first promoter to secure live MMA programming on any domestic platform on the ESPN family of networks * April 2009- Bellator 1 debuts on ESPN Deportes from Hollywood, Florida's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino * May 2009- Toby Imada colleges incredible inverted triangle submission choke over Jorge Masvidal, creating a viral sensation on YouTube collecting over 1.5 million views * July 2009- Sports Illustrated calls Bellator "MMA's success story of the year" * Oct. 2009- Bellator announces large-scale agreement with Fox Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo for Bellator's Season 2 & 3 * April 2010- Bellator Season 2 debuts on Fox Sports Net from Hollywood, Florida'a Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino * Dec. 2010- Bellator announces U.S. language exclusive broadcast with MTV2, beginning in 2011 * Mar. 2011- Bellator Season 4 debuts on MTV 2 * Oct. 2011- Viacom purchases majority stake in Bellator and announces Bellator will move to Spike TV. * Nov. 2011- Nov. 19th Michael Chandler & Eddie Alvarez compete in the Lightweight World Title fight that is widely considered 2011's Fight of the Year * Aug. 2012- Bellator moves corporate offices from Chicago, IL to Newport Beach, CA * Jan. 2013- Bellator begins airing original shoulder programming including "Bellator 360" * Jan. 2013- Bellator Season 8 premieres Jan. 17 on Spike TV to over 1.2 million viewers * Feb. 2013- Bjorn Rebney and Spike President Kevin Kay jointly announce a new Bellator reality show, "Bellator MMA Fight Master" * Sept. 2013–Bellator 100 takes place from Phoenix's Grand Canyon University * Sept. 2013- Bellator signs multi-year partnership agreement with Fox Sports Latin America giving Bellator the largest MMA distribution deal in Latin America MMA history * Nov. 2013- Nov. 2nd Chandler vs. Alvarez II delivers 1.4 viewers on Spike TV and becomes the highest rated MMA TV show on cable during the fall of 2013 * May 2014- Bellator's inaugural pay-per-view from the Lander's Center at Bellator 120 * June 2014- Company announces that both Chairman/CEO Bjorn Rebney and President Tim Danaher have left the company. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bellator MMA」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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