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Bellator Fighting Championships was the idea of Bjorn Rebney, who envisioned a MMA promotion whose champions and contenders would not be determined by the biases of the promoter.

Rebney had worked in the boxing business, but was not excited about that sport. After a falling out with Sugar Ray Leonard, Rebney turned his focus to Mixed Martial Arts. According to one account, Rebney had taken numerous mortgages on his home to fund at least sixty business trips to start a MMA promotion.

Rebney found an ally in Tim Danaher, who was the Vice President of Plainfield Asset Management. With Danaher's support, Bellator Fighting Championships was founded in 2008 as the "toughest tournament in sport". Bjorn Rebney became the company's Chairman and CEO. Tim Danaher joined as it's President and COO.

The company had it's first events in 2009.

In late 2011, Viacom brought a majority share in Bellator Fighting Championships. With this purchase, came a media higher visibility on stations such as EPIX, MTV2 and Spike TV.

Several fighters became well-known in the promotion: Fighters like Eddie Alvarez, Hector Lombard; Joe Warren, Zoila Frausto; Pat Curran, Michael Chandler; Alexander Shlemenko, Ben Askren; Daniel Straus, Alexander Volkov and Cole Konrad.

The "Pitbull" brothers Patricio Freire and Patricky Freire, are still with the promotion.

One of the early criticisms of Bellator was the inactivity of its champions while new challengers were being determined in the tournaments. To alleviate the inactivity, a number of champions would compete in "super-fights" where the titles were not defended.

The popularity of the first Eddie Alvarez/Michael Chandler fight compelled Rebney to make an exception. A rematch would happen between the Alvarez and Chandler outside of the regular tournament structure. With a few other exceptions, Rebney was adamant that Bellator remained a place where "title shots are earned, and not given".

Bjorn Rebney's boss Kevin Kay would disagree.

The then President of the Spike television network felt that Rebney's vision put Bellator at a disadvantage. Kay felt that Bellator could not attract free agents if they felt competing in the tournaments were the only ways to compete in championship fights.

As a result of their differing opinions, in June 2014 Kevin Kay removed Bjorn Rebney as Chairman/CEO, and replaced him with Scott Coker. Tim Danaher also lost his titles of President and COO. Bellator would continue on, but not as tournament-focused as Bjorn Rebney envisioned.

YAMMA Pit Fighting was Robert Meyrowitz's return to the combat sports business seven years after he sold UFC. The political climate became accepting of Mixed Martial Arts, and the sport grew to global popularity. "Yamma" was the name of surface inside of a circular, cornerless cage with slanted internal edges. It was touted as an "evolution" in MMA designed to prevent inactivity at the sides and encourage constant fighting.

The card featured four heavyweight quarter-final tournament bouts to crown a champion at the end. Participants included Ricco Rodriguez, Travis Wiuff, Sherman Pendergast, Chris Tuscherer, Tony Sylvester, Marcelo Pereira, Alexy Oleynik and George Bush III. Some non-tournament "Masters Superfight" bouts included Patrick Smith vs. Eric "Butterbean" Esch, Mark Kerr vs. Oleg Taktarov. (Esch was to originally have fought Gary Goodridge, and Taktarov against Don Frye.) Mark Coleman made an appearance as part of Bush's corner team. All bouts were officiated by Kevin Mulhall and Dan Miragliotta. Longtime sportscaster Bruce Beck introduced this event, and joined in commentary by MMA notables Jeff Blatnick and John Perretti. Meanwhile, radio personality Scott Ferrall became a punchline with his harsh voice, witty attempts and mispronounciations. Three years later he was hired to do promotional work for Strikeforce's heavyweight tournament.

Most of the fights at YAMMA Pit Fighting went to a decision, which may not have been the intent of the "Yamma". Robert Meyrowitz, later commented that fighters would stall against the edges to use up time. YAMMA Pit Fighting 2, scheduled for two months after the first one, never happened. It was to have had a middleweight championship tournament, a women's bout and a masters superfight.

This YAMMA Pit Fighting event had some names from MMA's past and future. It's worth watching for fans who appreciate the history of the sports.

In this TV series, Michael Easton played dual roles of Gus McClain and Booth Hubbard. McClain was a respected college professor until he was accused of murdering his wife. Unknown to most, McClain's twin brother, Hubbard, is the murderer. McClain becomes a fugitive and evade authorities, such as FBI Agents Carter and Forbes , while attempting to prove his innocence. Hubbard compounds this goal by committing more crimes in McLain's name.

The premise of the show is somewhat like "The Fugitive" and "The Incredible Hulk" combined. Like Dr. Richard Kimball in "The Fugitive", McClain was wrongly believed to have murdered his wife. In "The Incredible Hulk," Dr. David Banner, like McClain, is alone at the end of most episodes and at a disadvantage. Throughout the few episodes of "Two", there is a tragic theme. Had this been a successful series, it's easy to imagine a final episode where Hubbard gets the better of McClain.