Bjorn Rebney Fires Back At Dana White Following Huge Bellator 106 Ratings Announcement
Last Saturday’s Bellator 106 featured an amazing title rematch between Michael Chandler and Eddie Alvarez. Embattled former champion Alvarez made a triumphant return, regaining the belt with a razor thin decision.
The event was a rousing success, and the war garnered Bellator its best ratings of all time. The card averaged a whopping 1.1 million viewers according to Bleacher Report, a number that trounced the relatively paltry number of 122,000 viewers for UFC Fight Night 30 in Manchester.
After the fight, Bellator Dana White responded to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney with his now-famous “karma” tweet about Alvarez winning the belt back after a huge, drawn-out contract dispute with Bellator. White explained what he thought about the decision, during which noticeably saw Rebney shaking his head.
When the ratings were announced today, Rebney was quick to respond to White’s jab with a harsh tweet of his own:
@danawhite If Fight of the Year & 10 times better ratings than you did on your last televised show is Karma, bring me another plate.
— Bjorn Rebney (@BjornRebney) November 5, 2013
It’s hard to compare what was billed as Bellator’s biggest event ever to a UFC Fight Night card from England that was aired during the afternoon on a lesser-known cable network like Fox Sports 2. But for now, the facts remain and Rebney definitely used them to his own advantage.
When asked why he was seen shaking his head when it was announced that Alvarez won the decision, Rebney clarified it was simply at the unfortunate boos of the fans who felt Chandler was robbed:
@dredgXIX Yep, shook my head because I couldn’t believe people booed that fight decision. Incredible display of skill & courage by both men
— Bjorn Rebney (@BjornRebney) November 5, 2013
This appeared to really get White’s blood pumping during a Tuesday media call centered on tomorrow’s UFC Fight Night 31. The UFC president responded with ferocity:
“I have no comment on that. When I sent that karma text, everybody knows what I was talking about. He tried to f–k this kid, and then he loses. What was he shaking his head about if he was so f–king pumped about his evening? If his evening was that wonderful and he was so pumped about it, why was he back there shaking his head and looked like he wanted to f–king kill himself?” – via MMA Fighting
The battle between the two most prominent public faces in MMA appears to have reached a boiling point, but it could get even hotter. Whose side do you take in this brutal back-and-forth?
