UFC 146 salaries: Headliners Dos Santos and Mir to make flat $200K paydays

The potential is there for them to be a real rival but I just don't think UFC is going to give Bellator the space to grow. You really need the UFC to seriously slip before a rival can emerge - if the UFC is on the ball then it'll be next to impossible for anyone to raise up against them.

And of course you have to ask what Viacom want. They've been bankrolling TNA for seven years and have been happy with steady ratings for Spike. If that's all they want then Viacom can get what they want while Bellator is still a distant second to the UFC.