Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney takes veiled shot Chael Sonnen, UFC

Quote :: The question then came up to Rebney about the main event that will lead Bellator's first foray into pay-per-view pitting two former UFC champions against each other. Both Tito Ortiz and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson are coming off multiple losses in a row, but are viewed as big names and legends in MMA.

Just having a legendary name doesn't mean Bellator is planning to forgo its current system of crowning contenders. Since its inception, Bellator has depended on the tournament format to hand out titles as well as find contenders in each weight class.

Rebney says that standard won't change just because Bellator is putting on a big fight between two well-known names like Jackson and Ortiz. He says in Bellator, fighters have to earn their shot at the belt.

This is when Rebney took another crack at the UFC, again without ever saying a name, but obviously talking about current UFC light heavyweight Chael Sonnen. Sonnen received a title shot at 205 pounds despite coming off a loss in a middleweight title bout in his last trip to the Octagon. Sonnen is known as a prolific talker, and apparently Rebney isn't a fan of how he got his shot at the belt.

"Our point of difference is that we're real sports competition, and when it boils down to world title fights, when it boils down to crowning our champion at 170, or 55 or 45 or whatever weight class, guys are going to earn the right to fight for that championship and they're going to have to beat the champion. It's the toughest tournament in sports, it's real sports competition," Rebney said. "We're not sitting around waiting for some wrestler to lose two fights straight and then bark his way into a 205 world title fight. That's just not the essence of what we do."

During the entire press conference, Rebney rarely if ever even uttered the words UFC, and never mentioned any fighter or executive by name, but reading between the lines it was pretty transparent who he was speaking about on both accounts.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1730498-bellator-ceo-takes-veiled-shot-at-chael-sonnen-ufc-pay-per-view-model

Something tells me that when Sonnen catches wind of this, there will nothing even remotely resembling "veiled" in his response.

Yeah Sonnen's a poor veiler. It's going to be hilarious, too. "I could be champ there by next weekend and I'd feel as much gratification as when I was champ of the pie eating contest at the county fair" or something awesome.

Sonnen-Let me tell you something; Bjorn Rebney and his flunkies over there at UFC Jr like to believe that they are important enough to command even a fraction of a second's worth of the American Gangster's time. Well I got news for Winnebago Man's son;
Your Merry Band of Misfit Fighters better count their blessings each and every day that Chael P. Sonnen lives over here on this side of the fence, because this mean old dog would chew up half your crop of fighters before you had time to say "bush league"!

In case anyone didn't realize, I was not making that part up about the "Winnebago Man". This is Jack Rebney- The Winnebego Man:

And Bjorn Rebney really is his son, no bullshit.

I like Bellator...I really do, they put on exciting fights...but they don't stand up to the level of talent in the UFC...I would love to see Chael get his hands on anyone there...it'd be fun.

I would love to put a camera and a mic on Chael and Winnebago Man and turn them loose on Vegas for a weekend, possibly make that into a short reality series. I've been loving WM vids for years now and Sonnen is just the prick he needs to send him into orbit.

If by "orbit" you mean mainstream super stardom, then hell yeah; the world needs Winnabego Man right now.

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