When Bellator hit the scene back in April 2009, they brought back something that the fans haven't seen but a few times from the UFC in over a decade—the tournament format.
Even with preemption problems, ratings for Bellator have been strong.
Most recently, Strikeforce Challengers 10 played host to a one-night, four-woman tournament to determine who would get the next shot at the 135-pound champion.
The ratings for that show were up 17 percent from Challengers 9.
UFC could headline a pay-per-view with Bozo the Clown vs. Rukka Rukka Ali and still get 250K buys, so thinking of ways how they could actually benefit from the tournament format is very challenging.
However, after countless hours of thought, a few ideas have come to mind.