![]() That's a lot of pressure for a man who is also trying to assimilate himself back into the human race, avoiding bars and clubs in favor of simple nights out with friends and trips to the grocery store. He has two months to work himself into shape, two months before fighting one of the top twenty welterweights on the planet. Thanks to Phillips and crew, you can see the concern etched on his face. ![]() ![]() His body and skills have atrophied, his normally carefully cropped hair grew into a wavy coif that in another life might have rested on the skull of an accountant, not a man with a grenade tattooed onto his neck. On humanizing the fighters who do the unthinkable, men who step into a cage and confront head-on the kind of terrifying human drama most of us would scurry across the street to avoid.įor nine months he's had almost no human contact. Phillips and other producers at Spike understand as well as anyone that, in many ways, the UFC was built not just on great action fights but also on reality television. Once he was on board, we knew we would be able to get really great access with the fighters.and getting great access with the guys was going to make or break the show." ".We've got a great partnership with Bellator and (founder) Bjorn (Rebney). And to convey the sport in the best light we can," Phillips said. "What we've always done, when we promoted (UFC's) The Ultimate Fighter back in the day and MMA as a sport all these years, is to tell the story of the athletes. ![]() Phillips, a veteran producer who worked with the UFC on Spike, credits incredible access with making the show so immediately riveting, the Internet version of HBO's 24/7 and UFC's Primetime. It's behind the scenes drama at its best-not that you'd expect anything less from Spike, which practically invented the genre. The Web series is step one, and if any indication of what's to come, a great sign for fans looking for more MMA action than they can get with the UFC alone. It will essentially relaunch the entire Bellator brand. January's welterweight tournament will do more than just launch a contender for Ben Askren's 170 pound title. To say this first tournament is key is an understatement. And while the promotion won't officially debut on Spike until January, fans and fighters are getting a sneak peak at what the team behind the UFC's rise is bringing to the table with their Vote for the Fight promotion and the Web-based reality series that accompanies it. "He's a guy, when you hear everything he's been through, you kind of want to root for him in a way. We're going to tell the whole War Machine story.we were on the street with him with a camera crew at two in the morning outside his prison in Nevada and we spent his whole first day of freedom with him."Īlthough no one else boasts quite as compelling a story, War Machine is joined on the reality series by the most star-studded cast in Bellator tournament history ( Ben Saunders, Douglas Lima and Paul Daley round out the four contenders). "This guy really has an incredible life story.he's lived a pretty traumatic life," said Dave Phillips, executive producer of the "Vote For the Fight" reality series on. Spike TV is back in the fight game and War Machine, like it or not, is simply part of the show. There's no rest for the wicked-not even a single moment that he can call his own.
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