Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney Excited to Return to Northern Louisiana’s Monroe Civic Center for NBC, FOX Sports Net event

When Bellator Fighting Championships announced in October that its second season would be broadcast to hundreds of millions of homes nationwide on FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo, Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney was quickly approached with opportunities to bring events to major markets throughout the U.S., including Boston, Chicago, Kansas City and Miami.

But Rebney, a 20-year veteran of the fighting sports industry, had his mind set on a large-scale return to the Monroe Civic Center in Northern Louisiana.

During Bellator’s highly successful first season, Bellator hosted one of its most well-received events at the Civic Center, drawing a near sell-out crowd to watch top fighters including eventual World Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard, featherweight Shad Lierley and middleweight Jared Hess.

“Northern Louisiana is quickly becoming a hot-bed for MMA and some of the greatest fans in MMA are Louisianans,” Rebney said. “During our last visit to Monroe, my entire team and our fighters were overwhelmed by the magical response and reaction we received from the great people of Monroe. While Monroe may be a tad smaller than Boston, Miami and Chicago, the warmth, generosity and response we received from fans and from the folks at the Monroe Civic Center, the mayor’s office and Kerry Daigle and Keep Punching Entertainment is something you just don’t find any place else.”

Rebney is an authority on business creation, development and marketing for professional sports businesses, leagues, teams and athletes.  For nearly 20 years, he has been intricately involved in numerous aspects of professional sports as an owner, operator, promoter, producer, lawyer, marketing executive, athlete representative and CEO.

In 2005, Rebney created and developed Bellator Fighting Championships.  His intent was to construct a nationally and internationally televised mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion where fighters control their own destiny through performance rather than relying on the antiquated, subjective matchmaking system that had ruled the sport since its infancy.  Rebney made his vision reality in early 2009 through the first exclusive MMA TV alliance with any member of the ESPN family of networks and through 12 weekly events broadcast nationally and internationally. 

Bellator completed its first season in June 2009 and received strong reviews from fans and the media.  SportsIllustrated.com, for instance, called Bellator “MMA’s success story of the year.”  Bellator will launch its second season in April 2010 with a series of 12 events broadcast on NBC, FOX Sports Net and Telemundo and Bellator’s third season will premiere in August 2010 for 12 successive weeks.

Earlier in his career, Rebney was the founder, president and CEO of Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing (SRLB). In this role, Rebney created and managed all of the company's business ventures, including a multi-year television distribution alliance with ESPN2 and strategic alliances with major corporations, venues and casinos. Under his direction, the company produced and promoted 45 nationally and internationally televised events from half a dozen countries throughout the world, reaching a television universe of more than 90 million homes per broadcast.

Under Rebney’s leadership, SRLB held exclusive promotional agreements with dozens of world-class professional fighters and promoted the careers of numerous world champions. During the company’s multi-year alliance with ESPN2, SRLB promoted the highest average rated fight programming on the network and secured more sellouts than any competitive promotional group. 

Prior to founding SRLB, Rebney was the Director of West Coast Operations for Integrated Sports International. In that role, he created strategic business development and sponsorship procurement programs with corporations such as Citibank, Paramount's Great America, Visa and the U.S. Postal Service for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. He also conceptualized and handled the procurement, negotiation and execution of the 3Com Park stadium naming-rights agreement with 3Com Corporation in San Francisco, the largest such agreement in U.S history at that time. At the same time, Rebney also created and produced diverse business, marketing and publicity programs for world-renowned athletes such as Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Rebney’s representation of these and other world-class athletes and leagues resulted in long-term corporate alliances with S.C. Johnson, Colgate-Palmolive, Levi's, The Milk Processor's Board, B.U.M. Equipment, Salant Menswear Group, Productivity Partners, EA Sports, Anheuser-Busch, Vartec Telecom, Centrum Multivitamins, BMH, Sunkist, Track, Inc., ESPN, PowerBar and Dunkin' Donuts. Rebney’s multi-faceted brand building strategies led his clients to see substantial financial gains and vast branding benefits.  His programs were also instrumental in successful regional, national and international brand-building strategies employed by his clients’ corporate partners.

Prior to receiving his law degree, Rebney was the Director of Operations for Sports Promotion International (SPI).  At SPI, he orchestrated international sports tours in which the (former) Soviet Union’s championship basketball and soccer teams competed against top South American, Canadian and American teams.

An attorney licensed to practice law in California, Rebney also holds a master's degree in sports business, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in philosophy. A California-native, Rebney has spent years as a volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation generating financial contributions for the charity.

He was a full-scholarship athlete (football) at Ohio University, receiving several scholar athlete awards throughout his collegiate career. He is married with two step children.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at Facebook.com/Bellator. For tickets, go to Ticketmaster.com.