UNCASVILLE, Conn. – “We rolling … yeah!” is a signature phrase, but not one Bellator 258 fighters expected to hear when they arrived at Mohegan Sun earlier this week.
Whether it was fate or just a weird coincidence, Burt Watson, “The Babysitter to the Stars,” is back – and the past 48 hours have been a bit overwhelming.
Watson, 71, was the UFC’s site coordinator from 2001-2015 prior to his abrupt resignation from the company. While he’s always remained involved with combat sports in some capacity, Watson became a little stir crazy during the pandemic.
“The last year, everybody has been kind of hauling and semi-retired,” Watson told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “Retirement is not for Burt Watson, baby. I was ready to go back to work. So this was a welcomed thing for me to do.”
Regardless, Bellator 258 fight week’s vibe has been different – louder and more energetic – than the other 15 fight weeks that have transpired inside the Mohegan Sun “Fight Sphere.” The dynamic is exactly what Bellator president Scott Coker was looking for when, out of the blue, he recently received a call from Watson.
“So everyone is working in a closed environment,” Coker told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “The weigh-ins are in a closed environment. It’s a very different feeling than having a fight with audiences. With audiences, it’s just a different energy. I go, ‘We’ve got to find somebody who’s going to pump this place up.’ Then – this is a true story – he calls me. I look at my phone and I go, ‘It’s Burt. That’s the guy. We’ve got to bring Burt in here.’ I got to work with him a little bit when Strikeforce sold to the UFC, and I’m like, ‘Hey, where have you been, Burt? Where have you been for the last two years?’”
Arguably the most rewarding part of his short experience with Bellator thus far has been the outpouring of support from fighters, coaches, managers, fans, and more. When the news broke Tuesday, Watson said his phone was flooded with messages and calls – from Jon Jones to Keith Jardine.
“It kind of made me a little misty,” Watson said. “I’m like, ‘Damn.’ Yeah. Because this world – combat sports, MMA, and boxing – is a fraternity. The people in it have to let you in it. … The support and the calls, I know they’re real. No one forced him to do that. It’s not perpetrated. It’s real. It’s as real as that is. I get them, and I enjoyed every bit, and I take every bit of it to heart.”
Working currently on an event-by-event basis, Watson hopes the job becomes a full-time gig. While he didn’t overtly say it, Coker is optimistic Watson will remain on the Bellator staff as a permanent fixture.
“I’m loving this energy, so we might just continue having Burt here for all the fights if he wants to do it,” Coker said. “He said, ‘Hey, let me try it for a couple of months and see how I feel.’ But man, I feel like I drank three espressos before I got here.”
Whether he’s hired permanently or not, Watson is soaking in the experience. He’s giving this unofficial tryout all he has left in the tank in order to make Bellator his permanent home.
“I don’t go someplace without the thought in my mind that I’m going to make it my place,” Watson said. “But it’s up to them to see if it works out. It’s like any marriage, you know? You’ve got to give and you’ve got to take but everybody has got to agree. You know? But I’m going to do my best to make it happen.”
Bellator 258 takes place Friday at Mohegan Sun Arena. The main card airs on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie.
Bellator’s Burt Watson explains return to MMA work: ‘I do this from a real place in my heart’