Well I think it's really simple what they do. You can sign whatever contract you want for the development stage, you can even get paid relatively well, but you'll only face regional journeymen, they won't risk any top prospect or title eliminator/title fight on you. You want to fight highly ranked guys, you have to sign like a 3 year, 4 fight contract that will end with you maybe fighting for the title. If you lose you're free to go, if you win, you have to fight +3 fights or sit out one year. Now there can be some discussion about, is +3 fights too much? Should it just be +2 fights? Maybe if the champions clause added only 2 fights then fighters would fight out their contracts more often, or something.
But there do need to be contracts and there's nothing strange about a champions clause. The notion that once you sign anything with Bellator you're chained in a cell and can never make the UFC, that's simply an urban legend that some fighters are stupid enough to believe. Most fighters who stay with Bellator stay because they legitimately like Bellator. Like, I believe Storley's current contract is 30+30. That's good price. Depending on where he was in his career progression, the UFC would offer him 18+18, or 20+20, or 24+24, probably one of the latter two but probably not more. Perhaps he's a bit more frustrated with Bellator by now like Gegard that they can't find him any fights to actually pay out the contract, but in general Bellator is willing to pay a bit more to keep these fighters and they feel treated well.
Just yesterday the UFC card had three Bellator alums that I counted, and in fact they all won. Alonzo Menifield fought his debut fight in 2015 under Bellator and won against Ed Herman yesterday. Jessica Penne had 2 fights over 10 years ago. And Vince Morales fought twice for Bellator, once in 2016 when he was 3-1, once again in Sep. 2018 just two months after he had lost on the DWCS, and two months later he was in the UFC, and now he just picked up his second win in the promotion. So the top prospects should still come here and they're, to be frank, stupid if they don't. If you're afraid you'll come to like Bellator because you're treated and paid well, find something reasonable to be afraid of. And if you're afraid that Bellator is going to tie you down with secret clauses and shady maneuvers, I mean just do even a little bit of research and you'll realize that you're wrong. Look at last week's card even. Kai Kamaka, 2 Bellator fights latest one in Dec. 2019, fought in the UFC. Jason Witt, fought in Bellator in 2017 and actually lost, beat Bryan Barbarena in his most recent fight. Zarrukh Adashev, 3 fights in Bellator the latest in Oct. 2019, won his most recent fight against Ryan Benoit. The only situation where you can't jump over is if you win the championship and your contract is extended, or if you have fights left on your contract. If either is the case, that seems more like poor planning on your part than sneaky dealings by Bellator.
