Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has met with Scott Coker to discuss future co-promotional opportunities between Eagle FC and Bellator.
Nurmagomedov retired from competition in October 2020, and has since taken his talents into the worlds of both coaching and promoting. He brought Eagle FC to America, and has signed up the likes of former UFC heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos and ex-Bellator middleweight title holder Hector Lombard.
And he has expressed interest in working on co-promotions with other organisations, including Coker and Bellator who have a number of major names on their books. The fight that got fans, and the two promoters, talking was a potential meeting between Dos Santos and Fedor Emelianenko at heavyweight, which was a dream fight that could never happen during both men's primes.
The Russian is currently signed with Bellator, and was never able to come to an agreement with the UFC at the peak of his career when he was one of the most feared heavyweights in the world. At the time, Dos Santos was a top contender in the top organisation, and was viewed as a perfect fight for Emelianenko.
And there is evidently still major in the bout taking place even though both men are now considerably past their primes. Dos Santos is 38, and has lost his last five fights, while Emelianenko plans to retire after his next fight as he is set to turn 46 this year.
But Coker and Nurmagomedov feel that it would be a great final bout for the Russian, with the pair publicly agreeing to meet and discuss the possibility. And last night that meeting took place, with the UFC legend sharing a photo alongside his manager Ali Abdelaziz and Coker, captioning the snap "work in progress" with a fist emoji.
Dos Santos replied with a fire emoji, knowing that even after his freak loss to Yorgan De Castro last month he could be set for one more major fight. De Castro has also called for a bout with Emelianenko, but that fight has considerably less heat given his considerably less illustrious history in the sport.
Would you like to see Khabib Nurmagomedov work with Bellator to put together co-promoted fights? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Prior to Dos Santos' fight with De Castro, Nurmagomedov had said of a possible fight with Emelianenko: "I really want to make Dos Santos vs Fedor fight. I want to talk with my friend Scott Coker because Fedor is under Bellator contract.
"I don't know what they're going to do next with him, but definitely we can talk and we can create a good story. Why not? These two guys were for a long time the face of MMA.
"Fedor was the greatest fighter of all time in my opinion and Dos Santos was heavyweight champion for a couple of years in the UFC. These two guys deserve it, and the fans deserve it. I think it's like, for me, an interesting match-up too."
Coker replied by calling Nurmagomedov privately, before going public with a tweet declaring himself the 'king of collaboration' and saying: "Thanks for the call, looking forward to sitting down next week, dinner’s on you."
Dos Santos last bout ended in controversial fashion when after dominating the opening two rounds against De Castro, he injured his shoulder throwing a punch. The fight was quickly stopped and his opponent declared the winner, but it doesn't appear to have changed the plans.
