TEMECULA, Calif. – The heavyweight title picture got a fresh name Friday, but that’s not the only big thing going on with Bellator lately.
After Bellator 293 at Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, Calif., promotion president Scott Coker talked to MMA Junkie and other media members at a post-event news conference.
Coker talked about Daniel James’ emergence at heavyweight, Cat Zingano as the No. 1 women’s featherweight title contender for champ Cris Cyborg and featherweight champ Patricio Freire’s upcoming shot at the bantamweight belt.
See what Coker had to say about those topics and more below.
On Daniel James' main event win
“I think it was a great show. You got the big knockout at the end – and man, he’s so dangerous. It is scary because one punch could change the whole outcome of the fight.”
On prospects' upset losses at Bellator293
“It was unbelievable. I think you got a chance to see a lot of the up-and-coming fighters that have a chance to work their way up and test themselves. For some, it worked out. For some, it didn’t. Some fighters have to go back to the drawing board. But even some of them that need to go back to the drawing board, I have a lot of high hopes for them. Hopefully they’ll go back in the gym and and get cracking and we’ll get them back in here as soon as we can.”
On heavyweight title picture
“The title shot (against champion Ryan Bader) is most likely going to go to Linton Vassell because he’s been on a tear, too. But, I think (Daniel James is) right up there. We definitely will invite him to come fight (at Bellator 297) in Chicago (in June). I didn’t know if he was going to get hurt or injured. Sometimes it’s better just to wait to see what happens. But I reached out to our fight team. I said please invite him to come fight. If he wants to do it, we’d love to have him.”
On Daniel James' potential
“I think Chicago’s an unbelievable fight card, stacked top to bottom already. But putting (Daniel James) in the mix just makes a lot of sense because he’s from Chicago and he’s been on a tear doing his thing, and this is just another statement win for his resume. Let’s keep this kid busy.
“I’m not sure if you got to see the (broadcast) piece that was created. The feature piece was pretty amazing. I really enjoyed watching it. It is a human interest piece of constantly overcoming and, and it just shows, ‘Keep your mind focused. Keep your goals in front of you and keep your target in sight and you’ll have something to just keep working for.’ That’s what he’s been doing. He’s been at this a very long time. He’s now just reemerging, and it’s a new fighter, and let’s see how far he can take it.
“If he keeps winning, he is going to get his shot. If he wants to wait, that’s fine. But if he wins another fight, he’s definitely going to be right in that mix, too.”
On Lance Gibson's first loss
“That was a big step up for Lance and. It’s good to test yourself to see where you’re at. That doesn’t mean he’s not a great fighter and not still not a great blue chip prospect. It just happens that he lost tonight, and that’s just how it is. MMA is a very, very tricky sport. You have to be on it at all times, and one wrong move and it’s over, right? That’s the beauty of MMA. That’s why we love it. It’s fast, it’s explosive, it’s raw and it’s real. He’ll go back to the drawing board, get to look at his fight, test him and see what he needs to work on, and then go back and, and work on your game.”
On Cris Cyborg's future with Bellator
“I’m not sure what Cat heard because I didn’t talk to her directly, but I can tell you this: From the company standpoint, this was always a three-round elimination fight for the No. 1 contender spot. Cyborg is still the current champion. We still have her under contract right now. We have her under a rights provision. We are negotiating with her, and we expect to bring her back here at some point this year. To me, that now is going to be a great fight. Hopefully we’ll put this together with Cris in the next couple weeks, and her and Cat, we could work on a big fight for the two of them to fight for Cris’ belt. I don’t know where this got lost, but, from our perspective, it’s always been a three-round elimination fight.”
On potential to sign Kayla Harrison from PFL
“Kayla is still under contract with another company, so I can’t speak to that. But our intentions are to bring Cris back here. We’ve had a great relationship for a long time, and she still is an amazing talent and she’s our champion right now. So it’s just a matter of working out the details. Sometimes, these things take time because you’re talking about a lot of details. I feel we’re in a good place to put this together.”
On Patricio Freire's shot at a third title
“This was probably about six months ago. (Patricio Freire) came to us and said, ‘I want to eventually go down to ’35. I’ll wait to fight A.J. (McKee) at ’45 if A.J. wants to say at ’45. I really want that fight.’ So he really wants to fight A.J. at some point, but A.J. chose to fight in the ’55-pound tournament, so (Freire) knew that fight was off.
“Then he said, ‘OK, well then I want to move down to ’35 and I want to be the first champion to win the ’55-pound, the ’45 and the ’35. So he chose to move down in weight, and we knew (Sergio) Pettis was coming off that injury. He’s still our current (bantamweight) champion. To me, it’s a great thing because (interim champ Raufeon) Stots and (Patchy Mix) will have that fight in Hawaii in three weeks, and then we have the (Pettis-Freire) fight in June, and by October or November, we’ll have another fight between the (winners). So it’ll be just an amazing 135-pound weight class, almost like a mini-runoff on its own. I’m really excited because all four of those fighters are super talented.
“But ‘Pitbull’ is, I think, the face of the company being here so long and being so dominant. I think he deserves to have this shot. He’s already already been waiting since Dec. 31 (when) he fought in Japan. He wanted this to be his next fight, and we didn’t want to make it wait till the end of the year. So we said we could fit this in and when we have time, we’ll put other fights together – the (winner) of Stots-Mix will fight the winner of ‘Pitbull’ vs. Pettis. We thought that was just a great way to run off that division. We’re excited. I’m excited.”
On Bellator 297 in Chicago
“That’s going to be a great fight (between Sergio Pettis and Patricio Freire). Chicago is an unbelievable fight card. I mean, it’s really, really stacked from top to bottom. I think that you guys probably noticed, when we do the fights on Showtime or CBS, we’re not just going to bring one main event. We’re bringing three, maybe four fights that could be big fights on their own. It’s been a lot of fun to put these fights together and watch these fighters.”
On Bellator's current roster
“I’ll tell you honestly: When I look back at the power of this roster, it’s unbelievable how much firepower we have. It has been so fun to sit down with the fight team and just dabble as to what about this fight and what about that fight. What happens if this person wins? I mean, it’s really one of the reasons I got into the fight promotion business to see, ‘Well, what about this person fighting that person?’
“So it’s been fun doing that and with a roster this deep, if you look at our 145, our 155, look at our 170 – the best 170-pound (division) in the world … the best 185-pound (division) in the world. ‘Pitbull’ arguably is the best 145-pounder right now. And then we have Johnny Eblen at 185. You guys have seen the heat on him lately – even people from all different companies are saying, how great this kid is. Then the 205 (division) – I don’t think there’s any fighter in 205 that can beat (Vadim) Nemkov. So we have a just an amazing fight roster, and that’s what it starts with is the talent base.”
On Bellator's recent run of big cards
“It wasn’t really just (Bellator 290) on CBS to me. It was a fight in Dublin when we broke our attendance record in Dublin. We had such a great event over there. And then it led to the Tokyo event, which was unbelievable. Japanese MMA has made a comeback. I was around in the PRIDE days working for K-1 and I got to go to those fights. I got to see the swell of excitement and enthusiasm from the Japanese fans when PRIDE was in its heyday and they had the best fighters in the world at that time. (PRIDE was the) king, and the Japanese fans really engaged I can feel that energy coming back now.
“So to be a part of that on New Year’s Eve with (Rizin), whether win or lose, there was some great matchups. That was another grand slam for us. Then going right into the (Bellator 290) CBS card, and then we had the fight in Ireland, and then we had (Bellator 292) in San Jose. San Jose was unbelievable. Now we go to Hawaii (for Bellator 294 and 295) (and) we finish the (bantamweight) tournament, go to Chicago (for Bellator 297) … it’s just like reloading and reloading and reloading. It really comes down to the fight roster. We’ve spent the last six, eight years really building this talent.”
On his top moment at Bellator 293
“That’s a tough one because there’s a lot of really good fights tonight. I honestly was really impressed with the Cat Zingano fight. It had a lot of great transitions back and forth, and I didn’t know who was going to win. I thought it was going to be a great fight, but it turned out to be an amazing fight. I wouldn’t even mind running that back at some point. That was just fun to watch. The great knockout at the end, that was amazing. But to me, the fight that really caught my eye was how much resilience these ladies had. AnThey had such a great fight. It was a great MMA fight. I enjoyed it.”
On building up prospects
“In a fight, anything can happen. It’s no knock on the loser. That’s why these guys go in the cage. They want to test themselves and they want to move forward in the rankings and they want to eventually get to the title. It’s our job to get them in that position. It just happens right now from top to bottom, from 135 all the way up to our heavyweight division, it’s a great time to be in Bellator.”
On Luke Trainer's marriage proposal
“I actually didn’t see that proposal, so, I’ll have to catch it. We had another proposal at the Mohegan Sun during the COVID time when we were kind of locked down and it was one of our COVID staff members that proposed to his wife. So this is No. 2, and I heard there’s going to be a No. 3 here really soon. We’ll give you guys a little bit of heads up on that one next time.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 293.
