Since taking over Bellator a few months back, Scott Coker has been a very busy man.
From signing fighters such as Melvin Manhoef and Paul Daley in attempts to bolster a rather weak roster, to planning upcoming events, the former Strikeforce CEO hasn't slowed down in his quest to help the Viacom-owned company step up its mixed martial arts (MMA) game.
Another move Coker made was bringing women's MMA back into the fold, as evidenced by the recent booking of Marloes Coenen vs. Julia Budd, which will go down in the featherweight division later this year.
And as all you history buffs can confirm, Coker and Co. were the real pioneers of women's MMA, as he has been staging female fights inside a cage long before Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) found it cool.
Scott talked about his latest move and his plans to add another women's division on a recent interview with The MMA Hour. He also revealed that he has, in fact, been in contact with Gina Carano's management team.
Check it out:
"If you look at our past, we have always believed in female fighting. Whether it was back in the kickboxing days on ESPN, I was the first person to do female fighting in the state of California in mixed martial arts; which was the Gina Carano vs. Elena Maxwell fight. And we did some big fights, Ronda fought for Strikeforce and I believe in it. We were the pioneers for female mixed martial arts and it's just a natural fit. We started getting contacted by camps around the world and Marloes and Budd became available and they wanted to come. Right now, we are talking to two other girls that we'll hopefully have on board soon. We're going to add another division in the next three or four months that will be in the lighter weight, but I can't say which one."
As far as landing the services of Carano, Coker didn't sound too optimistic, but did reveal he has been in contact with her camp.
His words:
"We've had one conversation with Brent and Scott and that was it. It was just one quick conversation and there was nothing really made of it. I think that Gina really wants to fight at 135. As far as Cyborg, we haven't talked to her because she is under contract and fighting with Invicta. But if she ever becomes available, then we will have a conversation with her. We don't have a 135 division and I can't say what (Carano) is going to do because she's got film commitments and she is very busy and has a good acting career. It's going to be up to her and her schedule."
Both Carano and Cyborg have a past working relationship with Coker, as they each shared the spotlight in the featherweight division for Strikeforce before Scott decided to sell the promotion to UFC.
For now, it looks like Bellator officials will have to wait a while to see if they will be able to land either of those women, as both of them have their eyes on the bigger prize, which is an eventual showdown against Ronda Rousey, who currently dominates the women's bantamweight division inside the UFC's Octagon.
As far as the mystery division Bellator intends to add, it seems the only logical one it could be is the 115-pound weight class, seeing as how all the best female fighters competing at bantamweight and flyweight are currently under contract for UFC.
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Statistics: Posted by Kizzo — Aug 18. 2014, 18:05 — Replies 0 — Views 4
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