« Unfortunate is Ed Soares’ favorite word | Home | What do readers look for in an MMA magazine? »
K-1 2010 NYE show at Saitama Super Arena
By Zach Arnold | November 4, 2010
Today, there was supposed to be an announcement regarding some fights or fighters for the card, but that has been put off. The press conference today was more or less a general announcement to the public about the show. Show has a 4 PM start and will feature 12 ~ 13 fights. Mr. Tanigawa told the media that they had too many fights last year (17) and that they needed to trim it down a bit. The show will air in Golden Time on Tokyo Broadcasting System. Expect some K-1 vs. DREAM and Strikeforce vs. DREAM fights on the card.
Scott Coker says that he would consider working with Bellator
Take a look at what he had to say to Mauro Ranallo on The Fight (radio) Show on Tuesday:
MAURO RANALLO: “Lots going on of course, Scott, and lots of good things. I just want to finally put the proverbial nail in the coffin in case listeners were not paying attention yesterday or over the weekend. What is going on with Strikeforce and Bellator Fight Championships? Are you in negotiations with Mr. Bjorn Rebney? Have you talked to Mr. Rebney?”
SCOTT COKER: “No. The answer is both to those is no. I mean, you know, I think that um… the texts that he’s been sending is to an old phone that I haven’t used for phones and he has the wrong number, so we have not talked, we have not spoken. I’m getting ready for our next two fights and but I’m sure that, you know, in the next couple of weeks we definitely will link up at some point.”
MAURO RANALLO: “So you are definitely open to talking with Bjorn about the possibility of co-promoting some fights down the road?”
SCOTT COKER: “Yeah. And you know, Mauro, here is the issue, really, is that, you know, look — if you want to do something, you know, come, you know, don’t drag it through the media because we’re not going to do business in the media. It’s unprofessional, it makes it just feel like you’re just trying to, you know, keep your name in the headlines, you know, for whatever reasons you need to do it. Uh… and to me it’s silly, so to me if you want to have a business conversation, then let’s sit down and have that conversation. You know, Mauro, Strikeforce has never been afraid to co-promote. We’ve done it with Elite XC when we did the Shamrock fights with Cung Le and Phil Baroni and we did it with M-1 when we had Fedor fight, you know, Brett Rogers and Fabricio Werdum. We did it with DREAM when we sent Nick Diaz to fight (Hayato) Sakurai, we brought (Shinya) Aoki here to fight Gilbert (Melendez), so you know putting our fighters in harm’s way and having them fight the best out there, we’re all about that. But it has to be done in the right way. Otherwise, you know what? We should just go on our separate ways.”
Technically, this isn’t all that different than what he said last Friday on Sherdog radio. However, he has sent mixed signals through other media channels. Dave Meltzer noted that Mr. Coker’s reaction to him on this deal was “No dialogue. Not viable.” So, his responses in various media interviews has created more confusion than clarity.
A few other notes from the interview with Mr. Ranallo. The Strikeforce CEO says he expects to see both Fedor and Josh Barnett in action in the first quarter of 2011. Regarding Fedor: “Let’s keep our fingers crossed. That’s our time frame that we’re trying to shoot for.” Regarding Tyron Woodley, Mr. Coker said that he needs to win a few more fights before being considered for a title shot against Nick Diaz. The winner of the upcoming Dan Henderson vs. Renato Babalu fight will face Rafael Feijao for the 205-pound title. When asked about whether or not Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante and Josh Thomson will have a rematch soon, Scott Coker remarked, “Right away? I’m not sure. … At some point in their careers, I’m sure they will fight again.” He also noted that he thinks we will see Nick Diaz vs. Mayhem Miller in 2011 on one of the 18 ~ 20 shows that Strikeforce has set up with Showtime during that time frame. When asked about the UFC-WEC merger, Mr. Coker said, “I always felt like, you know, why have two leagues when you can just have one?”
Topics: Bellator, DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | No Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |