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Scott Coker on the Futures of Melendez and Cyborg and the New Showtime Deal

2011 was a year that MMA fans will never forget. The biggest story quite arguably was Zuffa purchasing Strikeforce in March. No one really knew what was going to happen to Strikeforce. Their contract with Showtime was set to expire in early 2012 and no one knew if Zuffa was wanting to keep Strikeforce. The fighters didn’t know what to expect or what was going to happen. Strikeforce, though, kept putting on great fights and last Thursday Strikeforce and Showtime were able to agree to a new deal, although details haven’t emerged yet.

Strikeforce put on another great show on Saturday night, as we saw both of the stars they are building around in Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez and Womens’ Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg, retain there titles. Also, KJ Noons rebounded in a big way and Gegard Mousasi also rebounded with a much-needed win.

The man in charge of Strikeforce, CEO Scott Coker, sat down with me to discuss this past Saturday’s show, details regarding the new deal with Showtime and more.

Cyborg defeated Hiroko Yamananka in 16 seconds on Saturday and people have been wondering whether she will stay at 145 and fight Ronda Rousey or will she move down to 135 and face all the challenges that present itself at 135. Coker prefers for her to stay at 145, but the possibility is there for her to do both, as Coker told me:

I think we can do both. We will find girls. There’s girls around the world that will come to fight her. I think there’s some girls that can be competitive with her. She’s a tough girl. There’s some guys that probably would want to fight her, right? She’s a beast. At 45, she’s pretty much dominated that division for awhile now. She said she wants to go to 35 to fight the girls. But personally, I’m not sure she can make 35. She’s talking about fighting at catchweight first. I think that we talk to Sean (Shelby) and Sean was telling me that there gonna find other girls. They have a girl from Russia that he’s looking at right now. We will have some competition for her.

Melendez retained his title by defeating Jorge Masvidal, but people have been critical of his performance because he didn’t finish Masvidal. Coker says Masvidal had a lot to do with Melendez not being able to finish the fight.

If you know the fight game, certain fighters are gonna have certain styles that are gonna match up well. Let’s say Gilbert’s wrestling or Gilbert’s jiu-jitsu and Jorge Masvidal is a guy that’s a threat at every different level. So Gilbert did what he had to do. I think if the knockout was there, he would of definitely taken it. The knockout didn’t come and the takedown didn’t come and the submission didn’t come. He clearly won the fight and if you look at the stats of the fight, it was a clear combination. If you look at the post-fight press conference and look at the damage Gilbert took. He was pretty damaged, pretty banged up. Styles make fights and that’s the way it went down.

A lot of people have been wondering what is left for Melendez in Strikeforce. Could he face someone from Strikeforce, go to the UFC or possibly someone from the UFC comes to Strikeforce. Coker remained vague, but he hinted at some possibilities.

I’m gunna get together with Sean (Shelby) probably in the next couple days and have a conversation with him. There’s definitely great athletes for Gilbert to fight. Maybe even a fighter that’s not currently signed on our roster right now we might bring in to fight Gilbert.

Strikeforce and Showtime announced a new deal last Thursday on a conference call and it was announced that Strikeforce will put on eight events in 2012 on the network with the first event of that deal taking place on January 7. People have been wondering why only eight events. Some fans feel that by running only eight shows, they could lose interest since an event won’t be on every month. Coker feels that fans will still be there and, combined with airing the prelim fights on Showtime Extreme, things will be like they have been in the past.

We’re not only doing eight fights, we’re doing right fights, but we’re going to have two big fights on the same night. You’re going to have the undercard fights on Showtime Extreme. But the undercard fights are not gonna be traditionally what you see in the Challengers’ Series on Friday nights like we did in the past. What you’re gonna see in the undercard fights, you’re gonna see the Roger Bowling’s, you’re gonna see the Justin Wilcox’s, you’re gonna see the guys that fight sometimes on the main card. You’re gonna see the undercard fights on Showtime Extreme at 8PM ET/5PM PT, then go to Showtime for the championship fights and that will be at 7PM PT. So in one night, you’re gonna get two big events and it will be equal to the same amount of programming we had this year. Which is we did 16 fights including the Challengers fights for the last three years.

One of the things that the fans were happy about when the deal was announced was that Women’s MMA would be alive and well. Coker believes it was a no-brainer to keep the women in Strikeforce.

For me personally, I always thought it was a no-brainer. Because when you look at the history of Strikeforce, we were the first female legal fight in the state of California. That was Gina Carano fought Elaina Maxwell to a unanimous decision, it was a one-point decision in September of ’06. Before that, when Strikeforce was originally created it was originally a kickboxing league because MMA wasn’t legal in California yet. From 1992-2006, when we had our martial arts style of competition at that time was kickboxing. We had some of the greatest fights in the history of female kickboxing on ESPN through Strikeforce. To me, I grew up in a martial arts school, martial arts culture where you train with a lot of females in class, females are always around, there’s always sparring, there’s always fighting. I always believed, “Hey, why not let them compete? Let them fight.” Now we’re running two full divisions of females that are showing to the world, look these girls can really fight.

A lot of people didn’t think this deal would get done due at the time. Ken Hershman, who was the Executive Vice President of Showtime Sports, and Dana White did not see eye to eye at that time. Hershman left Showtime for HBO in October and Showtime then hired Stephen Espinoza to the same position that Hershman held. Once that happened, White joined in on the talks and then new deal was announced last Thursday.

People wonder if the deal would have gotten done if Hershman was still around. Coker feels one way or another that the deal still would have happened.

I think this deal would have gotten done either way. It was good for Strikeforce, it was good for the network. I think we provided great fights in our three years we’ve been with them. I think the ratings have been great and I think it would’ve continued. Would it have maybe taken longer? Probably, but I still think it would got done because at the end of the day, it’s having great programming and having great ratings.

You can listen to the entire two-part interview with Scott Coker here.

You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Steven Muehlhausen is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.

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Ian McCall: Nicknames, Getting into the UFC, Johnson, Benavidez, Best Flyweight

To become a fighter, you have to want to be a fighter. It’s born inside of you, not something that is like, “oh this looks like fun, let’s do this.”When you go through the ranks, the ultimate goal is to be in the top organization in the world, the UFC….

To become a fighter, you have to want to be a fighter. It’s born inside of you, not something that is like, “oh this looks like fun, let’s do this.”

When you go through the ranks, the ultimate goal is to be in the top organization in the world, the UFC. That was the goal of Ian McCall, and he didn’t care what weight class he had to fight at to be in there.

McCall (11-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) will make his highly anticipated debut, as he will face Demetrious Johnson (14-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC on FX 2 on Friday March 2 in the United States and March 3 in Australia. The event will take place at the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. The fight is a part of the four-man flyweight tournament to crown the first ever UFC Flyweight Champion.

It was rumored for a better part of 2011 that we would see the flyweights in the UFC, but McCall wasn’t sure that would be the case and had planned on returning to bantamweight if that’s what it took to get him in the UFC.

“That thought (moving to bantamweight) came through my mind,” McCall told me.

“I thought that s**t, one day it might happen, but I might have to go back to bantamweight. I just see guys like Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benevidez doing so well. I figured I would be just fine at 35, but luckily, they made 25, and I think I’ll do even better there.”

McCall states he wouldn’t have waited too much longer to make the decision to back to bantamweight if the flyweight didn’t materialize.

“Not much longer at all. I would have probably fought my last fight with Tachi (Palace Fights) and then I would have probably tried to sign with the UFC. Just because I have a family to feed. Making Tachi money is good, but making UFC money, I can actually feed the whole family now.”

A lot of fans really don’t know about the latest star to sign with the UFC. He is the former Tachi Fight Palace Flyweight Champion. McCall feels he’s regular person who just happens to be a fighter and isn’t shy to express his thoughts and is a jokester in a lot of ways.

“I’m awesome, I’m really handsome, good-looking, I’m pretty good at fighting too, I’m entertaining to watch. I joke around and talk a lot of s**t, but I really don’t take much serious besides my family and my fighting. You can’t take life too serious. I’ve been realizing some people have been taking my jokes because I constantly joke kinda serious like I’m talking s**t or something. It’s not me. I kid. I’m not that guy. I’m not the guy that is macho and wants to beat everyone up.”

McCall has one of the coolest nicknames in MMA, “Uncle Creepy.” He isn’t a fan of nicknames at all and makes fun of a couple in particular.

“The name (Uncle Creepy) sounds a lot worse than it is. I’m not a fan of nicknmaes. I’ve always hated nicknames. I just always thought they were stupid, especially when people give themselves nicknames. Like, ‘Oh, I’m “The Crusher”, I’m the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy.”‘ It’s like no, you’re kind of a douchebag. I just always thought they were dumb.

One day, my friend’s son, who calls me Uncle Ian. It was three in the morning. I was trying to put him to bed. He just wanted to learn how to skateboard, so he’s like, “Uncle Creepy, Uncle Creepy skateboard”. Everyone heard it in the room, and it stuck.”

McCall faces Johnson in the opening round of the tournament and has nothing but praise for the last challenger to UFC Bantamweight Title.

“I have a lot of admiration for the guy. He’s accomplished so much recently that it’s the fight that I wanted. He sets obviously a really fast pace. He seems like a good guy. He’s not annoying. He’s a workhorse. It’s going to be an honor to fight the guy. Can’t wait to get in there with him.”

Considering Johnson just fought for the bantamweight title, you could make a case this could have the matchup in the finals, but McCall prefers the way the UFC sets this tournament up.

“I wanted to fight Benavidez in the finals. I don’t know for sure, but I’m pretty positive he’ll beat Urushitani. Joe’s another guy I admire. He’s a cool dude. He’s obviously really good. Either one of those fights I would have taken obviously. This is the fight (with Johnson) I wanted first to kind of prove myself to everybody.”

A lot of people and pundits consider McCall to be the best flyweight in the world, and he doesn’t shy away from that.

“I think I am. I know I’m gunna win. I’m the best.”

You can listen to the entire two-part interview with Ian McCall here.

You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Strikeforce’s KJ Noons Just Wants to Stay Active and Fight More Often

All fighters want to fight and fight a lot, so they can do what they love and be able to provide for there families. KJ Noons is no different. Noons (10-4 MMA, 2-2 SF) will return to the Strikeforce cage this Saturday for the second time this year…

Strikeforce: Melendez vs Masvidal takes place from the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, CA. The event will be live on Showtime and this fight will be apart of the main card.

Noons last fought this past June in a defeat to now No.1 contender for the lightweight title Jorge Masvidal. He wasn’t happy with his performance and looks forward to returning on Saturday.

“My performance of my last fight was very poor,” Noons told me. “I got beat. He (Masvidal) came and had a good gameplan. Guys’ tricky to fight. He’s elusive. Got that in the past and changed the camp up, mix it up, do a few different things, be a better all around MMA fighter, really changed the camp up. Now I’m ready to go for this next fight. Showcase different skills to San Diego where I train and where I live at. So I’m super excited and I’m really excited to be back on Showtime.”

Before Noons fought Masvidal in June, he had moved up to Welterweight and challenged former Strikeforce Champion Nick Diaz and lost a close decision in a highly entertaining fight. After Diaz, he went back to lightweight to take the fight with Masvidal. Noons doesn’t feel that the going up and going back down in weight has effected him at all in the Masvidal fight.

“No, I think it was a lot of time off. I broke my hand in that Diaz fight. I had surgery on my hand, connect the bone back. I was out for a really long time. I think that’s the hardest thing is getting the ring rust off. Your really not active in the ring, it’s hard to get in there. Your only fighting for 15 minutes anyway. It goes by really quick. I wish I could fight more often. I think it was a little ring rust. It just really wasn’t my night. He (Masvidal) had my number and I was off. He had a great performance. He’s a tricky fighter. He’s good, really good. He knows how to fight good and put rounds in the bag.”

Noons and Evangelista have a common opponent in Masvidal, in which Masvidal defeated Evangelista in March by decision. Noons says he saw some stuff in that fight that he can use on Saturday.

“Masvidal does a good job of keeping the distance. Billy’s a good Muay Thai wrestler. I’m just kind of ready for whatever, wherever the fight goes. I’m not particularily really, “oh I’m gunna take it to the ground or I’m gunna keep it boxing, I’m gunna keep kicking”. “I kinda trained everything. I would say he’s probably the best at his kicks, his knees and his takedowns.”

Noons has gone through multiple injuries in the past and looks forward to coming out of Saturday’s fight healthy, so the fans can finally see the real KJ Noons.

“It’s just tough. You deal with a lot of injuries too. I had surgery. I don’t want to be out. I don’t think Strikeforce is holding me out. You just gotta deal with different things as your fighting through camps and getting to fights. You have to fight all these injuries and make sure you get there. So hopefully this fight, I came out clean and I can keep fighting as much as possible. I think if any fighter stays active, you just get that ring rust off and you get to show more what type of fighter you are.”

To listen to the interview with KJ Noons, listen here.

You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Demetrious Johnson Feels "It’s a Long Time Coming" for the Flyweights in the UFC

When you’re always fighting against guys who are bigger than you, you have to wonder what it would be like to fight in your natural weight class.
Demetrious Johnson has always fought professionally at 135 lbs due to the fact a lot of promotions don’t h…

When you’re always fighting against guys who are bigger than you, you have to wonder what it would be like to fight in your natural weight class.

Demetrious Johnson has always fought professionally at 135 lbs due to the fact a lot of promotions don’t have a 125 lbs division. He was always smaller than everybody he has faced. Now, though, it will be different.

The UFC announced on Saturday night that the flyweight division is coming, beginning with a four-man tournament at the UFC on FX 2 event. That event will take place on Friday, March 2nd in the U.S. which will be Saturday, March 3rd in Australia. The event most likely take place at the Acer Arena in Sydney, where UFC 110 took place.

In the inaugural flyweight title, Joseph Benavidez will face Yasuhiro Urushitani and Ian McCall will face Johnson.

Johnson (9-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC) last fought at the last UFC on Versus 6. He will look to bounce back from his loss to bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. Cruz will be attempting to dethrone the man a lot of people consider the No. 1 flyweight in the world, McCall (11-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC).

Johnson said he is glad the flyweight division is finally being introduced in the UFC. “It’s long time coming,” he told me.

The fans have been asking for it, the fighters have been asking for it and it’s great to have it finally in the UFC. I think it’s going to be a great addition to the UFC roster of weight classes. I think we’re going to put the weight class on the map. It’s going to be exciting.

Johnson had signed a contract to face Eddie Wineland at the UFC Fox 2 event in Chicago on January 28, but said he is honored to take part in the tournament.

Got contacted about a week ago. My reaction was like, “Awesome.” I see it as another fight, and I’m very honored to be apart of this tournament and to be considered as one of the top five flyweights in the world, even though I haven’t fought there as a professional. I’m looking forward to getting in there and showing the world what flyweights can do, and it’s going to be a great tournament.

Johnson has never fought as a flyweight as a pro and hasn’t really had to cut that much weight make 135. He said he feels confident that the weight cut will be pretty easy.

I’ll watch what I take in. I usually eat whatever I want. I remember when I was fighting in the WEC, I was eating whatever I wanted, drinking as much water as I want. I’m pretty good at my water intake. I don’t drink anything besides water. Usually, I may have a sandwich with a lot of bread, a lot of grains, which is very filling. It stays in your stomach all the time. I just gotta make sure I cut out all the bad stuff and put in all the good stuff.

A lot of fans really don’t know about McCall, who is regarded as the No. 1 flyweight in the world. McCall was the Tachi Palace Fights flyweight champion before he signed with the UFC. Johnson has been doing his homework on McCall and isn’t taking him lightly.

I know Ian McCall. You can call him “Uncle Creepy.” He’s ranked No. 1 in the world according to Sherdog’s rankings. He just beat Darrel Montague for the Tachi Palace Fights flyweight belt and he’s pretty good. He’s fought twice in the WEC against Dominick Cruz and Charlie Valencia at 135, also against Coty Wheeler, the “Ox.” He has a pretty well-rounded game. He always comes in shape. It seems like he’s got his weight cut down to a tee.

What can the fans expect out of the newest weight class in the UFC? Johnson feels you can expect a little bit of everything.

The fans can expect everything you get out of the other divisions. Your gonna get a lot more speed, a lot more technical work, we’re not going to get tired. Your gonna see some knockouts because we still posses power at this weight class and your just gonna see all around great fights. We’re fast, we’re scramblers and we know what we’re doing in there. It’s going to be great fights you can see from the flyweights.

You can listen to the two-part interview with Demetrious Johnson here.

Follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

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Frank Trigg: Fighter, Commentator And Now the Dr. Phil of MMA

Disclaimer: This article is graphic in some tones, but this is word for word from the mouth of Frank Trigg.When hear the name Frank Trigg, you think of the UFC veteran who has fought the likes of Matt Hughes, Matt Serra and Josh Koscheck just to n…

Disclaimer: This article is graphic in some tones, but this is word for word from the mouth of Frank Trigg.

When hear the name Frank Trigg, you think of the UFC veteran who has fought the likes of Matt Hughes, Matt Serra and Josh Koscheck just to name a few. When thinking of Trigg, you also think of the announcing he does with Michael Schiavello on HDNet.

An expert on women and relationships? That is the last thing you would think of when it comes to any fighter. Trigg isn’t most fighters though.

Trigg recently launched a dating and relationship blog for women, which started on ProMMANow.com and has also been picked up recently by USA Today.

A guy who travels the world commentating events and doing various different adventures, Trigg explains how he found time to start the blog entitled “Ask Trigg.”

My PR girl Melissa Ingram kept hitting me up, and she was like, ‘Hey, my friend needs this advice.’

My other friends are coming up to me about dating advice, this friend about their marriage breakups, girlfriend breakups. What was going on, yeah I went through that same thing, too. Jack Bratcher over at ProMMANow.com, he goes ‘Hey, why don’t you do a blog on my website?’

He was thinking we could do a MMA blog, and then Melissa cross-checked me saying, ‘Why don’t we do a relationship blog?’ That is something Frank is trying to branch into, and we will go and put this together.

Once it hit ProMMANow.com, USA Today picked it up the first two weeks it was out. USA Today picked it up as the No. 1 relationship blog, and that was a big deal.

Last week, it didn’t get picked up because with the holidays, no one’s at work. Most of us are at our computers at work, and that wasn’t going because everyone was on vacation, so the next week, hopefully coming out with one and be back as the No. 1 blog for USA Today and see what happens.

It all came about because I have had so much history with women and failing, actually really, with women. That’s my No. 1 thing: having to realize why did I fail, why is this thing falling apart, why did this thing not work, or why did this one thing work, why is this thing working for me, what’s going on? Just being able to express to my friends, and just turn it into this blog.

With any type of blog like this, you are going to get some weird and confusing stuff from people. Trigg explains the weirdest advice he has been asked.

We haven’t done a blog on it yet. I don’t think we will at this point. The weirdest thing I’ve gotten is that, ‘Hey, I really want to be tied up, and I’m really into role pay and folk scar play and blindfolds. All that stuff gets me off, and my boyfriend will not. I’ve tried everything. I bought all the products. I’ve put all the wrist ties, the ankle ties, all the little scarves, all the blindfolds and all that stuff and had everything available. Told him exactly. Gave him the DVD, gave him everything, and he will just not do what I do. How do I convince this guy to make him want to be this kind of person? To make him want to do this with me.’

And how to approach my boyfriend who wants to have anal sex, but I’ve never done it before. How do I approach that with him? How to approach getting it together and doing it together.

The two weirdest things that are multiple—not just one person—emailing me that question. Multitudes of people emailing me that question. What to do and how to go about it.

Check out new “Ask Trigg” blog updates every Wednesday on ProMMANow.com. Ladies can send their dating and relationship questions to [email protected].

You can listen to the two-part interview with Frank Trigg here.

You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

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TUF 14 Finale’s Yves Edwards: "I Feel Every Fight Is a Must Win Fight"

Yves Edwards has just about done it all and seen it all in is MMA career. He has fought some of the best in the world including guys like Cael Uno, Nate Marquardt, Matt Serra, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Josh Thomson and many more.Whether he’s won or lost, Edwar…

Whether he’s won or lost, Edwards has always focused on the task at hand and views every fight as a must win affair. Edwards (41-17-1 MMA, 9-5 UFC), who is coming off a win against Rafeallo Oliveria at the UFC on Versus 6 show at the beginning of October, faces Ultimate Fighter Season 13 winner Tony Ferguson (12-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) on Saturday night at the The Ultimate Fighter Season 14 Finale from The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The fight will be shown live on Spike TV.

Edwards had lost to Sam Stout at UFC 131 by devastating KO. A lot of people were wondering heading into the Oliveria fight if it was a must win fight for Edwards, and whether he was fighting for his job.

“I feel every fight is a must win fight,” Edwards told me. “You never know what’s gunna happen. Winning spells everything as far as that’s concerned. Everytime someone is put in front of me, someone puts out a contract, I have to win. That’s the gameplan. I take the fight because I believe I can win. I train hard to prepare to win. I go out there an fight for the focus of winning. I can’t think in those terms. Those terms absolutely make no sense to me. As a fighter, you go out there to win every single fight. So every fight is a must win, as far as like any NFL or NBA team. You go out there to win every single time. Sometimes you fall short, sometimes you absolutely fail, but everytime you go out there you go out there with the goal to succeed.

Every fight is a must win. I don’t understand that statement. I think that’s the craziest thing in sports when they say, “this is a must win game for this team.”

“Well this is a must win fight for this guy. Nobody’s going out with the intention of losing unless they are in the wrong business.”

This will be the fourth time Edwards has stepped into the Octagon this year, as he fought in January, June, October and now in December. We usually only see guys fight two to three times a year. Considering he just fought on October 1, most guys wouldn’t do it, but Edwards is a different type of fighter.

“I didn’t think I would get another shot. I took the fight because I wanted to. It’s one of those things I definitely wanted to do, especially with the timing. I was just coming off a fight, I was in good shape. I just wanted to go out there and perform. Getting this opportunity to fight right after Thanksgiving being from the Bahamas. Thanksgiving is not a big deal to me, it’s not something we really celebrate at home. But this is before Christmas, I get to go in there and get another day at the office. Have a good time fighting and then right afterwards I get to go home and enjoy the whole Christmas break.Not worry about fighting for a good couple weeks or months and be able to eat, get a little fat, make a New Years’ Resolution, just enjoy and do what your supposed to do at winter time. Stay in bed and under the covers.”

His opponent on Saturday, Tony Ferguson, won Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter in impressive fashion over Ramsey Nijem, and stopped Aaron Riley at UFC 135. Edwards holds Ferguson in high regard heading into the fight.

“Honestly, I’ve only seen his fights since I’ve been training for him. I saw his finale fight against Ramsey Nijem and saw his fight with Riley. It’s one of those things. You think, “oh this kid looks tough, he looks good, he hits hard.”

“But I wasn’t training for him at the time. I wasn’t looking for holes in his game. I wasn’t looking for the things he’s really good at. Saw his fight with Riley. I thought Riley looked good for awhile, but then he started to get outclassed towards the middle to the end of that first round. And then going back and having to look at that guy as an opponent. That guy is really good in some areas, in some areas he’s just not so strong. I’m gunna try and capitalize on the areas where he’s not so strong., but it’s not going to be easy. The guy is tough, he hits hard, he’s got long range and he seems like he uses it well. I’m not quite as long as him. I use my reach pretty well also, so that’s going to be a little battle right there. I think that’s gunna be a fun part of the fight. There’s some things i can capitalize on. There’s some things I definitely want to avoid with this guy. It’s gunna be one of those fights that’s cerebral at times, then at some times it’s gunna be pretty guerilla like and just violent, so it’s gunna be a lot of fun.”

You can listen to the two part interview with Yves Edwards here.

You can follow me on Twitter @fightclubchi.

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