Wanderlei Silva tried to warn you … but no, you wouldn’t listen.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has once again canceled a major mixed martial arts (MMA) event that was scheduled to run the same night as a Bellator MMA fight card. And not just any old fight card, one that was headlined by the mighty Fedor Emelianenko.
The same “Emperor” who smashed and trashed six former UFC heavyweight champions (go ahead and do the math, I’ll wait).
“We’ve been going on that date for the last three years or however long, so everybody knows we’re going to go on that date,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “It didn’t work out for them because, to me, it’s a roster issue. Who is going to fight? And if you’re going to bring someone to fight against the Fedor-Bader card, and ours is free on Paramount and on DAZN, and you’re going to run on pay-per-view, then you better have your A-game. I think they just ran out of bullets.”
The empty chamber was UFC 233, which the promotion had hoped to fill with the welterweight title fight pitting Tyron Woodley against Colby Covington, but “The Chosen One” was still recovering from a hand injury and unable to answer the call.
That means Jan. 26, 2019 belongs to Bellator MMA.
The Fedor vs. Bader card will take place inside The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. as part of the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix. In addition, former UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi will be in action, as well as ex-WWE headliner Jack Swagger.
“This is not the first time,” Coker said. “This is like the second, maybe even the third time this happened on that weekend. It is what it is. For the most part I feel like we’ve just got to focus on our business and keep running, but we have a great card on that day.”
For much more on Bellator 214 click here.