Scott Coker doesn’t understand why people might think his Bellator 208 main event wasn’t on the level.
The UFC has been around for 25 years now, and despite the odd murmuring here and there, fans have come to accept that the results are legitimate. There’s no fight fixing (outside of an unfortunate South Korean incident), and no pro wrestling theatrics (they save those for after the fights are over).
But over in Bellator, Scott Coker isn’t apparently getting the benefit of the doubt from everyone.
After the Bellator 208 headliner saw Fedor Emelianenko finish Chael Sonnen in a fight that was equal parts gripping and awkward, many social media pundits declared that the fight may have been fixed. The message was heard loud enough that Coker was asked about it at the post-fight press conference. Rightfully, he shot the whole thing down as ridiculous (via MMA Fighting):
“Come on, that doesn’t even deserve a response to the people that are saying it,” Coker said. “Listen, Chael got clipped. He told me, ‘Man, he hit me and he hit me really good,’ and he was done. So that’s it. With Chael, the thing with Tito, ‘oh, he let him go’ or something, come on, why would you do that? You’re a professional athlete and you’re a fighter. He wants to continue, he wants to go to the next round of the tournament. That’s just all rubbish.”
Sonnen in particular has been accused of this before, likely due to this larger-than-life persona outside the cage and the controversies he has endured throughout his career. Again though, Coker dismissed the claims:
“To me, they see Chael, he’s got this character and I think they just feel like with Chael it’s just like this character, so maybe that’s what they’re thinking. But If you had Fedor punching you and kicking you and kneeing you like he was doing today — that was real, that was not fake.”
Fedor stopped Sonnen late in the first round of their Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix semi-final. He will go on to meet Ryan Bader in the finals in January.