Bellator MMA President Scott Coker is a bit surprised by the backlash over the Viacom owned promotion’s latest fighter signing.
It’s been well documented that Mirko Cro Cop would be rematching Roy Nelson at the upcoming Bellator 200 event.
Once the promotion made the announcement, it raised questions from some fight fans regarding his eligibility to fight due to the fact that Cro Cop was suspended by USADA for two years for taking HGH. Instead of serving the suspension, he chose to retire from MMA.
Retirement for athletes is hard and usually doesn’t last. Cro Cop is no different as he returned just a year later to compete under the Rizin FF banner and even won the 2016 Open Weight Grand Prix.
Cro Cop has fought five times since receiving his USADA suspension. Thus, it raises the question of whether promoters should book him. Coker believes that makes no sense.
“Here’s the thing,” Coker told Jim Edwards of MMANYtt (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “Mirko fights in Rizin, in Japan, and USADA has a relationship with the UFC and they’re in Japan all the time. Why didn’t they go after him two years ago when he started fighting in Rizin? This is a question just because he’s fighting for Bellator at our 200th event?
“To me it’s like, if you wanted to take action, you should’ve took action a long time ago, because to me, honestly, when we booked it, we didn’t even know there were issues. He’s already fighting so we thought he was able to fight.”
Coker noted that Bellator doesn’t have any connection to USADA. Thus, the organization doesn’t have to go along with the suspension, especially since Cro Cop has been competing since he was given the suspension.
“Listen, USADA works with the UFC,” said Coker. “They’re doing their own thing, so go do it. I just feel like the timing of it is a little bit questionable because at the end of the day, if you really wanted to enforce it, you should’ve enforced it two years ago when Mirko fought in Japan.”
Bellator 200 is set to take place on Friday, May 25, 2018, from The SSE Arena, Wembley. The preliminary card will air online at 7:00 pm EST while the main card will air on Paramount Network at 9:00 PM EST.
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