UFC President Dana White likes to win. His goal, publicly stated, isn’t just to be a successful mixed martial arts promoter. It’s becoming a global force in the sports. “World f*cking domination,” as he puts it. Nothing more, nothing less. That drive has helped White to demolish the competition over the years. He, famously, used to […]
UFC President Dana White likes to win. His goal, publicly stated, isn’t just to be a successful mixed martial arts promoter. It’s becoming a global force in the sports. “World f*cking domination,” as he puts it. Nothing more, nothing less. That drive has helped White to demolish the competition over the years. He, famously, used to […]
Yes, it’s 2014 and whispers about this “dream fight” from ages past are still happening.
“That’s a fight I would personally love to see,” Coker said after Bellator 123. “But I just don’t know if it’s going to happen.”
When pressed as to why he was pessimistic, Coker cited Couture’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars. However, Coker did not that he was currently talking with M-1 and was going to be speaking with Couture next.
“All I can say is that we’re in dialogue with M-1, but that’s all I have to say at this time about that,” he said about bringing the retired Fedor Emelianenko into Bellator.
And regarding Couture, Coker was equally mum.
“We’ll see him next. We’ll talk to him and see what he has to say.”
For the record, Couture is 51 years old and Emelianenko is 37. The UFC attempted to book this fight in 2007 and failed. Affliction tried to book this fight as well but ended up going out of business.
It seems that this fight is just one of MMA’s great “what-ifs.” And now that it’s 2014, it should stay that way.
Bellator seems to be obsessed with recreating MMA from 2007. While that seems like a smart goal–MMA in 2007 was great–you can’t recreate 2007 in MMA with 2007′s fighters. They’re all too old now. Recreating the MMA boom won’t come from recycling faded stars until they’re in their late 40s (or older in Couture’s case). While names are certainly important for Bellator, new talent is even more important. They obviously need to hire some names to draw attention to the product, but this attention should then be used to highlight younger prospects in the company, not some pipe dream from seven years ago or a some ridiculous, pro wrestling-like stunt.
Bellator 123 marked the return of the organization to Spike TV under the Scott Coker regime. The show had some ups and it certainly had some downs. The main event saw a title change in the featherweight division in what could have been the Fight of the Night. Not only was it the fight of […]
Bellator 123 marked the return of the organization to Spike TV under the Scott Coker regime. The show had some ups and it certainly had some downs. The main event saw a title change in the featherweight division in what could have been the Fight of the Night. Not only was it the fight of […]
Bellator’s newly minted president, Scott Coker, is looking to arrange one of the biggest matchups in MMA history.
Speaking with the press after Friday’s Bellator 123 in Connecticut, Coker dropped a bombshell when asked about the likelihood of a p…
Bellator‘s newly minted president, Scott Coker, is looking to arrange one of the biggest matchups in MMA history.
Speaking with the press after Friday’s Bellator 123 in Connecticut, Coker dropped a bombshell when asked about the likelihood of a potential matchup between Randy Couture and FedorEmelianenko happening under the Bellator banner.
‘You know, that’s a fight I personally would love to see, but I just don’t know if it’s going to happen,’ Coker said during the press conference. ‘Randy? He’s dancing with the stars now. I mean, he’s not going to want to go fight Fedor now that he’s hanging out with some good-lookin’ girls dancing every night. But we’ll see him next. We’ll talk to him and see what he has to say.’
While Couture is indeed slated to appear on the upcoming season of the hit dance competition show, the more mysterious and potentially troublesome variable in this equation is the Russian heavyweight Emelianenko.
Emelianenko and his management team, M-1 Global, are notoriously private and difficult to work with, but Coker and Bellator appear to have cracked the code. Regarding talks with the Russian’s camp, Coker said the gate has been lifted and negotiations are ready to pass.
“All I can say is that we’re in dialogue with M-1, but that’s all I have to say at this time about that,” Coker said.
Of course, a fight between Couture and Emelianenko would have been massive when both fighters were in their primes, but this matchup still represents a hugely intriguing bout for MMA fans across the globe.
At 34-4 (1), Emelianenko is one of the most successful heavyweights of all time, and he went undefeated from April 2001 to June 2010, a stretch encompassing 28 fights and victories over legends such as Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.
Couture (19-11), on the other hand, never enjoyed the sustained winning streak of Emelianenko, but he was an integral part of the UFC’s emergence as a global powerhouse in the MMA space. Combined, the UFC Hall of Famer won the UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight title a record five times, including a title-fight victory over Tim Sylvia at the age of 43 in 2007.
Both fighters have fallen off a bit toward the end of their careers, but there’s no doubt that if Bellator can make this fight happen, fans will eagerly tune in and invite their friends to watch history.
It wasn’t even a Strikeforce: Nashville brawl between Mayhem Miller and Nick Diaz’s crew–the kind where your eyes can’t leave the TV screen and your heart races.
It was a terribly phony, laughable, obviously staged “fight” that brought down an otherwise stellar Bellator card.
Here’s the rundown:
Bonnar and Ortiz are in the cage. Bonnar tries to take the mic away from Jimmy Smith, who does his duty as a broadcaster and doesn’t let Bonnar take the mic. Bonnar starts insulting Tito Ortiz, saying that everyone who has ever associated with Ortiz hates him now. While Bonnar is going on this rant, you can see a guy in a mask beside him. Bonnar continues his rant and then points to the masked man.
The man begins to unmask. It’s…it’s…
Justin McCully, a former friend and training partner of Tito Ortiz.
Saying the crowd went mild would be too generous. The audience had zero reaction to McCully. This was to be expected as he was a forgettable journeyman who went 2-2 in the UFC and hasn’t fought in three years. Even some hardcore fans might not have remembered McCully, whose claim to fame is beating Antoni Hardonk and Eddie fucking Sanchez.
Then Bonnar started making Jenna Jameson references. Ugh.
It didn’t get any better when Ortiz started talking. Thankfully, he didn’t say much. He called both Bonnar and McCully drug addicts, then shoved Bonnar and a bunch of people came in to separate them. Literally five minutes later an ad ran promoting Bonnar vs. Ortiz (with clips of the “brawl” that happened minutes ago). The match will run on the same night as UFC 180, which is headlined by Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum.
It’s a shame this pathetic charade had to play out during what was one of Bellator’s most exciting cards to date. Bellator is in a peculiar position. They have Scott Coker bringing in some much-needed Strikeforce vibes but then they also have the lingering remnants of Bjorn Rebney’s booking. Even when fired, one casts a shadow. In addition, it seems as if Spike/Viacom is spoiling Coker’s plans. Coker never resorted to such pro wrestling hysterics during his time at Strikeforce (the Nashville brawl wasn’t staged and nobody was “unmasked”). It’s uncharacteristic of him to suddenly do it here. If you ask us, choreographing the brawl wasn’t his doing (though he’s just as guilty for letting it happen).
Bellator became a Twitter trend last night. So if nothing else, the farce that was last night’s brawl got the casual fans interested but the cost was any and all credibility Bellator had built up since hiring Coker.
Put away your cigarettes and barbecue lighters folks, because a highly flammable statement is about to drop, and there’s no need for anyone to get hurt here.
In another time, Bobby Lashley might actually have been something. Something in MMA. Something…
Put away your cigarettes and barbecue lighters folks, because a highly flammable statement is about to drop, and there’s no need for anyone to get hurt here.
In another time, Bobby Lashley might actually have been something. Something in MMA. Something pretty good.
Now, make no mistake about what that statement infers: He’s not something pretty good right now. He’s a 38-year-old man better known for pro wrestling than his MMA career, a man who just beat up a faceless 8-7 collection of tribal tattoos live on Spike TV.
But it’s hard not to think that, had Lashley made the jump to MMA 10 years ago when he was leaving the ranks of collegiate wrestling as a would-be 28-year-old, there might have been something there.
He’s got respectable athleticism for a big man, and he’s shown an ability to improve against even the longest odds, particularly in his Bellator 123 win. That came after a year off, which could have been crippling to man of his experience and age, but it wasn’t.
His gas tank was better, his use of side control was sound and the times he postured up to strike on the ground were genuinely threatening.
Sure, he beat a faceless collection of tribal tattoos, but is that his fault?
All he can do is win the fights he signs for; if those fights aren’t coming against Cain Velasquez, there’s not really much he can do about it.
It’s not outlandish to imagine Lashley, all imposing physicality and sky’s-the-limit potential, rampaging through the regional scene right as the UFC was enjoying it’s first boom in the mid-aughts.
That Lashley was never a pro wrestler, but instead a man who saw a dearth of heavyweight talent in non-choreographed combat and elected to choose true competition over a fat pay check signed by Vince McMahon.
He’s a man who perhaps got into the UFC by 2008 instead of starting his career then, a man on the rise right around the time that pro wrestling’s Brock Lesnar was marching toward a heavyweight title.
He’s a man who maybe gets a few wins on prelims and undercards, showing that his striking is serviceable and he’s accented his wrestling with ruthless ground-and-pound and capable submissions, and all of a sudden, he’s a decent mixed martial artist.
This isn’t to say that Lashley was destined to be great, to be a world champion revered by all. It’s not to say that, if he’d jumped to the UFC back then that he’d be a surefire Hall of Famer today. Plenty of athletic wrestlers have come and gone, fizzling out on the end of another man’s fist—and those fists fizzle guys that much quicker at heavyweight.
But it is to say that, while it’s easy to poke fun at him for battering an overmatched opponent and padding one of the softest 11-2 records the sport has ever seen, don’t ignore what might have been.
All Bobby Lashley can be is what he is; in another time, that could have ended up as something pretty respectable.
