Ahead of his Bellator 154 main event fight this weekend on Spike TV against former top-ranked UFC contender Phil Davis, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal spoke with the folks at WrestlingINC.com about his run in TNA Wrestling, explaining why he specifically bla…
Ahead of his Bellator 154 main event fight this weekend on Spike TV against former top-ranked UFC contender Phil Davis, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal spoke with the folks at WrestlingINC.com about his run in TNA Wrestling, explaining why he specifically blames former Bellator MMA President Bjorn Rebney for the way his tenure with the pro wrestling promotion went.
Below are some of the highlights from the Muhammed Lawal interview:
On if he has been paying attention to the state of TNA and their many recent talent departures:
“I’ve been paying attention, man. I was kind of worried when Kazarian and Daniels left,” Mo said. “Then Samoa Joe left. Then AJ Styles, Eric Young, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode- Bobby Roode can wrestle his ass off. The guys that could really wrestle are leaving. I hope they can bounce back. That’s not good, especially when AJ Styles left. They lost a lot of great wrestlers, and I hope they can turn the corner and move forward on a positive note.”
On being brought into TNA with a lot of fanfare but having things slow down quickly because he fought MMA so frequently:
“Everything got messed up quick because of my fight schedule. I was in OVW, had a couple of matches there. I was working with Al Snow, Nick Dinsmore and Nick Miller, who is known as Trailer Park Trash. I was learning a lot from Frank Miller. TNA didn’t really have a chance to use me because of my fight schedule. I fought like 5-6 times that one year.”
On blaming former Bellator MMA president Bjorn Rebney for the way his TNA run turned out, noting current president Scott Coker would have handled it better:
“Not really, with the fight schedule it was hard. Bellator with Bjorn was iffy. Coker would have done a better job trying to coordinate the schedule with TNA. I think the blame is on Bjorn. I was working with Kenny King and people at FSW. I was hoping I could do something, me and Kenny King, the Knockout Kings. Bjorn, I don’t know what his plan was. I don’t think he had a plan.”
Make sure to visit MMANews.com this weekend for a complete Bellator 154: Davis vs. King Mo report.
“Me and Bellator, we tongue kissing right now, baby…Ever since I did that ‘A-Team’ movie it like — it’s like I cheated on [the UFC]. And so, you know what I’m saying, like over here I don’t see any way I can cheat on Bellator, because it seems like, you know what I’m saying, they’re with Viacom. They got me all set up. It’s all in-house and stuff like that…I see me being happy with these guys for the rest of my career. Because, you know what I’m saying, I can just feel it…I’ve done a lot of favors for the UFC, and sometimes, I didn’t get my favors back to me.”
Bellator saved him from a disgruntled existence with the UFC, just like the UFC saved him from a disgruntled existence with PRIDE. And for a while, Rampage and the Bjorn Rebney-led Bellator were in the thrall of new romance, just tongue-kissing their brains out. ‘Page dutifully played along with Spike TV’s awkward pro-wrestling crossover storylines, and he was successful in the cage, going 3-0 under the Bellator banner with first-round knockouts of Joey Beltran and Christian M’Pumbu. (He also beat King Mo in a dubious decision that nevertheless produced one of the best soundbites of the year.)
“Me and Bellator, we tongue kissing right now, baby…Ever since I did that ‘A-Team’ movie it like — it’s like I cheated on [the UFC]. And so, you know what I’m saying, like over here I don’t see any way I can cheat on Bellator, because it seems like, you know what I’m saying, they’re with Viacom. They got me all set up. It’s all in-house and stuff like that…I see me being happy with these guys for the rest of my career. Because, you know what I’m saying, I can just feel it…I’ve done a lot of favors for the UFC, and sometimes, I didn’t get my favors back to me.”
Bellator saved him from a disgruntled existence with the UFC, just like the UFC saved him from a disgruntled existence with PRIDE. And for a while, Rampage and the Bjorn Rebney-led Bellator were in the thrall of new romance, just tongue-kissing their brains out. ‘Page dutifully played along with Spike TV’s awkward pro-wrestling crossover storylines, and he was successful in the cage, going 3-0 under the Bellator banner with first-round knockouts of Joey Beltran and Christian M’Pumbu. (He also beat King Mo in a dubious decision that nevertheless produced one of the best soundbites of the year.)
But the infatuation phase wears off, as it always does, and the person you thought you were sleeping with looks a lot different in the light of day. Now that current president Scott Coker is beginning to clean house and set course for new directions, things at Bellator aren’t the same anymore. Predictably, Quinton Jackson is beginning to regret leaving the familiar embrace of his old wife, the UFC. Only this time, there isn’t a new set of arms waiting to catch him.
“I like Rampage Jackson,” said White. “Rampage and I have a very unique relationship in that all the stuff that goes on publicly, behind the scenes we square away. He’s a good dude.”
Ben Saunders has proven that it’s possible to wash out of the UFC, do relatively well in Bellator, then be brought back to the UFC. The question is, are UFC fans willing to see Rampage back in the Octagon? Considering that the UFC needs Fight Pass headliners now more than ever, a Rampage return could be possible whether we like it or not.
Bellator has fired War Machine after a report from TMZ claimed he was involved in a domestic violence investigation.
TMZ’s report claimed the domestic dispute involved three people at War Machine’s Las Vegas home. Two people were reportedly injured so bad they had to go to the hospital. The report claimed one victim was War Machine’s “significant other.”
A tweet from Christy Mack, War Machine’s sort of girlfriend (the “it’s complicated” relationship status was made for them), seems to confirm the report:
(War Machine in 2007 / Photo via Getty)
Bellator has fired War Machine after a report from TMZ claimed he was involved in a domestic violence investigation.
TMZ’s report claimed the domestic dispute involved three people at War Machine’s Las Vegas home. Two people were reportedly injured so bad they had to go to the hospital. The report claimed one victim was War Machine’s “significant other.”
A tweet from Christy Mack, War Machine’s sort of girlfriend (the “it’s complicated” relationship status was made for them), seems to confirm the report:
War Machine seemingly tweeted about the incident as well:
While nothing is official yet, a domestic violence incident seems pretty likely. We hate to say this was inevitable, it seemed inevitable given War Machine’s sordid history.
Fortunately, Bellator under Scott Coker threw the book at War Machine.
“We have a zero tolerance policy here at Bellator when it relates to any form of domestic violence,” Bellator president Scott Coker said in a press release sent to CagePotato. “And after learning of this latest incident involving Jon Koppenhaver, War Machine, Bellator is releasing him from his promotional contract with the organization.”
War Machine has been arrested before, so who knows if and how long he’ll be incarcerated this time. His last fight was a loss to Ron Keslar at Bellator 104. To be honest, Bellator is better off without him.
“It’s always darkest before it’s totally black.”-Mao Zedong (supposedly).
This quote aptly described MMA’s immediate future, or at least it seemed to until very recently. Card quality, fan interest, and–most importantly–numbers were all declining; 2014’s PPV buy ceiling of 350,000 was 2009’s floor. MMA was headed for a perplexing time when it was simultaneously bigger than ever but smaller than ever, when the fighters were more talented than ever but less popular than ever.
A series of fortunate events and new found circumstances can change all that. To make a Back to the Future reference, the horrific, Biff Tannen-owned Hill Valley that represented MMA’s future may well become the nice, stable Hill Valley in which George McFly is a successful fiction author and Marty McFly bangs his girlfriend in the back of a pickup truck. That is to say, MMA might be approaching a level of popularity, constancy and quality that many (including myself) didn’t think it was capable of reaching in the current climate.
“It’s always darkest before it’s totally black.”-Mao Zedong (supposedly).
This quote aptly described MMA’s immediate future, or at least it seemed to until very recently. Card quality, fan interest, and–most importantly–numbers were all declining; 2014′s PPV buy ceiling of 350,000 was 2009′s floor. MMA was headed for a perplexing time when it was simultaneously bigger than ever but smaller than ever, when the fighters were more talented than ever but less popular than ever.
A series of fortunate events and new found circumstances can change all that. To make a Back to the Future reference, the horrific, Biff Tannen-owned Hill Valley that represented MMA’s future may well become the nice, stable Hill Valley in which George McFly is a successful fiction author and Marty McFly bangs his girlfriend in the back of a pickup truck. That is to say, MMA might be approaching a level of popularity, constancy and quality that many (including myself) didn’t think it was capable of reaching in the current climate.
What’s the reason for this cautious optimism?
The initial catalyst, for me at least, is MMA’s reaction to Conor McGregor. Interest for UFC Fight Night 46 was so high you’d have thought it was headlined by Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson II rather than Conor McGregor vs. Diego Brandao. And this was on a Fight Pass card, mind you. That level of excitement for a Fight Pass card is extremely rare–as was the web traffic he brought in for a Fight Pass card. Fight Pass cards are so lackluster we refused to cover one. UFC Fight Night 46, however, garnered more traffic than even some Fox Sports 1 cards.
Conor McGregor stepping into the Octagon is an event. People need to see it. It’s no wonder then UFC Fight Night 46 was reportedly the most-watched Fight Pass event of all time. Conor McGregor has the makings of a superstar. He’s charismatic, a magnet for attention, he’s talented, and has a fan-friendly fighting style. Though McGregor is further proof stars have to be found and built up rather than manufactured by stamping “UFC” on them, McGregor is a light in the dark.
Rousey, too, is another reason the future seems bright. As I’ve noted in the past, the UFC women’s bantamweight division is little more than a promotional vehicle for Ronda Rousey. If you doubt this, look at Ronda Rousey’s fights in the UFC. Was the UFC sponsoring her or her opponent? The UFC does not dissemble its abject love of Rousey; Dana White admitted Rousey is the only reason the division exists.
As inflammatory and ridiculous as it sounded when White said it, Rousey might actually be the UFC’s biggest star. This (somewhat) justifies the UFC’s treatment of her. But watching even the greatest of fighters crush glorified jobbers in under a minute can get boring–boring enough that people won’t pay $60 to see it. Currently, the UFC women’s bantamweight division is such that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the only person getting as much attention as Rousey. That’s changing now.
Rousey-Holm, Rousey-Carano, and Rousey-Justino are far more sell-able and will garner more interest than Rousey vs. any of the other overmatched contenders in the division.
The women’s MMA landscape as a whole is changing thanks to the UFC’s inclusion of the strawweight division via TUF 20. The UFC’s current strawweight roster possesses enough personalities (Rose Namajunas, Felice Herrig, etc.) to make the weight class interesting.
Then we come to UFC Fight Pass. We’ve panned the network on CagePotato multiple times, but Zuffa is finally starting to listen to our suggestions. To that end, they will now start showing Invicta fight cards. Deals with other MMA promotions might also be in the works. They also plan to to air events in judo, wrestling, and other martial arts. Fight Pass is changing for the better. What was once a cheap cash-grab is turning into a legitimate window into the mixed martial arts ecosystem.
And finally, Bellator. Bjorn Rebney is out. Scott Coker, a man with the proven capability to put on cards fans care about (and who’s not scummy and horrible), is in. With Scott Coker’s vision and Viacom’s financial backing, Bellator 2.0 (or Spikeforce, as we like to call it) can become serious competition to the UFC, which’ll force the UFC to step up its game and offer a better product. Look at UFC Fight Night 50. Is it a coincidence that it’s one of the more loaded Fight Night cards in recent memory? Did Zuffa just feel like throwing us a bone? Of course not. UFC Fight Night 50 is going head to head with Bellator 123 that night.
There are reasons for MMA fans to be hopeful. There is an emerging star on the horizon, the UFC’s biggest existing star has more credible, higher profile foes to dispatch, a new crop of feisty and fearsome women are entering the fold, Fight Pass is becoming something you wouldn’t be ashamed of subscribing to, and we’re fast approaching the spiritual resurrection of Strikeforce and the competitive nature in MMA it entails.
Are we approaching a Golden Age? Maybe not because the sport still has a few unsolved problems. But we’re certainly approaching an age in which things get better before they get worse. Be cautiously optimistic, MMA fans.
It’s 1985.
Wham! is the hottest thing in music, and movies like The Breakfast Club and The Goonies are reinventing the “random kids come of age, often while wearing awesome ’80s clothes” genre.
The jungles of Brazil are home to no-holds-barred combat, …
It’s 1985.
Wham! is the hottest thing in music, and movies like The Breakfast Club and The Goonies are reinventing the “random kids come of age, often while wearing awesome ’80s clothes” genre.
The jungles of Brazil are home to no-holds-barred combat, but America knows nothing of it aside from what they see outside the bar on a Saturday night.
And Scott Coker just founded Strikeforce.
It’s a kickboxing promotion, a modest West Coast thrill for martial arts fans to be run by Coker, an experienced martial artist himself. He’s known regionally, but the idea that he’d be a global force then, or even within the next two decades, is far away and not particularly feasible.
In a combat sports world dominated by Mike Tyson’s growing legacy, Strikeforce is simply a fun alternative in a sunny corner of the world.
Fast forward that two decades, though, and the world is a very different place.
Kickboxing is as niche as niche can be in the sporting world, Tyson’s legacy is one marred as much by antics out of the ring as any within it (plus a wonderful redemption story), and combat sports looks nothing like one would have anticipated in the 1980s.
Boxing is largely in doldrums, and for a little over a decade, mixed martial arts has been literally and figuratively fighting to become recognized across the country.
The UFC, originally conceived by a Brazilian family who became famous for fighting in their home country, has been everything from a cultural phenomenon to a ruthlessly targeted political chess piece. It’s now running a reality show as a last gasp of air on the sporting landscape.
Coker is still in California, 20 years of fight promotion behind him and time spent on various boards and governing bodies as well. He’s even appeared in a few movies thanks to his combat experience.
Martial arts has been good to him.
But as he sees the UFC growing, sees its reality show quickly changing the climate and forcing the ultimate martial arts proving ground to the cultural forefront, the wheels begin to turn.
His home state is close to regulating MMA, either this year or by 2006, and he’s thinking there might be room for Strikeforce to get in on the new wave early. It’s an itch he’s considered scratching since as early as 2001, but now is truly the time.
There’s so much talent in the Bay Area, so many kickboxers and wrestlers and big personalities with serious athletic pedigrees floating around, that he might just be able to do something special.
And he’s already plugged into them all. It’s his scene.
Scott Coker is going to put on an MMA show.
2006 arrives, and with it comes regulated mixed martial arts in California. Coker is determined to be the first man to promote the sport in the state and, with a little help from his friends at the athletic commission, books Frank Shamrock to fight Cesar Gracie on March 10.
It’s an epic success, with Shamrock stopping Gracie early in the first round in front a salivating, sold-out crowd at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.
Strikeforce is dead. Long live Strikeforce.
The coming years see the former kickboxing promotion grow first into the preeminent regional MMA promotion in America, then into a legitimate national threat to the UFC (which has also exploded after its reality show gambit) thanks to a deal with Showtime Sports.
The promotion creates stars like Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson and poaches others like Alistair Overeem and FedorEmelianenko. They even put on the first truly massive fight in the history of women’s MMA, one that sees Gina Carano take a licking from Cyborg Justino (then Cyborg Santos).
Fans come to know and love the signature red, black and white. They know they’re going to get their money’s worth when they tune in.
Then, on an otherwise random night in March 2011 as the cool set in on the Nevada desert, Strikeforce as they know it is gone. Coker‘s vision is gone.
UFC president Dana White appears with the inimitable Ariel Helwani at his office in Las Vegas, humbly announcing his company’s acquisition of Strikeforce while sitting on a couch in a T-shirt.
Hardly the pomp and circumstance one would have expected from a merger many fans thought impossible even hours earlier.
Though “business as usual” is the phrase thrown around regularly and Strikeforce hangs around for nearly two years, it’s clear that business is quite unusual.
Coker is a sallow, sunken puppet. His quiet charm, a signature that made him the most powerful man in California martial arts, is muted. He’s toeing the company line and serving as the figurehead for his promotion, but the writing is on the wall.
Strikeforce died for real on January 12, 2013. Its final resting place is the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, where around 15,000 mourners could come to pay their final respects.
For the interest the event garners, it might as well be 15.
The road from that night to June 18, 2014 is a quiet one for Scott Coker. Part of the deal that saw Strikeforce absorbed into the UFC saw Coker make his way to the front office there, but he’s hardly ever heard from.
It seems an incredible waste of talent for a promotion bent on expanding globally to bury one of the best promoters in martial arts history in some mystery cubicle, but that’s what happens.
During that time a new contender emerges, one that was a seedling when Coker‘s Strikeforce was growing into a mighty tree on the sport’s landscape. Bellator MMA, a tournament-based concept from former boxing promoter Bjorn Rebney, has become pretty good at what it does and earned the financial backing of media giant Viacom for its efforts.
Except Viacom doesn’t much care for Rebney or his fixation on tournaments crowning contenders while champions sit on the sidelines and wait for them.
They want the property, not necessarily the man who conceived of it.
And so, after nearly three years of trying to run it with Rebney at the helm, they axe him. There’s a vacancy at the top, and it comes right after the promotion ran its first pay-per-view in relatively successful fashion.
They have big names on the roster like Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, and full-on crossover stars like Tito Ortiz and Rampage Jackson. There’s a foundation to work with there, progress to be made for a man who knows how to make it.
Scott Coker is a man who knows how to make it.
He’s been making it some way or another for nearly 30 years.
That fact isn’t lost on Viacom. Since he’s free to leave the UFC offices thanks to the expiration of a non-compete clause, they get him on the horn.
Vacancy filled.
So June 18, 2014 is the day.
That’s the day that Scott Coker‘s journey in martial arts begins anew. He’s announced as the new head of Bellator MMA and immediately gets back to what made he and his previous work so great.
He speaks of “Bellator 2.0” and how things will look a little different than they have. He deflects any line of questioning that could start a conflict in the media, instead opting for a quiet calm and a smooth confidence.
This is a guy who started in the game listening to Wham! and watching The Breakfast Club and hasn’t spoken much above a whisper since. And he’s been a success.
Can he be again? Only time will tell.
But it’s clear that, based on his career, a bet on Scott Coker is a pretty safe one.
For more on Scott Coker and the incredible rise and fall of Strikeforce, check out Bleacher Report’s own Jonathan Snowden’s oral history of the promotion: Part 1 and Part 2.
The rumors of Bjorn Rebney’s departure from Bellator MMA came true on Wednesday, June 18. Spike TV announced that Rebney would be removed as the CEO and chairman of the MMA promotion that he created. President and COO Tim Danaher was also removed from …
The rumors of Bjorn Rebney‘s departure from BellatorMMA came true on Wednesday, June 18. Spike TV announced that Rebney would be removed as the CEO and chairman of the MMA promotion that he created. President and COO Tim Danaher was also removed from his role. Before the news could settle, former Strikefoce CEO Scott Coker was installed as the new president of Bellator MMA. In one fell swoop Viacom made some interesting moves that will shake up the mixed martial arts industry.
Stories were swirling that the relationship between Rebney and the powers that be at Viacom were becoming strained. While he refuted the rumors that he would be fired from the position, Rebney could not save himself from the eventual dropping of the ax. Bellator MMA, widely considered to be the No. 2 promotion in MMA, was reaching a stalling point that began to hinder the promotion’s growth. Still, Rebney left the organization in positive spirits.
“It is with bittersweet emotions that I announce that I am leaving the company I founded,” Rebney stated through a press release. “Viacom and Tim and I differed in our views of the right strategic direction for Bellator, but Tim and I both wish them well.”
Under Rebney‘s close eye, the organization made a lot of growth in the sport of MMA but still struggled in particular areas. Viewership was often erratic and the promotion was unable to build a strong base of homegrown stars. To help change that issue it was announced that Scott Coker would be installed as the new leader of the promotion.
“We are excited to have Scott Coker lead us in a new direction as we evolve the league format from a tournament-based organization to a more traditional model with big fights,” said Spike TV President Kevin Kay via a press release.
Coker has long been a part of combat sports. He launched Strikeforce back in 1985 which would become a major name in mixed martial arts before being purchased by the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2011. He played a part in the development of some big-name stars such as Gilbert Melendez, Ronda Rousey and Luke Rockhold. He was even able to bring FedorEmelianenko and Alistair Overeem stateside.
“It feels good to be back. I’m excited to team up with Spike and Viacom, who played a very integral role in the success of mixed martial arts over the last decade.” Coker said as reported by TristenCritchfield of Sherdog. “I see a lot of potential in Bellator. I’m thrilled to have an opportunity to build a brand and take it to the level I think me and my team can.”
With that it seems that big changes are coming. First on the docket is the removal of the tournament system which is a long standing part of Bellator MMA. The tournament has helped create promotional stars such as Michael Chandler, Ben Askren and Pat Curran. At the same time it’s created matchup problems that haven’t allowed for the creation of bigger name fights.
“As we move forward, my plan is to evolve the league from the tournament format that we’ve all known to a more traditional format where the fans get to see the fights that they want – more of a super fight format,” Coker commented during a conference call.
This is an important move for Bellator to further establish itself as a brand. Their format of weekly cards kept a constant stream of MMA action but never featured a big enough helping of stars to draw attention to the events. Coker has found a way to build interest in fighters outside of the Octagon in the past so expect the same to occur here. With a roster full of potential, this new shakeup gives Bellator MMA a wealth of momentum to finish out 2014.
It’s 1985.
