Bellator quer contratar Brock Lesnar
Enviado: 02 Dez 2014 13:10
Since taking over Bellator MMA back in June, Scott Coker has been pushing all the right buttons as the newly-appointed president after taking the reigns from Bjorn Rebney.
Aside from changing up the production of events and cleaning house, Coker has signed numerous fighters to his ever-growing roster, including Paul Daley, Melvin Manhoef, Stephan Bonnar and Joe Schilling, just to name a few.
But all of those moves would pale in comparison if he manages to pull off his biggest deal yet, signing former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Appearing on The MMA Hour, Coker revealed that he is always looking for talent, and if Lesnar is willing to listen, then he would love nothing more than to have a conversation with him about joining the Viacom-owned company.
His comments (via MMA Fighting):
"That's a good question. We've had a conversation internally and it's worth a conversation, but that's something we'll pursue maybe later into January or maybe February. But I would say, look, any fighter that's out there or any star athlete; not star athlete in the sense of a baseball player, but like a Brock Lesnar, or somebody that really wants to fight, we're going to have a conversation with them. Because if they can move the needle, we're going to want them on Spike TV. I think that he's a big needle mover. There have been several years that have passed and I think that he still has the WWE limelight. So, I think that he still has a lot of, you know, star power, but to come back and say, 'Hey, I want to train, I want to commit, I want fight', that's going to be a big commitment on his part. We haven't had a conversation yet, but we'd like to at some point."
According to UFC President Dana White, though, Bellator doesn't have the challenges a superstar and former champion like Lesnar is looking for. So the chances of him jumping ship are slim to none.
Of course, you can bet your bottom dollar Coker would use all of the resources afforded to him by Viacom to obtain the talent to challenge the former heavyweight champion.
For now, Lesnar is still employed by WWE, but he has shown some interest in returning to the MMA cage once his contract expires.
Should Coker and Co. be able to do the unthinkable and somehow convince Lesnar to join Bellator and not UFC, one can only imagine what kind of numbers the 265-pound beast will pull in if guys like Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar raked in a couple million viewers.
Crazy talk?
Aside from changing up the production of events and cleaning house, Coker has signed numerous fighters to his ever-growing roster, including Paul Daley, Melvin Manhoef, Stephan Bonnar and Joe Schilling, just to name a few.
But all of those moves would pale in comparison if he manages to pull off his biggest deal yet, signing former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar.
Appearing on The MMA Hour, Coker revealed that he is always looking for talent, and if Lesnar is willing to listen, then he would love nothing more than to have a conversation with him about joining the Viacom-owned company.
His comments (via MMA Fighting):
"That's a good question. We've had a conversation internally and it's worth a conversation, but that's something we'll pursue maybe later into January or maybe February. But I would say, look, any fighter that's out there or any star athlete; not star athlete in the sense of a baseball player, but like a Brock Lesnar, or somebody that really wants to fight, we're going to have a conversation with them. Because if they can move the needle, we're going to want them on Spike TV. I think that he's a big needle mover. There have been several years that have passed and I think that he still has the WWE limelight. So, I think that he still has a lot of, you know, star power, but to come back and say, 'Hey, I want to train, I want to commit, I want fight', that's going to be a big commitment on his part. We haven't had a conversation yet, but we'd like to at some point."
According to UFC President Dana White, though, Bellator doesn't have the challenges a superstar and former champion like Lesnar is looking for. So the chances of him jumping ship are slim to none.
Of course, you can bet your bottom dollar Coker would use all of the resources afforded to him by Viacom to obtain the talent to challenge the former heavyweight champion.
For now, Lesnar is still employed by WWE, but he has shown some interest in returning to the MMA cage once his contract expires.
Should Coker and Co. be able to do the unthinkable and somehow convince Lesnar to join Bellator and not UFC, one can only imagine what kind of numbers the 265-pound beast will pull in if guys like Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar raked in a couple million viewers.
Crazy talk?