Bellator MMA president Scott Coker was riding high following his
promotion’s 5-0 victory in its head-to-head matchup against Rizin
Fighting Federation on New Year’s Eve.
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“I always said my wish was to go 5-0, and I’m happy that my guys
won, but to me, it was very competitive out there,” Coker said at
the Rizin 40 post-fight press conference. “That last fight,
[Roberto] de Souza when he was fighting A.J. [McKee], there were a
couple of times I thought he might get tapped.
“It was very stressful to watch that last fight. It was very back
and forth. I’m glad A.J. did what he had to do to win. But anything
can happen in a fight in MMA. It was an entertaining night of
fights.”
A.J.
McKee closed the show for Bellator with a unanimous decision
against de Souza, Rizin’s lightweight champion, in the evening’s
main event at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Patricio
Freire, Kyoji
Horiguchi, Juan
Archuleta and Gadzhi
Rabadanov also earned victories for the California-based
promotion on New Year’s Eve.
“For our fighters to come here to compete in a different apparatus,
different rules, different environment, different timeframe, I’m
proud of them because it’s not an easy thing to do,” Coker said.
“These guys got here 10 days ago, before Christmastime, and they
said, ‘We’re going to give up our Christmas, we’re going to come to
Japan early,’ and they’ve been training here the last 10 days. They
did it properly.
“I told them, ‘Look, don’t take these fighters lightly because
they’re very good.’ I think they took that to heart and they did
what they had to do.”
While Coker was impressed with the performance of the Rizin
athletes in defeat — every bout went the distance — he was even
more proud of the talent that has been assembled under the Bellator
banner.
“It just shows you how much the Rizin fighters to me have grown in
the last five, six years,” Coker said. “I see a big growth spur.
Keep in mind, when you talk about the Bellator athletes, and I’m
not just saying this because you know it’s the company I run, but
over the last six, seven years, this is the best roster we’ve ever
had in the history of the company. …
“If you go all the way down the weight classes, we not just have
fighters that can compete in the UFC, but we have fighters at three
or four in each weight class that can compete against any company
on the planet. We have a very strong, strong fighter base right
now.”