Coker on why Bellator didn’t get fill-in to fight Fedor

[Wild]

Chael Sonnen was in the building and ready to fight. Tito Ortiz was there, too, making overtures on Twitter to come out of a short retirement. Muhammed Lawal was down to scrap.

There were some options available to fight Fedor Emelianenko at Bellator 172 on Saturday night in San Jose, Calif. Ultimately, Bellator could not make anything work in a small window of time and the card’s main event had to be scrapped.

On Saturday morning, Matt Mitrione, Emelianenko’s scheduled foe, had to go to the hospital due to a case of kidney stones. Things were up in the air until 3 p.m. local time, just minutes before fights started at the SAP Center. At that point, Coker said Bellator had no choice but to postpone Emelianenko’s promotional debut. If the planned main event was canceled, Bellator had to give fans who bought tickets time to get a refund, per California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) rule.

Sonnen was perhaps the most legitimate potential late-notice replacement, especially since he already has a CSAC license since he fought just last month, falling to Ortiz. But it just didn’t fit what Bellator wanted to do.

“We have other plans for Chael and it would have interfered in that,” Coker said at the post-fight press conference. “It just got complicated and then the timeframe. I feel like we ran out of time. We set a deadline internally. … We had an obligation to the consumer to let the know this fight was going to be off.”

Coker added that Emelianenko was not privy to any discussions about a potential new opponent like a Sonnen or an Ortiz. The MMA legend didn’t see too enthusiastic about that prospect anyway.

“It’s not really right to change the opponent just a few hours before the fight at such a short notice,” Emelianenko said through a translator. “That’s why my decision and the decision of Bellator was to postpone the fight.”

Scott Coker explains why Bellator did not get a last-second replacement to fight Fedor Emelianenko

 

[Tiiimmmaaayyy]

Coker knows what he's doing. Maybe it is better to postpone the fight instead of having someone else come in on short notice and take out the biggest draw. I would imagine that Elite XC wishes they had postponed Kimbo vs Shamrock instead of putting Seth P in on short notice.

 

[Mix6APlix]

Would any pansy ass commission ever sanction a replacement on such short notice?

 

[benjo0101]

Would any pansy ass commission ever sanction a replacement on such short notice?

This

 

[Mix6APlix]

Plus iirc Arlovski and Cabbage was a rebooking on less than 24 hours, and that turned out awesome.

 

[La Paix]

Love me some Bellator but you know you need immediate roster depth when you read this

Sonnen was perhaps the most legitimate potential late-notice replacement

 

[La Paix]

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQspW58jWoo/

 

[crowbar]

Love me some Bellator but you know you need immediate roster depth when you read this

Sonnen was perhaps the most legitimate potential late-notice replacement

Love me some Bellator but you know you need immediate roster depth when you read this

Sonnen was perhaps the most legitimate potential late-notice replacement

Birdwatcher has just trademarked the correct.

Don Frye was also there in attendance,and hell Carl Seumanutafa was sitting 3 rows down from me.

 

[RedDragonUK]

Feel sorry for Meathead that's a painful thing to have

 

[crowbar]

Birdwatcher has just trademarked the correct.

Don Frye was also there in attendance,and hell.... Carl Seumanutafa was sitting 3 rows down from me.

 

[Rambo John J]

Love me some Bellator but you know you need immediate roster depth when you read this

Sonnen was perhaps the most legitimate potential late-notice replacement

exactly
none of the 3 guys are a proper fight for Fedors first Bellator fight.
Meat brings heat and is finish or be finished

Chael being mentioned is ridiculous and any sensible fan knows it

 

[Haulport]

Kidney Stones are HORRENDOUS!!!!

And for those that don't know: the pain isn't that you have this LITERAL stone or SHARP crystal squeezing out of your pee hole, it is the non-stop WAVES of horrific spasms that grip your entire midsection. I have a bad back and the kidney stone pains feel like the worse back pain you can imagine!!!!

 

[TheEmperorRises]

exactly
none of the 3 guys are a proper fight for Fedors first Bellator fight.
Meat brings heat and is finish or be finished

Chael being mentioned is ridiculous and any sensible fan knows it

Any of them would have been fine- the problem was that they're saving Chael for Wanderlei, King Mo has Rampage lined up, and Tito has a fractured skull and possibly spinal cord.
And they've put a lot of $$$ into marketing Mitrione vs Fedor. Best to postpone it then to rush someone else in for nothing.

 

[La Paix]

Any of them would have been fine- the problem was that they're saving Chael for Wanderlei, King Mo has Rampage lined up, and Tito has a fractured skull and possibly spinal cord.
And they've put a lot of $$$ into marketing Mitrione vs Fedor. Best to postpone it then to rush someone else in for nothing.

All those lined up fight may be reason as well but Fedor has literally nothing to gain win or lose to Chael.

 

[TheEmperorRises]

All those lined up fight may be reason as well but Fedor has literally nothing to gain win or lose to Chael.

Exactly. Which is why I totally understand why it didn't happen.

 

[Chromium]

Would any pansy ass commission ever sanction a replacement on such short notice?

If it's someone on the same card, or who otherwise has been through medicals and licensing and then weighed in, and is considered Not a Mismatch, then sure. If it's a same-day replacement and not at HW, then the fight would almost certainly have to be a catchweight for the sake of hydration, but that's not an insurmountable obstacle and a moot point here. Of course, it would still be entirely fair for Fedor to turn down any replacements, seeing as he's been training for Matt Mitrione specifically.

 

[bully4me]

I understand and think any of the replacements mentioned were terrible ideas but there's a couple of things that bug me. If Meathead went to the hospital and was diagnosed with kidney stones at 3am in the morning, Bellator knew there was no chance he was going to fight. No commission would allow a fighter to step in the cage less than 24 hours after a trauma to the body like that. The one fighter I was surprised that wasn't mentioned to replace MM was (already Lic. and on the card was Kongo. Who I thought all along was placed on this card in case one of the two headliners got sidelined within a few weeks of the fight. Kongo was absolutely available, ready and had been training.

There's no way Kongo would of turned down this fight, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If he lost, no big deal it was to Fedor, if he won his stock and image would have gone way up. Kongo would have made more money too, there just wasn't a real down side for him. On the other hand it would have been the complete opposite for Fedor. If he took the fight and lost to a late replacement fighter it would have hurt his big comeback on the North American big stage. With the way his Strikeforce stint turned out a loss here would have most saying "Fedor's done". I do believe Fedor has the pride and is a warrior who'd of taken the fight if it was offered to him. His management on the other hand would be totally against it. With no time to prepare for a much bigger fighter who has a completely different skill set than Matt. Lets be honest at this point in Fedor's career his team is doing everything to protect Fedor's legacy as best they can.

Guess I feel that Coker and Bellator is trying to give reasons for no replacement. To me the only real option of a replacement they don't mention and that is the one I'm most interested in hearing the reason why Kongo wasn't offered the fight? It would have been a better option for the fans who payed a higher than usual ticket price to see The Last Emperor.

 

[Rambo John J]

I understand and think any of the replacements mentioned were terrible ideas but there's a couple of things that bug me. If Meathead went to the hospital and was diagnosed with kidney stones at 3am in the morning, Bellator knew there was no chance he was going to fight. No commission would allow a fighter to step in the cage less than 24 hours after a trauma to the body like that. The one fighter I was surprised that wasn't mentioned to replace MM was (already Lic. and on the card was Kongo. Who I thought all along was placed on this card in case one of the two headliners got sidelined within a few weeks of the fight. Kongo was absolutely available, ready and had been training.

There's no way Kongo would of turned down this fight, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain. If he lost, no big deal it was to Fedor, if he won his stock and image would have gone way up. Kongo would have made more money too, there just wasn't a real down side for him. On the other hand it would have been the complete opposite for Fedor. If he took the fight and lost to a late replacement fighter it would have hurt his big comeback on the North American big stage. With the way his Strikeforce stint turned out a loss here would have most saying "Fedor's done". I do believe Fedor has the pride and is a warrior who'd of taken the fight if it was offered to him. His management on the other hand would be totally against it. With no time to prepare for a much bigger fighter who has a completely different skill set than Matt. Lets be honest at this point in Fedor's career his team is doing everything to protect Fedor's legacy as best they can.

Guess I feel that Coker and Bellator is trying to give reasons for no replacement. To me the only real option of a replacement they don't mention and that is the one I'm most interested in hearing the reason why Kongo wasn't offered the fight? It would have been a better option for the fans who payed a higher than usual ticket price to see The Last Emperor.

Kongo would have tried to grind out another decision....He is not exciting at all anymore...7 of last 9 fights went to the judges and they were all boring
Would have been as boring as not seeing fedor fight at all...IMO

Matt Meats last 10 fights haven't seen the judges and that is why they booked him

All fans deserve some sort of compensation IMO

 

[wiz]

I just hope Matt heals up and they get to fight, sooner than June though

 

[BeardOfKnowledge]

Then why, Mr Coker, did the broadcast open with the announcer saying that Fedor had been offered multiple replacements by Bellator all of whom were turned down?

 

[Papi Chingon]

Love me some Bellator but you know you need immediate roster depth when you read this

Sonnen was perhaps the most legitimate potential late-notice replacement

You need to take that that into context. They have several hours to find a replacement and they are in halifax. He wasn't saying they couldn't do better in different circumstances.

 

[dacofty]

Kidney Stones are HORRENDOUS!!!!

And for those that don't know: the pain isn't that you have this LITERAL stone or SHARP crystal squeezing out of your pee hole, it is the non-stop WAVES of horrific spasms that grip your entire midsection. I have a bad back and the kidney stone pains feel like the worse back pain you can imagine!!!!

Yes i can attest to this pain. But im allittle suspect at Mitrone having kidney stones. Why didnt he post a picture of the stone and strainer. 4mm isnt small.

 

[bully4me]

You need to take that that into context. They have several hours to find a replacement and they are in halifax. He wasn't saying they couldn't do better in different circumstances.

You got your cards mixed up, was the UFC in Halifax. Bellator was in San Jose. Can't get much better place to find a replacement fighter as far as location goes than California. You've got some of the biggest Gyms in the country within a hour or two flight. But come on, if Matt was known to have kidney stones at 3am there was NO WAY he'd be fighting that night. Saying that they didn't know till 3PM is just silly.