Bellator president Scott Coker admits he might not want to risk losing one of the most eagerly anticipated fights he could book in 2021.
Bellator recently signed explosive powerhouses Anthony Johnson (22-6) and Yoel Romero (13-5), who have a combined 27 knockouts on their resumes, to multifight contracts. Both men have arrived on Coker’s roster ready to compete at light heavyweight, and the prospect of the pair facing off inside the Bellator cage has already generated plenty of interest online.
While there’s risk in killing either fighter’s momentum if they’re matched up right off the bat, Coker understands that the window of opportunity to make that fight happen might not be that large.
“We just threw out a lot of hypotheticals but, let’s just face it, that’s the fight the fans want to see,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “And my philosophy has always been if the fight is there and you can make the fight, you always make the fight because there’s no guarantee that fight is gonna be there in six months or a year. It just seems like that fight has a lot of heat on it, and I’m not saying it’s gonna happen, but we’ll definitely have a serious conversation about it at some point.”
With two strong additions to Bellator’s already stacked light heavyweight roster, the fight could end up taking place as part of a grand prix, which Coker admits the promotion is considering.
“It would be quite a tournament, and that’s something that’s under consideration,” Coker said. “Originally, we were thinking about the 135 (division), with the addition of Magomed Magomedov, and we still have (Juan) Archuleta out there. We were gonna invite (Kyoji) Horiguchi to fight, or (Kai) Asakura, whoever wins the (fight) in Japan, to come and enter this tournament.
“We talked about the women’s division – we still have some great talent there – and now we’re talking about the 205 (division). It’s definitely in the conversation, but we just haven’t decided. But that’s something we’ll figure out in the next 20 days, and we’ll be locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Scott Coker says Anthony Johnson vs. Yoel Romero ‘has a lot of heat,’ discusses 205-pound grand prix