Scott Coker is one of the most respected promoters in the fight game. His Strikeforce bred some of the greatest fighters in the sport, and current UFC champions such as Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold and Fabricio Werdum all fought for Coker. Someone like Dana White, who is extremely vocal about people who question his methods, or try to go against UFC holds Coker in high regards.
Perhaps, it is a testament to how Scott has changed the fight game that no one has anything bad to say about the former Strikeforce head honcho.
When Bellator brought Coker in place of the former CEO and Chairman Bjorn Rebney, many saw this as a step in the right direction. Bellator was going nowhere under Bjorn, and who better to replace him than the man who, for the greater good of the sport, formed alliances with Dream and M – 1 Global for co – promotion and fighter exchanges?
The fans got to witness dream fights which, till that point, were just hypothetical. Scott Coker managed to build a system which not only brought some of the most talented fighters in the world under one roof but also led to the evolution of the sport.
Talking about promoters who changed the sport, Nobuyuki Sakakibara’s name will feature right at the top. The co-founder of Pride FC has already left a legacy which is hard to topple, and in the ten years Pride functioned, the promotion changed the face of MMA. Sakakibara and Pride captured the imagination of a nation, while bringing in some of the biggest names in the sport.
Much like Coker, Sakakibara had a vision – the ever evolving nature of MMA and the formats of the fights were given more emphasis, while the promotion almost always delivered when it came to the fights.
Similar to the positive feedback Coker’s appointment as Bellator’s President received, when Sakakibara announced his plans of starting a new promotion – Rizin FF, the MMA world reacted with glee. Both men who unearthed some of the greatest fighters the sport has ever seen were back in business, and while it meant that they were going to compete with the UFC sooner or later, the fighters and the fans believed that it would be what is needed for MMA today.
The fans no longer had to complain about UFC monopolizing the North American market, while Bellator started its steady expansion.
A testament to Coker’s vision has been the recent acquisition of Benson Henderson, as well as working out the differences between the promotion and “Rampage” Jackson’s team. Bellator MMA has a wealth of talent, and Coker has recently revealed that he would be bringing in more top talent, and would shell large amounts of Benjamins to ensure the growth of Bellator as a promotion.
Sakakibara too, with the NYE show of Rizin FF, guaranteed to bring fights which the MMA fans around the world wanted to see – including the return of “The Last Emperor”, and arguably the greatest fighter that ever lived, Fedor Emelianenko.
However, along the way, to the naked eye, it almost seems like Coker and Sakakibara have lost the plot. In order to put on entertaining fights, Coker and Sakakibara have compromised the integrity of the sport.
While the MMA fraternity has always tried to defend the sport, and ensured that the difference between MMA and professional wrestling is known to the common folk, Rizin’s NYE show and the recent Bellator 149 have given them another chance to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better defense.
A lot of people thought the NYE show was Sakakibara’s attempt to bring the eyeballs to his new product. Pride was considered to be a mix of some technical masterpiece and bizarre, circus-like showdowns. Sakakibara brought in Gabi Garcia to take on Lei’d Tapa – a mismatch of, quite literally, monstrous proportions. Also, Akebono faced off against Bob Sapp, and Fedor took on Singh Jaideep.
As expected, the fights were more or less sloppy, disoriented slugfests with no real winners. Garcia manhandled Tapa; Sapp, to the dismay of every true MMA fan won a fight, and Fedor proved that a kickboxer with no real pedigree or ground game could never take on an MMA legend, even if he has been out of action for years.
So why am I recollecting the strange, freak show fights that Sakakibara put on? Scott Coker, with all the talent available at his disposal, made Kimbo Slice – Dada 5000 as the co – main event of Bellator 149, and Ken Shamrock – Royce Gracie III in the main event. For any fighter who has sacrificed years honing his craft, learning and growing as a fighter and understanding the never ending techniques of the fight game, this was almost a mockery of the sport.
Slice and Dada gassed out in the first 3 minutes, putting on one of the worst performances in MMA history, while Ken and Gracie’s fight ended in controversy.
Ken-Gracie III should’ve never happened. With a combined age of more than 100, and with both men way, way past their prime, this looked more like an exhibition card meant to humor the fans. However, this wasn’t an exhibition card; more than 20 years after Ken and Gracie fought for the second time, the duo once again faced off inside a cage.
Needless to say, this sent the MMA fraternity into frenzy, but not the kind you would expect as an MMA fan.
Scott Coker and Sakakibara did a world of good for the sport, but it is perplexing to see how these promoters have shied away from exciting fights, only to enter the much despised and chastised world of entertainment.
Yes, entertainment is important in the fight game, but should it compromise the integrity of the sport? The answer to that is just as complicated as understanding the intentions behind putting Dada 5000 in the co – main event, of the second largest MMA organization in the world.
