SHARE

MMA Plus caught up with Bellator CEO Scott Coker for the first part of an EXCLUSIVE 2-part chat about the promotions plans for 2017, their continued drive to dip into the free agents market and the chances of a potential Dynamite card being held in London in the near future.

With the United Kingdom being one of the worlds hotbeds for Muay Thai and Kickboxing the nations capital has long been rumoured as a potential future destination for the promotions famed Dynamite series, something that hasn’t escaped Bellators head honchos attention.

“We’ve already put on a successful MMA event at the o2 Arena last July and moving into kickboxing has been a good bit of business for us. We are signing fighters we want to build but it is going to take time to build them. So far we’ve done most of our cards in Europe but in 2017 I think we will do at least one show in the United States and the other 3 in Europe, with one possibly being held in London.”

“We are scheduled to do a couple fights in Italy and Budapest (Hungary) during the first half of next year, so if we do something in London it will probably be 3rd or 4th quarter of 2017. I know kickboxing has a terrific fanbase there and the talent in the UK is some of the best in the world so its defiantly possible. One of the shows I really love promoting is our Dynamite shows where we set up the ring and the cage together. I really love that format and I think it will go down really well in the UK.”

Recently a number of well documented foray’s into the free agency market has seen the Viacom owned promotion successfully prize the likes of Benson Henderson, Rory MacDonald and Chael Sonnen from the Ultimate Fighting Championships grasp during the course of 2016.

With the dust now settled on those deals, Coker now has his sights set on the potential signing of No.7 ranked UFC welterweight Lorenz Larkin (18-5-1), who he worked with during his time as Strikeforce CEO and who’s last fight under contract with the Las Vegas based promotions umbrella came at UFC 202 when he defeated Neil Magny via 1st round TKO.

“I think our guys are talking to him but I think we are a little bit apart on the money and thats the hold up of why Lorenz hasn’t signed with us yet. I think its just a financial thing at the moment, but I’m going to look into it a bit more and see if I can help negotiations along, but I would love to him here. I think his fighting style would be fantastic in Bellator and I think he could kick box as well as compete in MMA, I think he has the style to do both.”

“I’ve been following him while he has been fighting in the UFC and I’ve been very impressed so hopefully we’ll be able to come to a deal and he’ll come and fight over here at Bellator.”

Scott Coker also caught up with the Plus Media produced Combat and Strength Podcast (interview begins at 0:09:54 mark) where he talked about Bellator 165, Michael “Venom” Page’s performance and the signing of mixed martial arts legend Fedor Emelianenko. For the audio version of the podcast please click HERE.