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Saturday, Oct 21, 2017

Scott Coker Says Bellator’s “Going to be a Tough Going for Everybody”, Following Gegard Mousasi’s Debut

Mousasi attacking Shlemenko (right) (photo via Bellator)

By FCF Staff

Following Gegard Mousasi’s close and controversial decision win in his Bellator debut, Scott Coker is reminding observers that the promotion’s not short on talent.

Mousasi battled former middleweight champ Alexander Shlemenko at Bellator 185, in what was the decorated fighter’s promotional debut. Although Mousasi won the bout via unanimous decision, it appears that a lot of people believe Shlemenko could have received the nod.

After the event, Coker had this to say about contest (quote via MMA Junkie):

“Here’s how I feel about it: When I owned Strikeforce and we were doing fights back in the day, we had some of the best fighters on the planet, and it was like, ‘Well, the UFC guys are better than the Strikeforce guys,’” Coker said. “Then look what happened. Tyron Woodley, Luke Rockhold, Daniel Cormier – those are all (Strikeforce) guys. It’s just that people when they come over here feel it should be easy, but Shlemenko is a guy that had 55, 60 fights. That’s going to be a guy that’s dangerous.

“To me, I think the people that have come over here from other leagues, they’ve had a hard time. I just say, ‘Hey, welcome to Bellator. This is going to be a tough going for everybody.’”

Mousasi was competing for the first time since April, when he stopped Chris Weidman at UFC 210.

 

posted by FCF Staff @ 12:11 pm
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