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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – Who is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time? Bellator President Scott Coker believes that there is only one good answer.
After a preparatory press conference at Bellator 225 on Thursday, Coker spoke with MMA Junkie about the current Free Cyborg Cree agent. The former UFC featherweight champion was released from the promotion earlier this month following a public dispute with UFC President Dana White.
According to Coker, Bellator has reportedly recently engaged in discussions with Cyborg (21-2) and his manager, Audie Attar. Coker said Bellator would like to have Cyborg on the list, but he knows his team is looking at several options. For Coker, the biggest obstacle to acquiring free agents is to confirm that they are well outside their contracts. In this case, Coker stated that he was able to check Cyborg's departure.
"We have been talking to Audie (Attar) since we received his official letter of his release (by the UFC)," said Coker. "Sometimes the fighters – without going into details – say," Oh, I'm a free agent. "And then it turns out they're not really free agents.
"So we try to make sure everything is in order. (Because otherwise,) then you get the lawsuits. At the end of the day, we want to make sure they are really free, and if they are, we will have a conversation. We're talking to Audie and I'm sure he's talking to two or three people to try to negotiate an agreement for Cyborg. "
If Cyborg signed with Bellator, it would not be the first time she would fight under Coker. The two men worked together during the reign of Cyborg, before the UFC, as Strikeforce champion. Having seen Cyborg in direct competition, Coker is ready to call him the biggest of the three.
"Let's face it," says Coker. "I do not care what anyone says. I'm talking about the female divisions that Strikeforce essentially created in mixed martial arts whereas no one would, it's the GOAT of the MMA – period. "
Last October, Cyborg lost to Amanda Nunes, via TKO, to end a series of 20 undefeated bouts that lasted 13 years, but Coker does not believe the defeat undermines Cyborg's status when it looks at through a historical lens. When thinking about his career as a whole, especially in his mid-twenties, Coker sees no other acceptable answer if one assigns GOAT status to a fighter.
"What I feel is that it's what I feel because you beat Mohammed Ali." "I saw her fight when she was 24, 25, 26 years old. These are years that Cyborg has fought for me and she was only a beast. I wish we could rewind these tapes and check them out because she is a murderer. She is still a killer. But for me to say that she is not the best of all time and that the other is? It's ridiculous. "
The Bellator 225 will be held Saturday at the Webster Bank Arena. The main card is broadcast on Paramount and airs on DAZN after the preliminary games on MMA Junkie.
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