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Scott Coker says he’ll continue to work with DREAM despite their money troubles
By Zach Arnold | October 11, 2010
Danny Acosta did a good job with this interview. Watch it for the full context, but some bullet points:
- Talked about getting a new Strikeforce logo and that it looks cleaner than their original logo.
- When discussing 2011 TV plans, he said they were working on ‘multiple television properties’ and when asked if a reality show was one of them, he said ‘absolutely.’
- Scott says that while Nick Diaz vs. Mayhem Miller isn’t a #1 priority fight, it is a fight ‘that should happen’ and that he will sit down with Diaz in a couple of weeks and see what he can work out regarding any issues about the weight disparity between the two fighters. (Diaz fights at 155 and 170, Mayhem at 185.)
- Josh Thomson wants to fight in St. Louis in two months, but Scott says he has a broken hand and it’s unlikely going to happen.
- Danny asks Scott about JZ Calvan (Gesias Cavalcante) saying that DREAM stiffed him on money. This is not a new phenomena amongst foreign fighters complaining about not getting by DREAM. Danny asked Scott if Strikeforce will continue to work with DREAM amidst these problems and Scott said that every fighter Strikeforce has sent over to DREAM has been paid. When pressed on whether or not he would stop working with DREAM due to DREAM not paying fighters, Coker side-stepped the issue and indicated he wouldn’t comment on that. When asked if he will continue working with DREAM he said, “Oh, absolutely.” He further backed DREAM by saying that “they’re the best organization in Japan and we’re going to support them as much as we can.” Scott noted that he would like to bring Tatsuya Kawajiri to the States to fight in Strikeforce against either Josh Thomson or JZ.
- Regarding all the heavyweights under the Strikeforce banner in 2011, Scott promised that they will all fight each other. When asked about Fedor being in that mix he responded, “For how long, we’ll see.”
Topics: DREAM, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 13 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I don’t know the particulars of the DREAM agreement, but as has been noted by Zach, Strikeforce has done a mostly terrible job of promoting the concept of USA vs. Japan and of promoting the individual DREAM fighters as exotic talent. If they couldn’t show us what a dangerous and unique fighter Shinya Aoki was, if they couldn’t burn the image in fan’s minds of him breaking Hirota’s arm and flipping off the crowd, then how are they going to do anything with Kawajiri?
Anybody know if Strikeforce gets any traction in the Japanese market with these fights?
Ed. — Very little traction.
“Diaz fights at 155 and 170”
Diaz has never fought at 155. His “lightweight” fights in EliteXC were all at 160, and the last time he actually fought at that weight was two years ago. In the intervening time he’s fought at 180 almost as often as 170.
Coker continually shows what an internet mark he is.
Who exactly is clamoring to see Kawajiri vs Thompson? And why?
The only thing he says that makes sense is that he’s thinking of getting rid of that tramp-stamp looking logo.
I can’t stand Mayhem and wish he’d just go away. But him vs Diaz is possibly the only marketable fight these guys can make. Why isn’t that the #1 priority? Is marking out of Kawajiri and JZ Calvan (another internet mark favorite) a higher priority?
I’m not clamoring for Kawajiri/Thompson, but if he is willing to run it, I’ll watch. I’m not here to pretend that I’m smarter than anyone by saying “I don’t want to see that good competitive fight that’s not on PPV – it won’t draw!”.
I’d rather see some exciting guys that are up and comers is my point.
Coker’s acting like this is the stuff fans want to see. That’s how he ends up with these disjointed shows that have one good fight each if you’re lucky.
They don’t have those guys, so a couple guys I kinda care about fighting for free? OK. Same thing with UFC 120. Condit/Daley doesn’t mean anything really and both guys hit their ceilings. I’ll still watch it because it doesn’t cost me
shit.Nick Diaz wasn’t paid for months for one of his DREAM fights. So yes, technically he was finally paid…. but one of “his fighters” had a problem with DREAM and the fact that he basically just avoids the question is extremely telling of his care for fighters.
No honest promoter would work with an organization who does what DREAM does. Not paying fighters is one of the worst things a promoter can do. There should be a zero tolerance policy for it.
Agreed. Guys need to be paid that night with no BS.
What a bleeding heart you have. I’m sure you felt similarly angry towards the UFC when Dana cut Lindland to avoid paying him 6 figures/fight just for wearing a hat.
Come on man, that’s such a BS run around argument. They didn’t stiff him for any fights. They cut him because he was demanding a title shot, and they didn’t want to risk him as their champion because Lindland was one of the most boring guys in the world from like 02-05 when he started to finish a few people.
Still there’s a world of difference between cutting a fighter to avoid paying a salary and having them fight for you and THEN not paying them. Like, a HUGE difference.
this is true, but the co-promotion deal is a pretty good thing for the dream fighters that come here to fight. not only do they get exposure in america but they get paid. it’s not like strikeforce is really sending anybody over there anyway, unless you count diaz and moussasi. i’ll be curious to see if melendez actually ends up on the new year’s show.
No one should really be surprised about DREAM doing this, fighters have been saying promoters in Japan have been doing this to them for years. Guy Mezger talks about it lot.