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Full interview transcript: Scott Coker talks about Strikeforce matchmaking, this Saturday’s St. Louis event, the problems with M-1, booking UFC castoffs, re-signing Jake Shields, and Kimbo Slice
By Zach Arnold | May 11, 2010
Editor’s note: I would highly advise any rational person against transcribing a 24 minute radio interview unless you are getting paid a lot of money. However, this is my job and this interview that Scott Coker did with Sherdog radio was very newsworthy in a lot of respects. I hope you find some informational value in this transcript. If you really love what we’re doing, give us a donation for the web site. Thank you.
Comparing the Paul Daley situation in Montreal to what happened at the Strikeforce show in Nashville.
“Well here’s the situation is that you know and this is probably the first call that I received about it and you referenced back to Nashville, I think that people have kind of already moved on. So that’s been the overall consensus and unfortunately, you know, the situation that happened, I had heard about it, someone had texted me about it, but I was on a flight so I missed the show and I didn’t see exactly what happened but I heard that there was like a sucker punch, you know, way way after the bell and you know that’s not good for the sport and you know we got to get past that with these athletes because it’s just unsuccessful.”
Was UFC cutting Paul Daley the right move? Why didn’t that happen in Strikeforce? Was Daley getting the axe due to what happened on CBS?
“You know, that’s a good question and you know, I mean, you know, who really knows. I think that there’s probably some influence, but you know, I’m not the UFC and you know they run their business the way they run it and you know I have no idea what thought process went into it but I’m sure it had some influence on what happened you know the week before or two weeks before.”
Isn’t there a double standard in UFC in that they fired Daley but they are pro-actively wanting to sign Jake Shields, someone who was involved in the Nashville brawl?
“Nate (Diaz) was over there doing his thing too and there’s no penalty for Nate. But you know I’m sure when cooler heads prevail you know they’ll be able to work something out with Paul but I’m sure if Paul will be on some type of heavy suspension from the commission up in Canada. I don’t’ imagine Paul being able to fight any time soon.”
Would Strikeforce be interested in bringing in Paul Daley?
“You know I tell you, you know, I’m sure we’ll get a call and you know but let’s see what happens, I mean I think you who knows, he’s going to be on suspension for I bet you 4 to 6 months, he’s going to be, he’s not going to be able to fight. I just think that, and again I didn’t see the tape guys, so I really don’t know, but everything that I’m hearing and what my friends are telling me that it was a you know, a blatant serious offense and I don’t think the temperature for that action, for that type of you know reaction from a fighter or that kind of behavior from a fighter is going to be accepted, it’s just not acceptable.”
Is there an update on what the Tennessee athletic commission will do for fighter punishment after the Nashville brawl?
“You know what, they have had you know they sent out the letters to all the people that they’re basically going to have issues with and you know they’re going to have a hearing, I think it’s this week coming up and they’re going to decide some suspensions and some fines and they’re going to go out and they’re going to go levy them and the fighters will have an opportunity to appeal it and try to go before a commission hearing so they’re going to have you know their opportunity to say or you know to be heard, but from what I hear it’s still going to be another 30-to-45 day process.”
This weekend’s big show in St. Louis, Missouri with Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers for the Strikeforce Heavyweight title.
Why does the Alistair Overeem vs. Brett Rogers fight booking make sense?
“I tell you, you know what, Alistair being gone was an issue of scheduling because as you know he fights for K-1 as well, he fights for DREAM, and when we signed him to a contract because we have a direct relationship with Alistair and before we were just borrowing him from PRIDE when PRIDE was in still business, so we were borrowing him from DREAM, but now we have a direct relationship. He was scheduled to fight, he got injured, and so it didn’t work out but you know last year after Brett Rogers fought Andrei Arlovski in St. Louis last June and he had knocked out Andrei Arlovski, the fight we were trying to put together back then was Brett Rogers to fight Alistair Overeem and that was a title fight, everybody was for it, and all the fans were for this. This is a great, here’s a guy who is 10-0 and he should fight your champion now, and it was acceptable then. So Alistair gets hurt, he’s out, we put Brett Rogers in to fight Fedor and you know he lasted longer than anybody that I’ve seen probably in the last five years, last with Fedor, and then you know he loses and I think that’s you know to me we have no problems putting that fight together. Here’s a guy that was 10-0, on his way to fight Alistair, Alistair gets hurt, he fights Fedor, so why should he be penalized because you know Alistair got hurt, he fights Fedor, and it didn’t work out? I mean I was sitting right there at cage side watching Fedor’s head bounce off that canvas going, ‘I think Brett Roger’s going to knock this guy out,’ I mean I thought he was really close to finishing that fight. Definitely won the first round, in my opinion, and then he got caught. To me, we’re bringing the fight back you know to when after he beat Andrei Arlovski and we’re going to put the fight together back then, so you know we feel good about it and I think Brett deserves that shot and you know it’s nice to have Alistair back. Here’s a guy that’s you know a threat especially when you look at Mixed Martial Arts, he’s got it all. He’s got the stand-up, he’s the ground, and you know let’s check this guy out. I’m telling you, he’s going to be impressive and I’m looking forward for the US fans to finally get to see Alistair fight.”
Will Fedor fight for a Strikeforce title or is he on a per-fight basis?
“Let’s talk about that because you know it’s just a matter of timing because while we’re going through the M-1 negotiaton, I couldn’t just wait and wait and wait and not have Alistair fight and not have Brett fight, you know, it wouldn’t be fair to them. So that fight was put together before we all got back on the same page with M-1. If we would have gotten back on the same page with M-1, maybe it would have been a different fight. Maybe Alistair would have waited until June to fight and Fabricio could have fought Brett Rogers. But you know keep in mind Fabricio Werdum is a guy that beat Alistair in the past so you know he’s got a great career and we’re happy with that fight as well, but the timing of these two guys getting together fighting each other is because of you know of the hiccups and little you know the bumps we had with M-1 trying to get back on the same page so it’s more of a timing issue but I can tell you this — I know Fedor’s afraid to fight no man on this planet and you know he will fight anybody and you know when you talk about Alistair fighting Fedor, if those two guys end up winning and I think if Alistair keeps his aggressive style of wanting to fight Fedor, I think eventually M-1 and I will sit down and try to put that fight together. Can I guarantee it will happen? No, but I tell you what, we’ll do our best to bring that to the fans because that’s a fight I think fans would want to see.”
How is the relationship between Strikeforce and M-1 and was it on a difficult road due to crazy demands? What was the problem and how was it resolved?
“Well you know what, I can’t get into the details obviously because you know of the contractual you know non-disclosure and things like that, but you know we did the fight in November and you know they weren’t happy with some of the things that went down and so you know we worked towards fixing that to where it was equitable on both sides, I think we finally got to that point and then shortly thereafter we announced the Fedor fight, but you know, I don’t want to get into the details. I’m just glad, my position is that I’m just glad that we got through it and you know Fedor’s back fighting and I think that’s the important thing. You know here’s a fighter that’s the greatest fighter in Mixed Martial Arts history, you know, being able to fight and you know back in the cage, back fighting on a co-promotion with M-1 Global and Strikeforce and fighting Fabricio Werdum in San Jose, you know, that’s what’s should be happening and you know all the other stuff and all the politics and all the business arrangements and all the hiccups of business I mean, you know, to me at the end of the day you know we want to see him fight and that’s where we’re at so I’m happy.”
Jacare Souza is your big upcoming star in the Middleweight division. Why is he going to be an important part of the company’s future?
“Boy I tell you, you know we had the opportunity to see him fight live, I saw his fights in DREAM and I heard about him and I saw him fight in DREAM and I was like, wow, this guy is really good because it’s not just the type of jiu-jitsu where it’s like a lay-and-pray, try to control, he’s trying to surf you, trying to you know get the you know the boring victory by just riding a guy out, you know, and you know you see that a lot with you know not just jiu-jitsu but sometimes wrestlers who do that, who just try to control you. But to me here’s a guy that has decent stand-up now and I heard he’s even better than he was in December and now and when you look at his jiu-jitsu style it’s a style to me that’s a little different in the sense that he’s always advancing, trying to advance his position and going for the submission and aggressively trying to improve his position and aggressively trying to submit, so you know it’s a very exciting style that he’s bringing to the table and you know to fight Joey (Villasenor) who is an amazing striker and has been around for a long time and you know knows all the tricks in the book you know I think it’s going to be a fantastic fight.”
How do you find the balance between bringing in free agents, developing talent, and making sure that people don’t see your league as one that just brings in UFC castoffs?
“Well, I can tell you this — we’re not trying to piggyback on anybody’s you know party here, but when you look at our roster I think we’ve built a good roster of fighters that don’t fight in UFC or have never fought in UFC and what I mean by that is look at not just Jacare, Gegard Mousasi, King Mo, when you look at the new guys coming up like the Luke Rockholds, the Tyrone Woodleys, and the UFC doesn’t have a female division but we’ve had the popularity of Gina and Cris(tina) Cyborg, I mean we’ve had a lot of fighters, Alistair Overeem is another one that hasn’t fought in the UFC, so we have a lot of fighters, a lot more than people you know would think that have never fought in the UFC and I can tell you this, Dan Henderson when he was available of course you’re going to go for a guy like Dan, but let’s be real — Dan didn’t come from UFC, Dan has been fighting in RINGS way before PRIDE, went to PRIDE, you know, PRIDE got bought by UFC and ended up in UFC and now you know he’s fighting for us, so you know to be fair those guys like Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, Shogun, and etc. they didn’t start in the UFC, they started with PRIDE and so you know there were leagues you know that had great fighters and not just the UFC.”
You mentioned the concept of ‘trading’ talent back and forth between organizations in the future. What did you mean by that?
“Well what I mean by trading is you know every league can only carry so many athletes and now that you know the fighters know that there’s going to be an alternative for them, you know to go shop their wares you know they’re going to you know to me it’s like free agency in football. When a fighter becomes a free agent then he’s going to want to come to us and have a conversation and you know hope that a bidding war kind of goes back and forth and you know I think we’ve proven you know especially with Fedor that, look, the fighters you know that our important to develop our league and grow in importance to Showtime and CBS you know we’re going to keep those fighters and we’ve proven that we can you know stay in the game at the highest level with these athletes because believe me Fedor is not a cheap fighter.”
“Dan’s worth it, I mean here’s a guy who’s done it all and like I said even before UFC when he was with PRIDE, one of the most exciting fights that I’ve seen with Dan it wasn’t the Bisping fight, which I thought was fantastic, but it was the fight where he fought Wanderlei Silva in PRIDE in the second PRIDE in Las Vegas or the first PRIDE in Vegas, to me that was an amazing fight and you know I’ve seen Dan in some great wars and you know when we had the opportunity to grab him you know we did and you know and it didn’t work out with Jake, I mean he lost to Jake Shields and you know it is what it is but you know we still have a lot of hopes for Dan.”
What do you do with Jake Shields? Can you re-sign him? What do you think the outcome will be? Is he talking with UFC?
(Coker laughing in background) “Well, are you really saying that they’re actually talking, you think? Hahahaha. You know guys, you know Jake’s a free agent you know in the sense that he doesn’t have any more fights with us, he has an exclusive negotiation period and you know let’s just see where it goes. I mean, you know, it’s going to be interesting and you know for us this is a situation that is not part of our normal course of business because we’ve bought Pro Elite, what a year ago a year and a couple of months ago, it was February of 09, and we inherited Jake’s contract and that’s how Jake’s contract was written, so that’s just what it is. So we have not should put him in high-profile fights and really tested him and give him those fight? No, I’m glad we did, no matter what happens and to me it’s you know let’s just see what happens because you know there’s the negotiation period, there’s a matching right period, and you know we’re going to have some you know we’ll probably have some say in what happens in the future but let’s just see how the next two weeks unfolds.”
What are your expectations going in and coming out of this weekend’s St. Louis event?
“I tell you, I mean, you always hope for the big number (for viewership), right? I mean last year I think we had 8(000) or 9,000 people in the building and you know I think that it would be probably relatively something similar but I mean if we have 8(000) to 10,000 I think that’s kind of where our goals are right now and you know I hope that it’s a big television broadcast on Showtime because when you look at this fight card, starting with the first fight of the night between Antwain Britt and Feijao, I think that’s going to be a heck of a fight leading into the Kevin Randleman fight with Roger Gracie, you know, here’s arguably the best Heavyweight jiu-jitsu you know master coming in to fight Kevin Randleman the seasoned veteran I mean it’s going to be interesting and we got the two Heavyweight fights that you know I think the shows the depth of our Heavyweight division and then look at Jacare vs. Joey, I mean there’s not one fight on this card that I’m not going to want to watch personally and we’re very proud to host it and guys, you can watch it all for free on Showtime, I mean that’s the beauty of it. The value of the product is you know as far as to me you get to watch some amazing fights, some of the best fighters in the world, and you know it’s not on PPV.”
What did you take away from the ratings information on the last CBS event?
“You know I’m going to put it in perspective. Any time you know we have a CBS broadcast date I mean it’s a very special occasion and when you look at the Fedor number, you know it was bigger, I think that one of the things that we need to improve on is improve on painting the picture better about the future fights and one of the ways that they did that Fedor piece that ran on it was called the Fight Camp 360 and they spent a lot of money and they did an amazing piece, Showtime spent the money and it ran on all the CBS affiliates and aired those the Friday and Saturday leading up to the fight and I think that you know when you look at those 24/7’s that HBO does for boxing and the Fight Camp 360 does for Showtime, they’re able to paint the picture that’s really attractive and I think that’s the one thing we’ll definitely do next time is to try to create the awareness and try to create the buzz and basically paint the picture better about the upcoming event because the hardcore fans all tuned in and you know when was the last time we had Mixed Martial Arts have 2.9 million people watch it? 2.9 million households watch the show, I mean it’s still a large number for our young sport and you know would we like to improve it next time? Sure, and you know the benchmark is set with some of the earlier fights on Elite XC but you know I think that there’s things we can improve and hopefully we’ll get a chance to improve it and move forward.”
Kimbo Slice is still a big ratings draw and he put up big numbers for both Elite XC and UFC. What about booking him versus Herschel Walker in Strikeforce?
“You know I tell you, you are probably the fifth or sixth person that’s contacted me and said, ‘Hey, you got to put Herschel Walker against Kimbo Slice,’ but you know the thing is with Kimbo, you’re right, he was successful in the ratings for Elite XC but you know when we had the purchase of Pro Elite the deal at that time was too, we felt it was too rich for you know is there a long-term viability with this fighter, you know is he something we can build for six-eight years with you as a fighter as you can with a Gegard or King Mo or Jacare, can you have a long history I mean a long career, and that time we evaluated that we should maybe just pass and that’s what we did and you know we haven’t revisited it internally yet so you know as of right now I think we’re going to stick with our course which is you know putting on the best fighters in the world and putting together with the best match-ups and get aggressive with the match-ups and put the fights that people want to see and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Kevin Randleman said that he got a staph infection. Is he medically cleared to fight and ready to go against Roger Gracie?
“Well I tell you, Kevin and I had a conversation last week and I said, Kevin, you need to go get cleared by a doctor and you need to do it today because you know if you’re hurt or you’re injured or you’re sick you know then we need to know and we need to move on because it’s not fair to Roger and Kevin you know said look, if I can’t fight you know, you know can I fight in June? I said of course we’ll find something else for you but you know he went to the doctor, came back, and I guess said you know the doctor cleared him to participate so you know I think Kevin will be fine and he’s good to go, so, that’s as much detail as I have of the situation.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thanks for transcribing this, Zach.
good stuff zach, appreciate the longer articles
You know, I think, you know, Scott Coker would be a really annoying person, I think, to have to listen to talk, you know, all day. I think, you know, I’d have to stop telling him to stop saying I think, you know. You know, I think.
The Kimbo thing was especially surprising. Why can’t you do both: get the big ratings draw who sucks AND concentrate on building fighters like Lawal and Mousasi. That clearly is not working since people clearly did not want to watch their dull fight. They need Kimbo desperately to stay on CBS. And really they have the negotiating power right now so they should definitely go after him. His only other option is Japan for DREAM and their pay certainly isn’t the best at this time. Although obviously he’d get the Bob Sapp-like endorsements since they love bizarre looking African Americans in that country. But for guaranteed fight money, it’s Strikeforce or nothing for him. Plus it’s laughable to take the highroad by not signing Kimbo when you already have a 47 year old ex-football player working for you.
Also, last night on Wrestling Observer’s radio show Meltzer said the WWE has no interest in luring him into pro wrestling and in TNA Hogan has gone on record hating the idea of shoot fighters in pro wrestling so they don’t want him right now either. So there’s two more options removed for Kimbo.
I’ve done transcriptions of two interviews he’s done in the last week totaling one hour of radio time. He talks very fast.
Thanks Zach.
I tell ya…
You know, I tell ya…
Well, yknow, I tell ya…
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Here’s the transcript of what Meltzer said about Kimbo’s future, since Fight Opinion is the king of transcripts~! now.
Scott Coker comes across as nicer then Dana White, but he also comes across as being dumber.
One thing Dana White does is he answers everything with such conviction. Sometimes he is 100% wrong, but he answers the question like he knows what he is talking about. That automatically gives him credibility to 95% of the people listening to him who have no clue what he is saying is total BS.
Coker could learn from this. Even if Coker is right, when he says things so wishy washy…. It gives the perception that he doesn’t know what he is talking about.
When I listen to Dana, I know that at least some of what he he says is completely true. Whenever I hear Coker talk, it sounds like spin 100% of the time. So even though Dana outright lies and Coker never lies (mainly because he never makes a definitive statement about anything), I end up putting more stock into what Dana says.
Ten topics asked, and 10x ‘i tell you’ but over 134x(!!!) ‘you know’ !
1 3 4 times he said ‘you know’ last time i heard someone talk like that was an drug addict that sniffed his brains out, you know.
Coker must be a moron, drug addict or something else. There’s something wrong with him, you know….?
I rather have some other promoter say what he thinks and fire f-bombs here and there at least where it’s due but, you know, Scott Coker should be catscanned on Saturday as well, you know.
And not once or twice but 134 freakin times please.
He’s too fat to be a drug addict, so I guess he’s just dumb.
Artie Lange would disagree with you.
He mixed his heroin with cake batter.
HAHA. Don’t forget John Belushi and Chris Farley, may they rest in peace.
Rossens argument is pretty much the same one I’ve had for awhile.
If a guy sells PPV’s, put him in a position to do it for you.
Although I would prefer that as a moderate agenda if you want to be respectful towards the sport.
The japanese take it too far and too seriously IMO.
But a little fudging for the fans on the side of the real stuff is okay.
Almost everybody I know wants to see Kimbo fight.
And they still think he’s a world beater!
Thats worth money!
UFC wasted a resource by attempting to trash him out and dump him like that IMO.
He WILL, I guarentee, be a boon for whoever swnatches him up next.