Scott Coker is hoping to make Anderson Silva vs. Fedor Emelianenko in Bellator.
After Silva fought out his UFC contract and became a free agent, Coker says he tried to sign the Brazilian. He wanted to do a one-off fight against Emelianenko but Silva made it known he wanted to pursue boxing.
Recently, Silva has said he wants to fight his final fight to be in Japan and Coker believes that would be a perfect send-off fight for both Silva and Emelianenko.
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“We did offer him an MMA fight against Fedor. We didn’t even get serious or talk numbers or anything like that, but there was definitely an outreach on our part to see if there’s any interest. At that time, he really wanted to focus on his boxing and see how far he could take it. And you know what? To me, I would say, look we can do it in Japan or we could do it in New York City, in Madison Square Garden. Let’s do it big, let’s make it huge,” Coker said on the Ringer MMA show about Silva vs. Emelianenko. “This is the fight that everybody would love to see. And you’re right. GOAT number one versus GOAT number two. Negotiating a weight class might be a little challenging, to be honest. But I was like, hey, let’s start the dialogue, let’s have a conversation. It was a very quick conversation and quick response back, so I just kind of dropped it. But, maybe we should revisit it as you said.”
As Scott Coker says, the weight class would be a big talking point as Silva was a middleweight while Emelianenko is a heavyweight. However, the Brazilian has fought at 205lbs before. As for Emelianenko, in his last fight, he weighed in at 233lbs, but the weight could be the reason it doesn’t happen.
Anderson Silva is set to headline a Showtime boxing pay-per-view against Jake Paul on October 29. It’s his first fight since he knocked out Tito Ortiz last September. Fedor Emelianenko, meanwhile, hasn’t fought since last October when he knocked out Tim Johnson.
Would you like to see Anderson Silva vs. Fedor Emelianenko?