Chael Sonnen vs. Fedor\u00a0Emelianenko, which headlined Bellator 208 on Saturday, was a fight that many fans were looking forward to, and it lived up to most expectations. Though it was not a long fight, it was a fun one until Emelianenko finished Sonnen off with a storm of first-round ground strikes.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this fun fight is being somewhat overshadowed by fight-fixing allegations. Some fans have speculated that Sonnen didn’t try in that fight, or that he even lost on purpose.<\/p>\n
Bellator president Scott Coker doesn’t agree with these claims whatsoever. To remind, it’s not the first time he’s fielded questions about fight-fixing. He received similarly ridiculous queries after Sonnen’s 2017 submission loss to Tito Ortiz.<\/p>\n
“Come on, that doesn\u2019t even deserve a response to the people that are saying it,” Scott Coker said at Bellator 208 post-fight press conference. “Listen, Chael got clipped. He told me, ‘Man, he hit me and he hit me really good,’\u00a0 and he was done. So that\u2019s it. With Chael, the thing with Tito, \u2018oh, he let him go\u2019 or something… come on, why would you do that? You\u2019re a professional athlete and you\u2019re a fighter. He wants to continue, he wants to go to the next round of the tournament. That\u2019s just all rubbish.<\/p>\n
“To me, they see Chael, he\u2019s got this character and I think they just feel like with Chael it\u2019s just like this character, so maybe that\u2019s what they\u2019re thinking,” Scott Coker continued. “But If you had Fedor punching you and kicking you and kneeing you like he was doing today \u2014 that was real, that was not fake.”<\/p>\n
Of course, there’s zero proof that this fight was fixed. And regardless, Bellator can now look forward to a very good Heavyweight Grand Prix final between Fedor\u00a0Emelianenko and Ryan Bader. Bader, who currently owns the light heavyweight title, will look to become the first Bellator champ-champ, while\u00a0Emelianenko will look to cement his legacy as the heavyweight GOAT.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like as a promoter, whoever wins the matchup wins and that\u2019s it,\u201d Coker said. \u201cIf [Fedor] would have lost, Chael is a great promoter himself and that would have been a great fight with him and Bader. Both of them, I think would have been interesting matchups, but anytime Fedor steps into the cage it\u2019s a special, historic moment, and I think we\u2019ll have another piece of history on the 26th of January.”<\/p>\n
What do you think of these accusations against Bellator and Scott Coker?<\/p>\n