Bellator president Scott Coker is considering striking while the iron is hot when it comes to a Yoel Romero vs. Anthony Johnson fight.
Bellator’s light heavyweight division was recently boosted with the signings of the two former UFC title challengers with many in the combat sports world eager to see them collide.
The intrigue is natural. Both Romero and Johnson are exciting and known for their knockouts while they’ve never faced each other in the UFC either due to being in different divisions at the time.
Of course, there is also the risk of either fighter’s momentum getting killed if they were to lose in their promotional debuts against each other.
However, Coker believes more so in giving the fans the fight they want to see and at this point, it’s Romero vs. Johnson.
“We just threw out a lot of hypotheticals but, let’s just face it, that’s the fight the fans want to see,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “And my philosophy has always been if the fight is there and you can make the fight, you always make the fight because there’s no guarantee that fight is gonna be there in six months or a year.
“It just seems like that fight has a lot of heat on it, and I’m not saying it’s gonna happen, but we’ll definitely have a serious conversation about it at some point.”
Coker Considering Grand Prix
With Romero and Johnson added to what is a stacked light heavyweight division, Coker is even considering having the fight take place in a potential Grand Prix.
“It would be quite a tournament, and that’s something that’s under consideration,” Coker said. “Originally, we were thinking about the 135 (division), with the addition of Magomed Magomedov, and we still have (Juan) Archuleta out there. We were gonna invite (Kyoji) Horiguchi to fight, or (Kai) Asakura, whoever wins the (fight) in Japan, to come and enter this tournament.
“We talked about the women’s division – we still have some great talent there – and now we’re talking about the 205 (division). It’s definitely in the conversation, but we just haven’t decided. But that’s something we’ll figure out in the next 20 days, and we’ll be locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Things are certainly looking exciting for Bellator ahead of the new year.
