Bellator head honcho Scott Coker is trying to coax Cris Cyborg back to his promotion. Cyborg’s Bellator contract recently expired, but she remains the women’s featherweight champion and one of the biggest names on their roster. Scott Coker does not want to see Cris Cyborg return to free agency, telling The MMA Hour that he wants to “be in the Cyborg business for many years to come.”
“She’s actually in the matching period of her contract, but she and I have a very good relationship, and I told her, ‘Go train and do your fight and [everything] during this period of time, and when you come back from Brazil, let’s sit down and make a deal.’
Scott Coker Promises Bellator Will “be in the Cyborg business for many years to come”
I have every intention to have her on our roster, it’s just we have to sit down and hammer out the deal. That’s something I feel we will get done when she gets back from Brazil, I think in the middle of the month. But I feel the relationship is solid, and we’ll be in the Cyborg business for many years to come.”
Cyborg recently tried her hand at pro boxing, defeating Simone Silva in her debut fight. One of the issues that Scott Coker might have in trying to tempt Cyborg back to Bellator is the relatively thin offerings at featherweight, with only six women in the Bellator featherweight division.
“There’s a couple girls out there, Leah McCourt being one, but in the past we’ve had to revisit some fights and run it back. When you look at Arlene Blencowe’s fight against Cyborg, the second fight was really good, better than the first fight. So to me, there might be some rematches.
There’s Amanda Nunes and the UFC, there’s Kayla [Harrison], there’s Cyborg, and then there’s a handful of girls, but it’s not a weight class where there’s a lot of really high, high-level, like 20 fighters sitting out there waiting to step up. It’s a handful of girls that can really fight at this level.
So it is tough, but I think she likes boxing, I think she wants to continue boxing. At some point, we’ll sit down and have that conversation, but to me if she wants to box and fight MMA, I think we can keep her busy in both of those arenas where it would be worth it to her.”
Do you think Cyborg will continue to test free agency, or will she return to defend her Bellator title? Let us know in the comments.
