MMANEWSLEAK Exclusive:
If there is ever a question about whether Strikeforce President Scott Coker is a gambling man, one need look no further than Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu on December 4th.
Coker has routinely spent big money on questionable fighters and aligned Strikeforce with fighters of questionable character. Sometimes those bets have paid off, and sometimes…, well he’s gone begging. Certainly Coker’s biggest gamble has been his association with Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 Global. While the public has not always been privy to the “backroom” deals that have gone on between Strikeforce and M-1 Global, but certainly Coker has to question whether the gamble has worth the headache of dealing with the Russian and his entourage.
The latest gamble Coker has bet on has been Dan Henderson and Paul Daley. Coker thought the Henderson would energize Strikeforces’ middleweight division and provide a challenge to champion Jake Shields. Unfortunately, Henderson came into the fight with Shields and got his butt kicked.
Now Coker is trying to figure out what to do with 2 overpaid and aging fighters in Dan Henderson and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. So Coker decided to have them fight each other at a catch weight.
The question that I have about this fight is, why? This fight doesn’t advance either figher’s position in any weight class, and what will it do to identify top contenders to fight for the vacant Strikeforce middleweight title.
The only reason I can come up with as to why the Henderson/Babalu fight makes sense is, return on investment.
The other gamble that Coker is putting at risk on the December 4th card is Paul Daley. Daley, as you will remember, lost his head after his fight with Josh Koscheck at UFC ____ and after the bell ending the final round of the fight, Daley promptly got up, walked around the refereee and delivered the sucker punched Koscheck in the mouth, a punch that Daley waited 15 minutes to deliver.
While that act seems to be out of character for Daley, UFC President Dana White wasted no time in cutting Daley and stating that he didn’t care how good Daley became as an MMA fighter, he would never fight in the UFC again.
All Coker needs is for Daley to lose his cool and sucker punch an opponent after the bell – but then again, Coker seems to have plenty of experience is the post-fight brawl – remember Strikeforce Nashville where Jake Shields’ entourage got into it with Jason “Mayhem” Miller.
How many cards is Coker holding? When will his hand run out? No one knows for sure, but it’s likely we’ll tune in to find out.
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