Quote: Gina Carano Won’t Fight For Bellator, She Wants To Fight At 135 Pounds
Former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion Gina Carano has been absent from the sport of MMA since 2009. Her final bout, a TKO loss to Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino, marked the first time that ‘Crush’ would lose in the cage. Having taken up starring roles in ‘In The Blood’ and ‘Haywire’, it appeared that Hollywood acting had lured Carano’ away from the sport for good.
Then came the rumours that Carano was being head-hunted by the UFC brass , as Dana White teased the promotion was close to signing the original WMMA star. Then there were rumblings about ‘Crush’ signing for Bellator MMA , which soon fizzled out . BMMA president Scott Coker spoke with MMAFighting today, and he revealed the reason that Carano hadn’t signed for his promotion:
“We’ve had one quick conversation, and that was it. There was nothing really made of it, I think that Gina (Carano) wants to fight at 135. We don’t have a 135 division. It’s going to be really up to her.”
Coker was elusive about pointing out the obvious, in that a move to women’s bantamweight only really makes for a move to the UFC. As far as Carano and the UFC are concerned; watch this space. On to the next biggest piece of Bellator news in recent weeks, and Coker gets on to the topic of War Machine. Also known as Jon Koppenhaver, the Bellator veteran was in headline news for his (alleged) brutal attack on ex-gf Christy Mack.
“I was getting details probably a little quicker than some people,” said Coker. “When we saw what happened, we said that was it. We were not going to be associated with that. I feel for his girlfriend.He’s got a lot of other things to worry about other than just fighting,”
Machine was subsequently captured by police in California, laying low in a hotel in Simi Valley. The US Marshalls thankfully ended the situation without any more bloodshed, but the damage that had been done was horrific. Since taking over Bjorn Rebney’s job, Coker has been hit with a few curve balls to say the least.
So with War Machine and Gina Carano now holding no ties to Bellator, and champion Eddie Alvarez with his foot out the door, where will the next big names for BMMA come from? ”Rampage’ Jackson and Tito Ortiz are only going to sell so many tickets, and they are both already on the brink of irrelevance. Perhaps there is room for the Gray Maynards or other fellow struggling UFC stars to fight for Bellator?
