Bellator is looking at Dos Santos, Overeem and Woodley.... why?

This is all very frustrating and surprising to me because it wasn't a month ago that President of Bellator Scott Coker was making waves by saying that he is "done being the retirement league for ex UFC fighters."

All of us MMA fans knew that Dos Santos and Overeem were on the way out as they were older and despite their names carrying a lot of weight in the MMA world, their performances were not doing the same thing. Both men had been dropping in the ranks and anytime they faced anyone of substance, they would lose almost all the time. Their performances were so poor actually that it was tough to believe that they had both held a heavyweight belt at one time in the past.


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They had also been scheduled to face one another on 3 separate occasions

  • The first one Overeem failed a testosterone drug test (2012)
  • The second one Overeem pulled out of the fight citing an injury (2013)
  • The third one they were both relative non-issues and Overeem KO'd Dos Santos in the 2nd round

They were both released from their contracts after failing to perform in any sort of top-tier way this year. I think it was actually Overeems loss earlier this year that prompted the release of both men. Dos Santos suffered 4 consecutive KO losses and Overeem was making a push to the top after defeating several "no names" but just gets worked by anyone in the top 5.

I think these men have done their time and when prompted about it in the past, Scott Coker said he has "zero interest" in signing either one of them. However, in an interview in the past few days he appears to have done an about face on this and while this is not at all official, I am surprised to hear him say that he is now interested in signing them for some fights.


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Personally, I would rather watch Coker and White play checkers than watch Woodley fight anyone

So I can see that Coker is "kind of" going back on his word about not wanting to be the retirement league for the UFC and I guess I can understand where he is coming from and probably wants these guys to come in, have a 1-fight contract and get the crap beaten out of them in order to make Bellator look good (my words, not his) but this could backfire badly if they get in there and make some of his top guys look silly by defeating them in a grand fashion. Based on both of these guys' recent performances, I think this is extremely unlikely, but you never know. With these big boys it only takes one shot to KO any of them since they have "leg arms" for the most part.

Now on to Tyron Woodley. I have not made a secret my disdain for this man and whenever he is on a card I always suspect it is going to be a snoozefest and I am normally correct. The only exception to this seems to be when he gets whallopped by his opponent and that is precisely what happened at UFC 260


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To be fair to Tyron, his performance was much better than almost all of his fights in the past and I think that even he knew that he needed to not be very Tyron Woodley-ish in this fight because he was already very close to the ol' chopping block as far as his involvement in the UFC is concerned. This was the last fight on his current contract and I would be extremely surprised if the contract is renewed. Dana White has had a bit of disdain towards Woodley ever since he won a belt in what many believe to be the "most boring fight of all time in the UFC."

In a post-fight interview Dana White had this to say about Woodley

“Listen how old is Tyron now? 39? 39, that’s four in a row.”

I don't think you need to be a codebreaker to figure out what is going to happen next. Tyron is going to get released. You can bank on it. White has been stating for over a year that he intends to cut the UFC roster significantly and people like Woodley are the ripest fruit for this picking.

I was just stunned to find out that Coker has expressed an interest in Woodley because this just embodies the worst of what it is that he has been saying he want to avoid. You are seriously considering a guy that not only is kind of past his sell-by date and he is also one of the most boring fighters of all time?

I don't know what Coker is trying to accomplish here but Bellator fans are not pleased by it and I think that this can only end badly for him. UFC fans might pay attention to guys that at one point in time were exciting in the UFC but Woodley never was IMO. It might sell a few pay-per-views for the distant 2nd place promotion but a loss by the UFC retirees isn't good for Bellator and a win could be devastating.

I think it is a bad idea.... what do you think?



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I think if we can get Ubereem jacked on meat horse, I am definitely watching 😁

It won't be competitive, it will be probably dirty, and it won't matter much. But I will have my pack of beers and popcorn ready. for some heavyweight violence.

Regarding Dos Santos, his 4 losses were against the best of the best:

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I think they will match him against Fedor, in Russia, mark my word!

As for Tyone, I think we all fell in and out of love with him. Good luck on his complicated music career hahaha.

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omg that song.... i really hope that is him because that might be the worst thing I have ever heard and I love it!

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For realz. It has become a meme

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