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Bellator President Scott Coker On Criticism Of Signing Mirko Cro Cop After USADA Suspension

March 12, 2018 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with Jim Edwards of MMANYtt (via MMA Fighting), Bellator MMA President Scott Coker reacted to criticism the promotion has received for signing Mirko Cro Cop in spite of an USADA suspension. Cro Cop was suspended two years for taking HGH, but chose to retire instead of serve the sentence. Now, he will fight Roy Nelson at Bellator 200. Here are highlights:

On the decision to book Cro Cop: “Here’s the thing. Mirko fights in Rizin, in Japan, and USADA has relationship with the UFC and they’re in Japan all the time. Why didn’t they go after him two years ago when he started fighting in Rizin? This is a question just because he’s fighting for Bellator at our 200th event? To me it’s like, if you wanted to take action, you should’ve took action a long time ago, because to me, honestly, when we booked it, we didn’t even know there were issues. He’s already fighting so we thought he was able to fight.”

On Cro Cop competing elsewhere: “Listen, USADA works with the UFC. They’re doing their own thing, so go do it. I just feel like the timing of it is a little bit questionable because at the end of the day, if you really wanted to enforce it, you should’ve enforced it two years ago when Mirko fought in Japan.”

article topics :

Mirko Cro Cop, Scott Coker, Joseph Lee