Scott Coker Says Gegard Mousasi Debut Showed Bellator Has Tough Fighters

Former UFC fighter Gegard Mousasi made his promotional debut at Bellator 185 and he earned a decision win over former middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko.

Bellator MMA President says that the Mousasi fight proved that there are a lot of tough fighters in the promotion.

“Here’s how I feel about it: When I owned Strikeforce and we were doing fights back in the day, we had some of the best fighters on the planet, and it was like, ‘Well, the UFC guys are better than the Strikeforce guys,'” Coker told MMA Junkie. “Then look what happened. Tyron Woodley, Luke Rockhold, Daniel Cormier – those are all (Strikeforce) guys. It’s just that people when they come over here feel it should be easy, but Shlemenko is a guy that had 55, 60 fights. That’s going to be a guy that’s dangerous. To me, I think the people that have come over here from other leagues, they’ve had a hard time. I just say, ‘Hey, welcome to Bellator. This is going to be a tough going for everybody.'”

Mousasi is one of many high profile fighters who have jumped to Bellator MMA. Others include Ryan Bader, Ben Henderson, Valerie Letourneau, Roy Nelson, Phil Davis, Rory MacDonald and more.

However, when it comes to Mousasi, the Bellator MMA President says that the promotional newcomer is a tough fighter.

“Gegard is a tough guy,” Coker said. “He has a lot of perseverance. He has indomitable spirit. He will come back from this. I know that he’s a little bit disappointed with his performance, but to me, I thought that this fight was going to be a tough, tough fight for him. It was, so on to the next one.”

Speaking of Bader and Davis, they return to the promotion next month at Bellator 186, which Bader headlines against Linton Vassell.