You gotta give some credit to Scott Coker and Bellator for carving out a significant role in MMA while operating on the same soil as the UFC. To put that in context, it’d be like a second American football league thriving in the face of the NFL.
Let’s not deny where much of that success stems from: it’s these crazy freak show fights that they keep putting on. No matter how pointless and insignificant matchups like Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 are, the ratings they generate is undeniable proof that there is an audience that will watch them.
Our Fight Picks: Freak Show Fights for Bellator
Somewhat shamefully, hardcore fans and writers like myself will tune in as a guilty pleasure. It’s like having an embarrassing booty call that you keep going back to, yet don’t want anyone to find out about.
But it’s time for me to step out and publicly declare my love for these freak show fights. Then I’m going to take it a step further and propose a few fun fights that would pique a lot of interest. The fact that Bellator is totally cool with co-promoting makes it easier for Scott Coker to pinch talent from any other promotion besides the UFC.
We’ll include some projected MMA odds, just for fun. And if any of these get made, you can bet on fights at BookMaker.eu.
Gabi Garcia (-10000) vs Ilima-Lei MacFarlane (+7000)
Davida vs. Goliath
This is Gaby Garcia:
I know exactly what you want to ask, but sorry, I don’t know if she’s single or not. What I do know is that she’s 6’2” and 209 pounds. Most recently, she fought 50-year old Yumiko Hotta at Rizin 4 last New Year’s Eve. It took less than a minute for Garcia to swat the Japanese fighter like a fly.
I’ll just come out and say that it’s highly unlikely that there will ever be another women fighter that sizes up against Garcia. But not letting her fight would be like slapping the MMA gods in the face. She is the greatest curiosity of our time, and she needs to be in the ring.
Instead of matching her up against grandmothers, let’s throw her into the ring with an actual prospect like the undefeated Ilima-Lei MacFarlane, a flyweight who fights at 125 pounds. Sure, it’d be like a gladiator pit fight from Star Wars, but you’re telling me you wouldn’t wanna watch that?
Randy Couture (+190) vs Fedor Emelianenko (-240)
What Could Have Been
Is a dream fight still a dream fight if it takes place more than 10 years after the primes of either guy? Because that’d be the case if Bellator somehow convinced Randy “The Natural” Couture to come out of retirement and face the one opponent who eluded him over a Hall of Fame career.
Fedor looked so bad against Fabio Maldonado that you’d have to give Couture a decent chance of winning, even at the ripe age of 53. Would you pay money to see these two wheezing at each other in a five-round main event? I know I would. It was the fight that everybody wanted to see through all of the 2000s, and it’d still be yuuuuge today.
Wanderlei Silva (+140) vs Chael Sonnen (-190)
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
It’s amazing how Chael drew the wrath of an entire country, but at one point he was public enemy No. 1 of Brazil. And the face of this wrath was Wanderlei Silva, “The Axe Murderer” who looked like he literally wanted to hack Sonnen to pieces every time they ran into each other.
They were actually scheduled to meet, but Silva literally fled from drug testers when they showed up for a random sample. As in, those testers came to his gym and were like “hey, we need to draw some blood from you” and then Wandy was like “Umm ok I just really have to pee first”.
Then Wandy did that thing in cartoons where his legs start running in place until they turn into turbo charged cyclones and then burst through the wall to escape, leaving only a perfect outline of his body. True story.
Actually, we could probably just skip the fight and just force the guys to do a series of press conferences so Sonnen could just unload into Silva on the mic. Given how bad Chael looked against Tito Ortiz, that’d be a lot more entertaining at this point.
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