Bellator 180 ended with a lot of news inside the cage, but Bellator MMA president Scott Coker made sure there was plenty of news yet to be announced for the post-show press conference.
After the show had ended Coker spoke on a variety of different topics regarding the current state of the company and the future of Bellator.
In terms of attendance figures, it was announced by Coker that 12,133 people attended Bellator 180, which took place at Madison Square Garden and headlined by Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva. He did not announce a gate for the event, however.
One of the marquee matches on the non-PPV portion of the event featured longtime boxing champion Heather Hardy make her MMA debut. Hardy won and Coker said he is willing to allow more boxers to jump on the MMA wagon and allow Bellator fighters to participate in boxing as well. Hardy’s boxing promoter is New York promoter Lou DiBella and Coker said he would willing to work with DiBella on fighters crossing over to other sports on future cards.
“We might do a deal with Lou DiBella for boxers who want to do MMA,” Coker said. “If we have fighters who want to box, maybe we’ll send them to Lou.”
Coker also commended the promotion surrounding the whole event and hinted at a possible return to the Big Apple for another pay-per-view in 2018
“This fight had a lot of heat and it was promoted extremely well and this is our first one,” Coker said. “We’re excited to come back and maybe do a pay-per-view early next year and keep growing. We’re not going to do this every month, but when we do it, there will be mega fights and big events such as this.”
As for the future of Fedor Emelianenko's career, the MMA legend said in the press conference that he wants to fight again. Emelianenko was stopped by Matt Mitrione in the first round of their match on the pay-per-view.
"Yes [I want to fight again], because I am a fighter," Emelianenko said.
Among other topics discussed in the press conference is the headlining fights of Bellator 183 which will be Benson Henderson vs. Patricio Freire and Roy Nelson vs. Javy Ayala. The Bellator 180 post-show press conference can be seen in the video above.
