Mir stated that he was unhappy to have to face Nelson for a second time, but Bellator MMA President Scott Coker tells a different story.
“I heard that he wasn’t happy about the fight,” Coker said to MMA Junkie. “But this is, I talked to my guys about it, and I said, ‘What happened?” And they said (Mir) wanted the fight, and I looked at all the texts, and they were like ‘thumbs up,’ from Frank, so thumbs up to me means he wants to do it, you know? So we put the fight together.”
Nelson and Mir met for the first time at UFC 130 in May of 2011, with Mir scoring a unanimous decision win on that night.
Coker says the stakes could even be higher for both fighters, as the loser could find themselves without a job.
“Really it’s a fight that both of those guys are coming off a defeat, actually, so you say, ‘OK, which one is going to be able to turn it around?'” Coker said. “And this fight is that one for them in their career. You know, this is the time that they got to deliver, and I think it might be the winner moves forward, and the loser goes home, maybe.”
Bellator 231 takes place on Friday, October 24 from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut with Frank Mir and Roy Nelson headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on the Paramount Network.
