Scott Coker has stated his reasons for his current lack of interest in recently released UFC great Yoel Romero.
When Yoel Romero’s UFC release was reported recently, the reasonable expectation would be for Romero to be fielding offers and having his pick of the litter. Surprisingly, this turned out not to be so, with both Bellator and PFL reportedly being uninterested in signing the 43-year-old Romero. Romero’s manager would call this report a lie on Twitter, but Bellator President Scott Coker has now come forward to confirm Bellator’s disinterest and elaborate on the reasons why.
“We got a call from (his) agent and originally we just passed,” Coker said. “If you look at our roster and how many fighters we have on this roster and how many fights we’re going to do, there are only so many TV slots. We have kind of gotten away from signing the OGs we used to sign back in the day. That’s because guys like A.J. (McKee) are coming up. Ilima-Lei (Macfarlane) is developing into a main event fighter.”
Scott Coker would go on to state that the promotion is taking a more bottom-up approach to finding talent as opposed to relying on older, familiar names as the promotion has become somewhat known for. That said, Coker’s current lack of interest does not translate to a permanent lack of interest.
“The dialogue will always be open,” Coker said. “Things change quickly in this sport so you never know but the initial thought was that I talked to my guys and they thought it was better for us to pass.”
Scott Coker may have to act fast if he were to reverse course, as even with Bellator and PFL currently out of the running, it’s still hard to believe that Romero will stay on the free-agent market for too long. And at 43 years old, I wouldn’t expect him to have much patience.
What are your thoughts on Scott Coker’s explanation for not currently being interested in signing Yoel Romero?
