STRIKEFORCE QUOTABLES: Scott Coker says Bjorn Rebney's co-promotion talk is all a PR move, says he won't do business in the media

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"Bjorn's saying he's texting me 11, 12 times an hour. I'm not sure if he's trying to be a level-five clinger or anything like that, but I haven't received one text from the guy. I'm not sure what the motivation is, but maybe it's just his way of staying in the media, staying in the press...

Let?s face it: Gilbert's fought everybody. He beat the guy that Eddie lost to. For them to say, 'Oh, Gilbert?s ducking him' -- come on, let?s be real. Gilbert has ducked nobody, and neither has Eddie. These are two great fighters. The thing is, if Bjorn's serious about doing this, then there has to be a business component that has to be worked out. Unfortunately that hasn't started yet. It's just been a bunch of stuff in the media. He's chosen the media to use it as a platform to try to push this thing along, but I think it's maybe a PR move...

It's very obvious to me he's using the media as a platform to try to do his business, but that's not how we're going to do business. If he wants to do business, call me or fly out here, come sit down with me. If there's a deal to be made, we'll try to make it, but I'm not going to do it in the media. That's for sure."

-Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker talks to Sherdog.com, responding to Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney's continued public attempts to call Strikeforce out to make a Gilbert Melendez vs. Eddie Alvarez fight.

Penick's Analysis: Part of Coker's problem in this situation is that, while it's entirely likely that a lot of this has been posturing in the media from Rebney, Coker and Strikeforce haven't done anything to reclaim the narrative. They constantly allow the narrative to be created elsewhere without making comments on the situation, and by staying silent they're allowing themselves to be painted however anyone wants to paint them. Clearly Rebney's been using the media, and it's been smart on his part because now the general consensus has been that Strikeforce is causing this fight to not be made. Even if that's not the case entirely, the fact is that by choosing not to do any business through the media they're allowing themselves to be seen as the cause for this fight not to happen. And now Rebney's upping the ante by saying he wants to put three Bellator vs. Strikeforce fights on pay-per-view, with Ben Askren against Nick Diaz, Hector Lombard against Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and Alvarez against Melendez.

Another thing on these comments, no one thinks Melendez is ducking Alvarez. He called Eddie out. People think Strikeforce is afraid of Melendez getting beat, that's just what the reality is at this point because Coker and Strikeforce never got in front of this story. As for the "he's fought everybody," well, he's fought everybody put in front of him outside of the UFC, but there are a large number of fighters in the lightweight division Melendez has not fought. And while it's true that Melendez beat Shinya Aoki, who defeated Alvarez, Eddie's loss came almost two years ago, and Aoki had fought five more times (getting destroyed in a welterweight fight by Hayato "Mach" Sakurai in that time span) before fighting Melendez. And Alvarez has won six straight since that fight, so at this point he's the most interesting option for Melendez, because we've seen what happens with the Aoki fight and a rematch isn't all that interesting.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_7363.shtml

Chael Sonnen Mike Swick Evan Tanner Houston Alexander Reese Andy