Scott Coker, Be a Man, Sack up, and Tell Bjorn Rebney to Hit the Bricks

Scott Coker, you've got the 2nd biggest MMA company in the US, a deal with Showtime (and CBS by proxy) and some of the biggest and best fighters in the world fighting under your banner. So why the hell are you letting some jabroni named "Bjorn" chump you around in the media? You've got this dude talking reckless in the media, calling you a liar, putting your number out and saying he texted you and you didn't respond. Meanwhile, you're acting like he's not out here calling your name giving these triple-ply Charmin soft rebuttals. Now, he released some screenshots that he says proves that he texted you, but those can easily be faked and looking at both of your respective histories, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. However, that still leaves you with his yapping at your heels. You have to take care of that. Why? Reminds me of a TV show I used to watch.

On The Wire, there was a gay drug robber named Omar Little who carried a big shotgun and robbed the various drug dealers. There was also the new "kingpin" of the hood Marlo Stanfield. Obviously, these two men were on opposite sides of the table. To make a long story short, Omar was a desperate man who basically lost his way towards the end and started operating outside his normal facilities and wildly attacked Marlo's drug stashes and muscle. There were minor hits, mainly attacks against Marlo's pride, but while doing so, Omar was sullying Marlo's name in the streets (Marlo's subordinates were not informing him of this). Long story short, Omar got killed (oops) and Marlo arrested and it led to one of my favorite scenes on The Wire as it explained the mindset of Marlo the neo-gangster.

Video (and more) after the jump

Gotdamn I love The Wire. Anyway, in the above scene, you see how upset Marlo is that Omar was calling him a "straight bitch" in the streets. Mind you, Omar is DEAD at this point and yet Marlo is still upset at the effects Omar might have had on his rep. All the money and financial gains didn't matter because it ultimately came down to his reputation. Now, the fight game and the drug game are not the same, but they contain similarities. Both are based in a highly masculine environment. You look like a bitch in the streets, you're likely to get shot; look like a bitch in MMA, you're likely to get taken advantage of.

Fans see this too. There's a reason why Dana White has over a million followers and actual fighters are Tweet-begging to reach 5K. The reason is people are stupid. Besides that, they respond to different stimuli. Dana White carries himself as an "alpha male". Fans like to know (or at least think) that the head of their MMA organization can get down in a fight which is why Dana's "Add Water Insta-Tough Guy" routine works. Meanwhile, we have you Scott Coker who, while doughy, has legit, non-Boxercise combat credibility. Just that you carry yourself like a "beta male". Now, I'm not saying you've got to go out and insult your fighters, call MMA writers "f*gs" and "c*nts" and things like that, but when some chump named Bjorn is in the streets calling you a straight bitch, you gotta do more than this penny-ante BS you've be pulling.

How this conversation should've played out in the media:

Bjorn: Yeah, I would like to do some cross-promotional stuff with Strikeforce. I mean who wouldn't like to see Eddie Alvarez vs. Gilbert Melendez or Hector Lombard vs. Jacare. AMIRITE?

Scott: Who are you? You want to leech off my company? Didn't you get run out from boxing? I was talking to my good friend "Sugar" Ray Leonard yesterday. You wanna know what he said? Something about you guys working together, you know "co-promoting". Remember how that went?

Bjorn: But I texted you four times. Here, I released the screenshots to the media.

Scott: Why are you releasing shit to the media? Do you think that makes it more or less likely that we do business? And all you fans "supporting" this crap, I'm not going to risk my company to work with some Euro with a really shady past just because people think the matchups might be "cool". Shame on the media, besides Bloody Elbow, for failing to report on this guy's past shenanigans and instead trying to paint me as some non-committal lying POS. Bjorn, get ya shit together before you step to me. If you REALLY want to "come in and take three fights, release those three fighters and we sign 1 fight contracts with our champions clause included. That way when they lose, they're free to go back to you. Till then, keep getting pre-empted for high school football games.

You already know what Bjorn wants...Showtime. I mean he's like that slutty friend that every woman has that they refuse to bring around their boyfriends for fear she will slut it up and take him away. I guess people don't remember that Strikeforce became involved with Showtime. Through co-promotion with Elite XC. I guess Scott feels, and rightfully so, that if you cheated with someone to "get" with him then they'll cheat on him and get with someone else. However, that's further down the line, Coker needs to worry about the here and now.

I mean for goodness sakes, you've got the bigger company, the bigger war-chest and you're letting this guy run you in the media. I hate to play this card, but Dana White in your position would've already squashed this dude. Hey Scott, lemme give you some reading material (This is a nice summary by Kid Nate at BE), then you and your nice PR people get your act together, man up and don't let some dude named Bjork take your juice box.

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