Rumors Mount that Gina Carano Will Sign with Bellator

By Rich Davie
@RichDavie
August 12, 2014

The somewhat shocking news is starting to swell that Gina Carano will be signing with Bellator MMA, and Scott Coker will be making the announcement some time today.

I'm sure this is quite the surprise to many MMA fans and Dana White as well, as White was adamant that he was going to be signing Carano with near certainty.

I'm sure the majority of MMA fans would have preferred that Gina sign with the UFC, but personally I think this is the right move for Carano.

All of the chatter about Gina signing with the UFC at 135 and fighting Ronda Rousey straight away was a bit fanciful.

I've mentioned this numerous times on The MMA Live Chat Show, but with Gina struggling to make weight at 140 and 145 in the past 135 was probably not the right way to go for a return to MMA... especially with Gina currently looking to be a bit "larger" since she's been out of the fight game.

In addition, Invicta FC has also declined to renew the contract of featherweight fighter Marloes Coenen and removed Coenen from the Invicta FC website... it's also being rumored that Coker has signed Coenen as well.

So a logical conclusion would be that Coker just might be putting together a Carano vs. Coenen women's featherweight bout in the near future... but again, this is mostly speculation at the time of this article.

In any event, it'll be great to see the lovely Gina "Conviction" Carano make a return to MMA.

There's more info on this from Ariel Helwani tweets :

It still looks like there's some shaking-up going on over at Bellator... Sam Caplan, the V.P. of Talent Relations for Bellator MMA, will be moving on since his contract hasn't been renewed.

Bellator is also "considering" adding a women's division.

Quote :

From the MMA Fighting.com article :

Bellator is close to getting back into the women's MMA business.

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, the new Bellator regime -- led by former Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker -- is interested in adding at least one women's division to the promotion, with featherweight (145 pounds) being the leading candidate right now.

On Monday, rumors online stated that Bellator had signed Gina Carano, but Coker told MMAFighting.com that those rumors were not true. However, sources have confirmed with MMAFighting.com that there have been preliminary talks between Carano's management team and Bellator about Carano joining the Viacom-owned promotion, though, no deal has been reached.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/8/12/5996101/bellator-mma-considering-adding-womens-division-has-engaged-in

I honestly hope she does. I think it would be a better long term career move for her, than dropping to 135 - and have Dana White throw her to the lion (Rousey) in her first return fight in 5 years! Besides which, there's plenty of room for competition in promoting WMMA - I hope Bellator gets a strong stable going at 145. They've already picked up Marloes Coenen and Julia Budd.

IRONHORSE wrote:

I honestly hope she does. I think it would be a better long term career move for her, than dropping to 135 - and have Dana White throw her to the lion (Rousey) in her first return fight in 5 years! Besides which, there's plenty of room for competition in promoting WMMA - I hope Bellator gets a strong stable going at 145. They've already picked up Marloes Coenen and Julia Budd.

I agree... that's pretty much the same thing I said on the last predictions show in the Final Thoughts segment

OK... some more news on Gina Carano and Bellator.

Scott Coker appeared on The MMA Hour and discussed the signing of featherweight fighters Julia Budd and Marloes Coenen.

Coker also mentioned that he was in contact with Carano's manager :

Quote :

"We've had one quick conversation with Scott (Scott Karp, Carano's manager), and that was it."
"And it was just one quick conversation and there was nothing really made of it. I think that Gina wants to fight at 135. And as far as Cyborg, we haven't talked to her because she's under contract fighting in Invicta, but if she becomes available, then we'll have a conversation with her.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/8/18/6031613/scott-coker-on-gina-carano-weve-had-one-quick-conversation-with-her

Coker also told MMAJunkie :

Quote :

“I don’t want people to read into it that it was some big back-and-forth negotiation, because that wasn’t true."

“It was a quick conversation, and we wish her the best of luck if she does decide to come back to the cage.”

http://mmajunkie.com/2014/08/bellator-mma-boss-scott-coker-on-gina-carano-cyborg-and-picking-up-top-tier-womens-talent

 Rousey/Carano/Justino threads since there's a lull in action before the next event.

I've seen some MMA sites claiming that Gina signing with the UFC is very near... but we've been hearing that for over a month now.

I can't wait until the guessing game is over... I'd love to see Gina in the UFC, but I think Bellator would be a better move for her since she's better suited to fight at 145.

Aside from "rumblings" here and there, I haven't heard much about Gina in awhile. It's like the speculation has ended, but without any resolution.