Rebney Releases Texts to Strikeforce CEO Regarding Super Fights

Bellator Fighting Championships CEO Bjorn Rebney has kicked it up a notch.

Rebney has claimed for weeks that he has tried to get in touch with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker regarding potential super fights between the champions of the respective promotions. The idea was brought up by Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez on HDNet’s “Inside MMA” this summer, and Rebney has responded to the challenge by pandering to Coker publicly and, as he claimed, privately.

Following Bellator 34 on Oct. 28, Rebney announced he had sent Coker a “dozen different text messages and voice messages” since Oct.21. The report was later denied by Coker, who appeared on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Savage Dog Show” on Friday. The Strikeforce CEO claimed he had not received a single text from Rebney and chalked up his talk as a public relations move.

“I’m not sure what his motivation is,” said Coker. “Maybe it’s just his way of staying in the press. 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 make it, but I’m not going to do it in the media.”

A Bellator public relations representative on Saturday sent Sherdog images of four text messages allegedly sent to Coker by Rebney in the last week. Each message was related to the pair putting together the proposed fight between Melendez and Bellator lightweight titleholder Eddie Alvarez and the possibility of contests between the promotions’ middleweight and welterweight champions.

Sherdog has confirmed that the number that Rebney reportedly messaged belongs to Coker, but the Strikeforce head could not be immediately reached for comment regarding the matter.