Coker shuts down 50 Cent’s $2 million offer to Khabib
Scott Coker responds to 50 Cent’s $2 million offer to Khabib Nurmagomedov to jump ship to Bellator.
Rapper 50 Cent has been looking to be more actively involved in mixed martial arts. He is even willing to pay a sum of $2 million to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov to jump ship to Bellator.
“The Eagle” did express interest and issued a positive response, but none of it may bear fruit. During the Bellator 208 post-fight presser on Saturday, company president Scott Coker addressed the social media conversation between the two men.
“He (50 Cent) called me yesterday and he said, ‘Hey, what’s going on with this?’” Coker said at the post-fight news conference after Bellator 208 on Saturday (via MMAjunkie). “I said, ‘Well, the commission’s involved. There’s a lot of steps to that whole situation.’
“I’d like to just – I told him, ‘Hey, let’s just stay clear of it because that has nothing to do with Bellator, it has to do with the commission and the fighter and the league.’ So that’s their business.”
If he were to take a guess, Coker believes the angle is more about fighter management than anything else.
“I think what he means by that is like him as a manager,” Coker said. “50 Cent, when he’s talking to an athlete, that has nothing to do with Bellator. I can’t tell 50 Cent what to say or not say, believe me.”
Khabib threatened to leave the UFC if the sanctions on his teammate and friend Zubaira Tukhugov would be imposed. Tukhugov had already been pulled from his scheduled fight against Artem Lobov at UFC Moncton on October 28th, and is facing the possibility of being cut from the roster.