Scott Coker not interested in signing Anderson Silva to Bellator

Scott Coker isn’t interested in signing former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva to the Bellator MMA roster.

Silva last stepped into the UFC’s Octagon on Halloween night, when he was knocked out in by ranked middleweight contender Uriah Hall. Heading into the fight, UFC President Dana White claimed the fight would be Silva’s last with the promotion, and post-fight, the UFC boss reaffirmed he had no interest in giving the aging legend further fights.

While’s it clear that Silva will no longer be competing in the UFC, however, he has left the door open to future fights outside the organization. That caused many fans to speculate that he might follow in the footsteps of other UFC legends like Tito Ortiz, Lyoto Machida, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, and sign with Bellator.

That’s unlikely, says Coker.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” the Bellator boss told MMA Junkie when asked about signing Silva. “He’s definitely one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts. I really haven’t thought about it, but I think I’m happy with the way our roster is heading and the fighters that we have now. I think that’s my statement on that.”

Anderson Silva ruled over the UFC middleweight division from 2006 to 2013. During that time, he defended his title against the likes of Rich Franklin, Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson, Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, Demian Maia, Chael Sonnen (twice), Vitor Belfort, and Yushin Okami. He also picked up light heavyweight wins over James Irvin, Forrest Griffin, and Stephan Bonnar.

More recently, Silva has fallen on hard times. The legend is 1-7 in his last seven fights, sandwiching a close decision win over Derek Brunson between losses to Chris Weidman (twice), Michael Bisping, Daniel Cormier, Israel Adesanya, Jared Cannonier and Hall.

What do you think the future holds for the aging MMA legend with Bellator seemingly not an option?