Interviews
MMATORCH EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney - "I don't think Alvarez vs. Melendez is a fight Strikeforce would take"
Sep 17, 2010 - 9:24:09 AM MMATORCH EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Bellator founder Bjorn Rebney - "I don't think Alvarez vs. Melendez is a fight Strikeforce would take"

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

At Bellator 29 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday night, Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney took a short time out to talk to MMATorch about a couple of topics including the much talked about matchup between Bellator's Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez.

RICH HANSEN: There has been a lot of talk about Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez. Do you have anything you can tell us about this fight, maybe next year sometime?

BJORN REBNEY: You know, I keep calling Scott Coker and pressing the issues like crazy. I never like to assume I can get inside people’s heads. I think Eddie Alvarez is the best 155 pounder in the world. I mean, everybody can debate it, but he’ll never get the chance to fight Frankie [Edgar] or B.J. [Penn] or Kenny [Florian].

RH: But he could fight Gilbert.

BR: Right. So I call on a weekly basis. I’m starting to feel like that guy from Swingers making the returning phone call all night. I think they (Strikeforce) are not as enthusiastic about it as I am. I’ve got a lot of respect for Gilbert. Gilbert started this talk by calling out Eddie. Gilbert wants it, he’s got a huge heart. Eddie wants it. Of course, I want it. And I don’t know if that’s a fight they would take. Gilbert is one of their bigger stars right now, and a loss to Eddie Alvarez wouldn’t be the best thing for him right now.

RH: If Scott Coker said he’d do it in a Strikeforce cage, Strikeforce rules, as a full Strikeforce production, would it happen?

BR: Yes.

RH: I also want to ask you about Hector Lombard. I’m trying to be kind about this, but the competition Lombard has faced in Bellator ever since winning the tournament has seemed to be less than stellar talent. What can be done to either A) Bring in better middleweight talent, assuming he defeats Shlemenko next month, or B) is there any thought of letting him fight for other promotions so he can face competition that’s closer to his level.

BR: Sure. I think you’re right on target. Alexander Shlemenko is very talented. To be able to take out Bryan Baker the way he did... We forget that going into that fight, this is a guy (Baker) who hung with Chael [Sonnen]. And Chael destroyed Anderson Silva, supposedly the greatest pound for pound fighter on the planet. And Bryan went the distance with Chael. So Alexander is a really talented guy. We recognize we have a freak of nature in Hector Lombard, and a huge talent in Eddie Alvarez. 145 lb. and 170 lb. are stacked for us. We’re trying very hard now to get more talent at 155 lb. and 185 lb., to get us that kind of a match.

RH: Do you ever wonder how different your company might be right now if Lombard would have gotten his travel visa three years ago and wound up fighting for the UFC, making him unavailable to you?

BR: Well, we wouldn’t have one of our two biggest superstars. And Hector Lombard I think would be the Middleweight Champion of the UFC right now. People talk about what happened with him and Gegard Mousasi, but this is a different Hector Lombard (note: Lombard’s last loss was to Gegard Mousasi in November of 2006, in PRIDE). He went down to American Top Team and started working with them and he is a total animal. I tell you, he’s been knocking people out, and he’s never once had to show his judo. Nobody wants to roll with him. I mean he’s just a monster and a freak.

RH: He would have matched up well with Paulo Filho.

BR: Yeah, exactly. And that’s why we worked so diligently to get the Filho fight to happen. And you know, it just didn’t happen, and I feel for him. That would have been the fight to see.


We'll have more with Bjorn next Tuesday when he joins us live on the MMATorch Livecast Tuesday Conversation, so make sure to tune into the show from 9-1030PM ET at BlogTalkRadio.com/MMATorch.