Tony is actually one of the best guys he's fought in a long time.
To be fair, this fight should have happened in Bellator in 2015. Tony was coming off HW tournament winner in Alexander Volkov. Minakov was still ducking Bellator's HW division.
Thats not saying much because Tony is pretty bad.
He was borderline top 15 before losing to Kongo, so he ain't that bad.
Bellator's HW scene during the past few years has been frustrating and dissapointing.
pretty simple. he is not in UFC because he has a contract with Bellator. but that contract sucks. according to him when he fought and beat Kongo Cheick made few times more money when him. they tried to negotiate with Coker to either terminate the contract or rase a salary multiple times but nothing worked out. so for now it's a dead end.
I've seen someone mentioned that they were negotiating but then this fake rumor popped up that Minakov is gonna sign with UFC or negotiating with them and Coker was like "we are not gonna raise your pursue and not gonna negotiate with you anymore". Also I've seen on Russian forums someone mentioned that Minakov and his manager in Russia said in interviews that they want Bellator to pay at least 100000 $ for a fight. From what I understand it's just a show up money. And I think Minakov said multiple times that if he becomes free agent he will sign with promotion who will offer better conditions and money. He said that he may stay with Bellator if they offer more money than UFC.
It it being streamed live free?
Should start in 20 minutes.
