Scott Coker: If Tyson Fury Had Lost to Klitschko, ‘We Would Have Been All Over That’

Tyson Fury pulled off one of boxing’s biggest upsets in recent memory last Saturday when he defeated Wladimir Klitschko in Dusseldorf, Germany, to end the Ukrainian’s lengthy reign as heavyweight champion.

While it wasn’t an especially enthralling performance, Fury was more active and consistently beat his 39-year-old opponent to the punch to capture a unanimous verdict. If the 27-year-old British boxer had lost as many expected, his career might have taken a different turn.

Bellator President Scott Coker recently told Sherdog.com that negotiations to bring Fury to the Viacom-owned organization would have become “extremely serious” had he been vanquished by Klitschko.

“Even him as a champion now, [we’d still be interested] unless he has something in his contract, which I’m sure he does and he’s probably tied up exclusively for a little bit now that he’s won the title,” Coker said. “If he had lost, we would have been all over that.”

Earlier this year, Coker told MMAFighting.com that the promotion was “in dialogue” with Fury about potentially competing for Bellator. Now, however, it appears that Klitschko will exercise the mandatory rematch clause in his contract, which likely means that Fury will be tied up with boxing obligations for the foreseeable future.

Fury ruffled some feathers in the MMA community a couple years back, when he claimed that mixed martial arts was for people “who couldn’t box” and that he would “take [then UFC heavyweight champion] Cain Velasquez out.”

Coker, for one, would still like to give Fury the opportunity to prove himself in the cage.

“Even if he’s the champ and he’s allowed to fight MMA, let’s put it together,” Coker said. “We’d love to have Tyson come fight in mixed martial arts.”