UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Bellator President Scott Coker adamantly denies there was any foul play involved in the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Chael Sonnen main event at Bellator 208.

Following Emelianenko’s (38-5 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) first-round TKO victory over Sonnen (30-16-1 MMA, 2-2 BMMA) in Saturday’s heavyweight grand prix final semifinal matchup at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., some talk began to surface online about whether the fight was “fixed.”

Coker was asked directly about those claims when he spoke to the media at the Bellator 208 post-fight news conference, and he brushed it off as a ridiculous notion.

“I mean, come on – that doesn’t even deserve a response to the people that are saying it,” Coker told reporters, including MMAjunkie, post-fight at Bellator 208. “Listen, Chael got clipped. He told me, he said, ‘Man, he hit me, and he hit me really good.’ And he was done. That’s it. With Chael, the thing with Tito (Ortiz), ‘Oh, he let him go,’ or something. Come on. Why would you do that? You’re a professional athlete. You’re a fighter. He wants to continue, he wants to go to the next round of the tournament. That’s just all rubbish.”

There has never been any legitimate evidence a fight under the Bellator banner has been tampered with, yet accusations seem to routinely come up following major fights for the promotion – especially ones involving older athletes.

Coker said he’s unsure why it continues to be a narrative but believes it might have something to do with certain personalities. He was cageside for the wild brawl between Emelianenko and Sonnen at Bellator 208, though, and said there was nothing manufactured about what unfolded in the fight.

“I don’t know (why people say that),” Coker said. “To me, they see Chael, he’s got this character and they just feel like with Chael he’s this character, so maybe that’s what they’re thinking (it’s fixed). If you had Fedor punching you and kicking you and kneeing you like he was doing today – that was real. That was not fake.”

For complete coverage of Bellator 208, check out the MMA Events section of the site.