Fedor Emelianenko versus Rampage Jackson at the Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo. A bucket list event for Bellator and its president Scott Coker. It goes down tonight, in a collaboration with Japanese fight league Rizin, with Michael Chandler, Lorenz Larkin and Michael Venom Page from the Bellator roster on the card, too. Explosiveness and dynamism. A moment in time.

Fedor and Rampage never met in PRIDE, in the heyday of fight sports entertainment in Japan, and this is a genuine wind back moment. It also caps a burgeoning, growth year of flags being planted, signings being made, and overall growth for the Bellator fight league.

“I think it all started in 2018 in Hawaii. That started the roll. That was the launch of 2019. That started the momentum. We had Fedor and Bader,” Coker explained to The Daily Telegraph in an exclusive interview as the year closes out, seeing the Japan event as 'gold level MMA bucket list'.

“Time goes by fast. This it the type of business where there’s ups and downs. We’ve been on a good roll and growing. Europe has started to become solid. I want Europe to be self-sustained. We have a great operation there and fighters. We need to grow more talent and sponsorship there. It can be it’s own little event series. I want to do the same in Asia. Build it’s own self sustained business there."