This is a transcript of just part of the video interview.

RON KRUCK: “You look at the first round match-ups, I mean there’s some epic fights. How did you come up with the opening round fights and the tournament bracket?�

SCOTT COKER: “You know, we sat down for two weeks and we thought about how we would lay this out, and you know we’ve had some criticism from some of the fans saying, well, why is it, you know, these guys are all on top? You know what, we wanted to give the fans the best opportunity to see the best fights that we could put together, guaranteed. And, you know, Fedor, he might win, he might lose (Saturday) night, right? You don’t know, right? But if he should go forward, then he’ll fight the winner of Alistair and Werdum and, so, we’re guaranteeing these fights because, you know, in a tournament format and I know this from experience, very rarely do the guys that you expect from the bottom, you know, like you have eight guys and say, OK, this guy should win and this guy should win, so this is the finals you’re going to get. Very rarely does it happen and I’ll give a good example, three weeks ago or four weeks ago everybody in America thought the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons were going to the Super Bowl, you know, I did. And then it ends up being, you know, Pittsburgh and Green Bay. So, very rarely does it end up the way you think it’s going to end up. So, we’ve mixed it up a little bit, fans might get confused but I guarantee you when they start seeing these fights, they’re going to be happy.�

RON KRUCK: “As you look at the fighters that you have put into this Grand Prix, do you feel when it’s all said and done that the winner should be considered the #1 Heavyweight in all of MMA and that’s including the fighters in the UFC?’

SCOTT COKER: “Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know, our style has never been to disparage anybody. But I can tell you this, not only are these the most talented fighters in the world, they’re the most proven fighters in the world. Look at who Fedor has fought already in his past. Look at who Alistair’s fought. Look at who Bigfoot Silva’s fought. I mean, these guys have all went through the gauntlet several times. Josh Barnett, I mean these guys are all proven fighters, they’re all have been at the top of their game and going into this tournament it’s going to see who is still at the top of their game and the fighter that goes through this gauntlet of athletes should be the #1 fighter in the world.�

One of the interesting things that you see Mr. Coker say in multiple interviews is that he has all the guys signed under contract and that he’s not too concerned about any major injuries taking place. How can he say that when it seems like every other fight that Fedor has a hand injury? How can that be said when contracts haven’t been signed for all the fights (so far, to my knowledge), let alone all of the building venues? Even PRIDE when they ran year-long tournaments had buildings booked for the whole year and announced them ahead of time. We still aren’t sure where Strikeforce’s April event is going to take place.