Alberto Del Rio Bellator Talks Confirmed

After reports surfaced earlier this month about Bellator MMA being interested in signing a few more professional wrestlers to their roster (they already have former TNA Champion, and former WWE superstar Bobby Lashley), one of the most prominent names to come up was that of Alberto Del Rio, the former WWE champion who was released earlier this year for unprofessional conduct. Del Rio, it should be noted, has a legit MMA background, having fought up until 2010 in Japan's Pride and Deep organizations, among others, under the name Dos Caras Jr. Using a wrestling base, and fighting in a luchador style mask, Dos Caras/Del Rio compiled a 9-5 MMA record, losing to heavyweight legend Cro Cop, but breaking Kengo Watanabe's arm in his debut while executing a suplex (yes those sometimes do happen in MMA, though not the way you think of them in pro wrestling), and employing a fairly successful submission game. Well, where there's smoke there's fire: Bellator MMA president Scott Coker has confirmed the organization is in talks with Del Rio (real name José Alberto Rodríguez),telling MMA Fighting that

I'm not sure where that is and by no means is it in the 11th hour, but I know there's some dialogue going on.

Interesting. For Coker to admit to being in talks with the fighter lends credence to the rumour that they do want to sign more pro wrestlers, and at the very least, if talks are ongoing, as this suggests, there's a possibility we may see Del Rio back in the cage in the MMA world. Even more interesting, perhaps, is that since Del Rio fights at heavyweight, you could see him eventually square off against Bobby Lashley in Bellator MMA. The company seems to want to go with this sort of spectacle fighter, and two former WWE stars would definitely draw ratings. Del Rio recently signed a deal with Ring of Honor wrestling, but Bellator doesn't seem to worry about the pro wrestling side for guys crossing over, and would no doubt allow him to continue working shows there.