("I’m not sure what this has to do with the movie, Mr. Spielberg, but if you say Kate Capshaw auditioned topless, I’m cool with it, too.")

Well, it looks like Scott Coker is still under the impression that the former face of his promotion, Gina Carano will be back competing for Strikeforce this year. 

While on MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour Monday, Coker said that he’s confident that the former Strikeforce female 145-pound standout who hasn’t fought since losing her strap to Cris "Cyborg" Santos 17 months ago in August of 2009 will make her much-anticipated return before the end of 2011 — a lofty claim he made last year as well, that didn’t materialize.

"I believe she’ll be back in the cage this year. From what I know of her, she is a competitor at heart; she’s going to want to fight," Coker told Ariel Helwani. "She’s not going to want to end her career the way it ended. So, I think she’ll be back."


Carano has been busy since the loss to Cyborg — so much so that her former coach Randy Couture hasn’t spoken to her since and said that he doubts that she will fight again, considering the beating Santos handed her and the financial perks and fame that she could potentially find in Hollywood.

She spent a few months last summer filming Haywire, a female lead version of the Bourne Identity. Carano plays a CIA agent in the movie who has been set up by the agency and forced to become a rogue agent while she proves her innocence. The film, which is set for release April 22, is directed by Steven Soderbergh and co-stars Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum.

It was reported that during filming, Steven Spielberg whisked away the former Xtreme Couture fighter to read for a taylor made part the acclaimed director created for her in his sci-fi flick Super 8 after seeing the dailies for Haywire, so it seems unlikely that Gina would walk away from Hollywood in favor of Strikeforce when her popularity is growing.

Still, Coker, who is perhaps looking at the situation as naively as he is his dead in the water deal with CBS, hasn’t spoken with Carano about returning to the cage is optimistic that she’ll be back soon.

"This girl’s a real fighter. She’s not this actress that became a fighter. She’s a real fighter that became an actress," he explained. "So that fight is inside her."