Bellator 300 may or may not be the promotion’s last hurrah before a rumored sale, and Coker spoke about the uncertainty ahead following the event.
Bellator 300 just went down at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California and the card went well enough despite some hiccups and the loss of a heavyweight title fight (check out the highlights here). There’s been rumors that 300 may be the last Bellator card under the current ownership of Viacom (now known as Paramount Global), and that the promotion may be sold to the PFL any day now.
UFC CEO Dana White recently threw some shade at Bellator, asking why anyone would even want to buy the company. At the Bellator 300 post-fight press conference, president Scott Coker shrugged off the s— talk.
“I didn’t even hear that so I don’t know how to comment,” he claimed. “But we have a great company and you talk about a clear number two in the space? Nobody has the fighters that we have, nobody can pack this arena like we packed it other than the UFC. So when I think about negative comments coming from other promoters, it is what it is. I’m not really impacted by that.”
Scott Coker responds to Dana White recently asking why anyone would want to buy Bellator. #Bellator300 pic.twitter.com/8pn67sAKsF
— Drake Riggs (@DrakeRiggs_) October 8, 2023
“I really try to focus on the business at hand, what’s important to the growth of this company and the growth of our employees to try and keep this going forward. So to me I focus on what we’re doing and not any outside disturbance.”
As for the PFL deal, Coker remains mum and says he’s not really involved in any deals that Viacom may be brokering.
“We’ll see where the future goes as far as if a deal is gonna happen or not gonna happen,” he said. “These things take time, and until the time gets solidified it’s just speculation … Keep in mind: I don’t own Bellator. Bellator is not my company to own or to sell or to keep or to merge. It’s owned by Viacom, and they have a process that they do, and they’re doing what they need to do. It’s not something I own to sell or not sell.”
“It’s hard for me to really comment on it because it’s completely different,” he concluded. “Now, there are some feelings that feel the same, but at the end of the day it’s not my company.”
Coker has already gone through the whole sale thing before: he oversaw the sale of Strikeforce to the UFC back in 2011. Coker grew that promotion from a regional kickboxing promotion to a national powerhouse, only to have his investors tap out over growing costs. This time the issue seems to be corporate apathy: Paramount Global is in serious cost-cutting mode and looking to shuck off as many under-performing pieces of their empire as possible.
There are some signs that Bellator may limp on: they announced another title fight for Cris Cyborg, who will face Leah McCourt for the women’s featherweight belt at a future event. As for if it will happen? We’ll have to take Coker’s advice to wait and see. From what we’re hearing, though, we have serious doubts that Bellator will continue to exist under its current ownership by the end of the year.