Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was recently interviewed by BloodyElbow.com to talk about the fight promotion business and the inevitable comparisons to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Coker offered the president of the UFC, Dana White, a compliment by calling him the “Don King” of mixed martial arts.
“Dana is kind of like the Don King. He’s out there and he’s out promoting his brand as well as the company brand and the fighter brand. I’m more of a very direct business man. The guy I really liked wasn’t Don King. To me, it’s okay being the Bob Arum. In a lot of Bob’s early fights, you didn’t even know who promoted the fights. The fights were amazing, they were great, and they were focused on the athlete. That’s been my philosophy too. The stars of the show are in the cage…Dana is Dana. He does a great job at doing what he does. It’s okay to be the Bob Arum and put on these great fights, to put on these mega events…the fights that we put on are right up there with any other league. We’ve done some big arena shows, we’ve done some million dollar gates. Outside of the UFC, I don’t think anyone is doing that.”