Former Bellator President Scott Coker believes the UFC is overstaurated right now.
Coker has been away from MMA since 2024, when PFL bought Bellator. However, Coker announced he’s set to launch a new MA promotion beginning in 2027, and he has already raised $60 million.
With Coker being back in the MMA fold, he was asked about the state of the UFC, and he thinks they are doing too many events and have too many fighters.
“It looks consistent. To me, if you say, ‘Name four champions in the UFC in their weight classes,’ I don’t think I could do it right now, and I don’t think my friends could do it right now. It’s on every week in front of your face too much. Maybe it is (oversturation),” Coker said to Ariel Helwani.
Coker believes that 24 fight cards a year is the perfect amount, compared to the UFC’s 42-43, which he feels is way too much and has made the UFC harder to watch and build stars. Instead of building stars, the promotion has just signed fighters to fill cards.
Scott Coker announces new hires for promotion
As for his promotion, Coker said they will do 12 events in 2027 and would like to get up to two fight cards a month. The unnamed promotion also made some new hires to help run it.
On Tuesday, Coker’s promotion announced that former Bellator matchmaker Rich Chou will join the promotion and will serve in a similar role as vice president of athlete relations. Chou was also with Coker in Strikeforce.
Along with Chou, the promotion announced that former Paramount and Spike TV president Kevin Kay is hired as chief content officer, while former Gatorade and Nike executive Tom Fox joins as chief operating officer. Lawrence Stuart has been named vice president of media rights and business development. Paolo Boccotti, who ran Bellator’s European efforts, will serve as executive vice president of European production and operations.
Finally, Coker’s new promotion announced that ex-Showtime Sports communications exec Chris DeBlasio will serve that role once again, alongside public relations manager C.J. Tuttle, who helped run PR for Bellator and PFL.
Do you agree with Scott Coker?