UNCASVILLE, Conn. – For over seven years, Scott Coker has been at the Bellator control panel. The time has flown by for Coker, who would rather focus on the future than the past.
“I think we’ve done a lot of great work in the last seven years,” Coker told MMA Junkie on Thursday. “This was a much different roster than it was seven years ago. It takes time to build a company and a league. I think that right now this is the best roster we’ve had to date. We’re with a great new television partner and there’s a lot of great things ahead. I’m really excited about what’s happening here at Bellator and the future.”
Since July 2020, Bellator has held all 20 of its domestic events at Mohegan Sun Arena. After Bellator 261 on Friday and Bellator 262 on July 13, the promotion will travel across the country for Bellator 263 on July 31 in Los Angeles.
Despite his praise for Mohegan Sun, Coker is excited to hit the road again. The hope is that fans across the country – and perhaps even some overseas – will be able to attend a live Bellator event in 2021.
“We’re out there looking for some venues right now,” Coker said. “We’re definitely going to get on the road. We love the Mohegan Sun. This is a great venue that’s been very good to us. It’s been the home for the last (11) months but I think it’s time to get on the road and get back to what we used to do, which is have a little touring roadshow, coming to different cities around the country.
“As soon as international opens up a little bit, we’re definitely going to get on the road and start promoting fights internationally. We’ve done great business throughout Europe. We’ve done great business in Japan. We’ve done great business throughout the U.K. and Ireland. To me, we’ve got to get back there. We have a lot of fighters waiting to fight and we’ve got to keep those guys busy.”
Bellator 261 takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena. The main card airs on Showtime after prelims on MMA Junkie.
Check out MMA Junkie’s full interview with Coker below, where he discusses Fedor Emelianenko, Gegard Mousasi, the light heavyweight grand prix, Patricio Friere vs. A.J. McKee, and more.
I honestly wonder if it isnt a money laundering operation at this point…or tax write off.
Even when they are open for crowds they dont pack a house. They NEVER advertise.
Despite having some very entertaining fighters they dont promote them.
I am amazed they lasted this long.
And I actually LIKE bellator but they arent doing anything right they just have an endless pocket book.
I honestly don’t know how Bellator has stayed in business. The gates that they draw are tiny. Their biggest crowds are smaller than the smallest of the UFC’s crowds. They don’t have PPV buys to count on. You never hear Bellator mentioned, advertised or talked about. Its hard to even find where the fights are being broadcasted. I honestly think Coker has been a bit of a disappointment at Bellator. I haven’t noticed any growth since he has been with them. He’s had years to build the company. I think LFA was actually gaining traction and possibly more watched than Bellator before they lost their TV deal. Bellator after all of these years is still regularly relying on cards at their Oklahoma tribal casino to support their promotion.
Bellator is awesome
I see Bellator advertising all the time
I guess it depends on how many more quality fighters the UFC cuts or fails to re-sign. Scotty is “Mr. Rebound.”
I think once you get to the network television level, the name of the game for most of these network’s properties is simply to create content, not even ratings, and not even big live event revenue. It’s just to have stuff in the basket that the ad sales team can tout when they’re selling services to hit different demographics.
That’s about all I can think, because otherwise, their marketing and live event is shit.
Ehh they have made the Grand Prix events which were very interesting but even then — seems hardcores are the only ones watching … bellator does have a handful of great fighters but very little interest. I’m not sure it’s Cokers fault — it’s more a fan burnout problem I think
Bellator 145 division is the best in mma
I honestly think Pitbull would murk Volk. There 145 division is crazy stacked
I’ve always wondered how they can be profitable.
I used to love bellator, thot it was second to ufc but they are falling behind, in canada I could never find the fights, missed alot of events, the events are far apart, 3 weeks for next event? I really like coker he seems like a good guy that cares about the figthers but he doesnt seem like a great leader
even during covid, while alot of other mma orgs were moving on, bellator stayed in hiding, they need to change somthing, onefc, pfl are way ahead of bellator
It was better 7 years ago
Bellator’s cards have gotten to be so bad that I was offered free ringside tickets once and given free admission to a couple other of their cards at Pechanga before COVID that I turned down. I used to never miss any fights of any promotion whether it was boxing or MMA, UFC or Bellator, Jackson Rancheria or even KOTC or Gladiators Challenge cards back out at Soboba casino. I never missed a fight. Bellator has left me with almost zero interest in anything they put on. McKee seems to be pretty damn good, but other than him and Pitbull of course there isn’t too many fighters that they have that makes me excited to watch. The Ukrainian that just beat Lima looks damn good too. I’d love to see him matched against some UFC guys. Could he take down Usman and deal with him? His wrestling is something else. Other than that they don’t have many fights that I could not ever care to watch or follow.
Coker has done a terrible job with Bellator. It’s become the UFC’s retirement home. He’s developed very few good fighters and he jumps at every opportunity to put on a freak show. I quit watching Bellator a couple of years ago. It’s just not very good.
Not to mention his pet fighters he allows to smash cans over and over and over again (e.g. MVP, Pico). I know your supposed to out them over but goddamn you are also supposed to let them fight better fighters too. Damn! Smh!
Technically he did do that with MVP and well… Haha!
I don’t like how Bellator tries to promote WMMA with their 125 lb and 145 lb divisions for the girls when they don’t even have deep talent pools in some of their men’s divisions.
Their LW division should be a lot better than it is. Build that up instead of pissing money away on women’s 145, a division with little talent. Their FW division is just a pot of money for Cyborg at this point like PFL’s 155 division is just a pot of money for Harrison.
The best thing Bellator has done in the past five years is their WW and HW GPs they did recently and their FW and LHW GPs that are currently running.
Despite being around for a decade and despite all the money behind them, they still only have 1M youtube subscribers and not many twitter followers either. Not sure why they suck so bad at digital/social media but they do.
Bellator needs to focus even more on their quality tournaments, that sets them apart from the UFC in a good way. Bellator giving fans random cards mixed with men, women and eight weight classes with one big fight is pointless, UFC already gives fans that type of card two or three times a month with their Fight Nights, seeing Bellator copy that with only 20% of the UFC talent pool is a boring failure.
The FW GP is the best example of the quality product Bellator can produce. I watch Bellator for stuff like that. I don’t watch the prelims featuring regional guys and I’m not watching their WMMA or some guy like Koscheck on the way out.
Right now I’d say 10 or 20% of Bellator fights are worth watching IMO, thats all I can tolerate usually.
Just never feels like a good or fun investment to spend 4+ hours on Friday night watching Bellator. I’ve done it and tend to regret it.