Coker “We Built a Roster Unlike Anybody Else”

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This Saturday night, the company will hold its historic 300th event. As of now, the card is set to be headlined by Usman Nurmagomedov’s title defense against Brent Primus, but that’s far from the only gold on the line. Champions Cris Cyborg and Liz Carmouche will defend against Cat Zingano and Ilima-Lei Macfarlane.
Earlier today, Scott Coker previewed the card at the Bellator 300 pre-fight press conference. There, the CEO stated that he was proud of how much the promotion had grown, from doing tournament events to stadium shows. Furthermore, he said that for the first time since PRIDE, the UFC had a competitor.

Obviously, Scott Coker’s comments come at an odd time for Bellator. As of now, it’s unclear what their future holds. Earlier this summer, there were rumors that the company would be sold to the PFL, as Viacom is out on combat sports. However, the deal hasn’t been made official, as of now.

“We’ve taken this brand from small casino shows to a big stadium show,” Scott Coker stated at the Bellator 300 press conference earlier today. “From something that was traveling across the United States to something that went worldwide. We’ve done a lot of great work, and we have a great team. I’m proud of my team and proud of the fighters we have onboard.”

He continued, “We have a roster unlike anybody else, I think in MMA. Not since PRIDE have you heard the notion of ‘Hey, are these fighters better than the UFC fighters? Is Nemkov better than the 205-pounder over there? Is Johnny Eblen better than their 185-pounder?’ Those are the types of conversations happening today. We’ve built a brand, we’ve built fighters, we built this company from the ground up.”