Dana Slaps 'Bad Promoter' Scott Coker For Use Of 'UFC Castoffs' In Unsealed Antitrust Deposition

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https://www.mmanews.com/news/dana-white-slams-scott-coker-ufc-antitrust-deposition

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Over nine years ago, an antitrust lawsuit was filed against the UFC due to disputes between fighters and the promotion over issues such as pay and restrictions placed in contracts.

Now, the chances of the case actually making it to trial appear to be higher than ever, with potentially $1 billion at stake for the world’s leading MMA promotion.

A variety of messages and communications regarding the suit have been unsealed in recent months. Some of the past comms haven’t revealed a particularly nice side of the UFC top brass, including roasting top stars such as current UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones, as well as frank discussions on ruthless business practises.
In a recent deposition, the quotes from which have been scoured through and released by Bloody Elbow, UFC CEO Dana White shared some less than stellar thoughts on Bellator’s Scott Coker.

‘Coker Doesn’t Build Anybody’ - Dana White

The released texts revealed that Lorenzo Fertitta had roasted then-Bellator President Scott Coker for putting together a fight between former UFC light heavyweight champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Tito Ortiz.
Fertitta reportedly dismissed Jackson and Ortiz as “UFC castoffs” when discussing the matter with Dana White.

“I thought they don’t take UFC castoffs," Fertitta reportedly said.

During his deposition, White was asked about the comment and pulled no punches when discussing his negative view on Coker as a promoter.

When asked what Fertitta meant by the remark, White explained that Coker had previously claimed his promotion would not go out of its way to pick up former UFC talent.

However, according to White, Coker frequently picked up names from other companies and “recycles” them.

“That’s — that’s Scott Coker’s MO. Scott Coker doesn’t build anybody, right?” White said. “He doesn’t turn anybody into stars. He just takes old names and recycles them. He’s a — he — he’s a very, very bad promoter.”

White later doubled down on his take on Coker’s efforts, dismissing all of Coker’s promotional efforts over the years, which includes Strikeforce in addition to Bellator, as “all failures.”

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@JonFitchSMASH

Thoughts?

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I hate to say it but he does have a point

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Coker totally build SF and when they were becoming big, UFC bought them.
Says enough.

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I actually think Strikeforce was about to sink. That’s why the ufc bought it.

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He’s kind of right, but I’m not sure what Coker could do differently. Maybe pick up less ex-ufc stars, but I don’t think so. Definitely he shouldn’t sign guys that are WAY over the hill, just for the novelty attention. The UFC has the benefit of being the NFL, the NBA, THE brand in it’s sport. It’s a lot easier to build stars when they inherently have that credibility. That’s a credit to the Fertittas, and has a lot to do with the original UFC breaking into the mainstream culture in the 90’s. UFC is just the name that has always come to mind when this sport is mentioned.

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yup

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“That’s Scott Coker’s MO. Scott Coker doesn’t build anybody, right?” White said. “He doesn’t turn anybody into stars. He just takes old names and recycles them. He’s a — he — he’s a very, very bad promoter. Very bad at what he does.”

Former women’s Bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, was undeniably the biggest star in Strikeforce history as she helped launch the female fighters into a different stratosphere of notoriety. Therefore, UFC kept the fighters around when it purchased Strikeforce in 2012. Rousey debuted at UFC 157 against Liz Carmouche in February 2013, and from there was officially a star, not before, says White.

Question: Right. Is it your — not withstanding the fact that the UFC got some — I think as you testified earlier, some really great fighters from Mr. Coker’s Strikeforce promotion; right?

White: That we turned into stars. When you have Ronda Rousey and you can’t turn her into a star, you should probably go open a restaurant or something.

Question: And so — and so is it your testimony that at Bellator, Mr. Coker is continuing to essentially recycle has-been fighters? Is that —

White: Well, no. He — he recycles big names.

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UFC Heavy weight devision benefited the most from the Strikeforce buy out; Overeem, Werdum, Cormier, Big foot, and Barnet.

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That wasn’t the case; there was a great 4 part article called “A secret history of Strikeforce”.

They were making money on most cards and breaking even on the ones Fedor fought.

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Hell no, there HW was more filled than UFC’s pool.
They also had Nick Diaz in his prime.

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Yeah, but succeeding takes more than haveing big names and talented fighters. “Affliction” is a good example.