News Scott Coker back in the MMA promotion business

[TorontoTO]

First show will be MMA/Kickboxing/Muay Thai

 

[careto]

Strikeforce was not failing, don't know where this idea has come from.

People close to the deal have said as much. Strikeforce was losing money and needed an injection of capital to make up for recent signings and the HWGP. The investors werent willing to commit more resources and instead accepted an offer from Zuffa rather than invest more money.

The Death of Strikeforce: The Oral History of the UFC's Great Alternative, Pt. 2

Strikeforce is on its death bed. Its final event , held in Oklahoma City Saturday night, is imminent. How did the promotion that once fancied itself the Pepsi to UFC's Coke get to ...

syndication.bleacherreport.com

 

[TadDunbar]

I could've done without ever seeing or hearing from Scott Coker again

 

[Thesnake101]

People close to the deal have said as much. Strikeforce was losing money and needed an injection of capital to make up for recent signings and the HWGP. The investors werent willing to commit more resources and instead accepted an offer from Zuffa rather than invest more money.

The Death of Strikeforce: The Oral History of the UFC's Great Alternative, Pt. 2

Strikeforce is on its death bed. Its final event , held in Oklahoma City Saturday night, is imminent. How did the promotion that once fancied itself the Pepsi to UFC's Coke get to ...

syndication.bleacherreport.com

I thought it was common knowledge that SF's deal with Fedor and M-1 spelled doom for them.

Bringing Fedor stateside is cursed.

 

[CorninginChristianburg]

Some CEOs are really good at starting their own company. Some CEOs start a company with the intention of selling the IP a couple years down the road. I think that's Scott Coker, and his IP is elite fighters. So as to "why is he still in the MMA game?" Isn't it obvious? He makes a stable salary for years while building up an elite stable of fighters, and then an additional payout when he sells that to a buyer.

He is good at a certain aspect of his job. He's been able to make a lot of money over the years capitalizing on that. It's not weird for him to want to continue. He's 61 so he could retire, but especially if he likes what he's doing and he has opportunities to make money, he can work for another 4-5 years.

 

[biomed190]

I really liked strikeforce. So if this can be anything like that, count me in. Maybe Coker can get the fighters and Melendez can do more of the promotional part of it.

 

[careto]

I thought it was common knowledge that SF's deal with Fedor and M-1 spelled doom for them.

Bringing Fedor stateside is cursed.

That was part of the problem. Remember every Frdor fight had to be a co-promotion with M-1 and it ended costing SF more money than they though. Also, Fedor losing to Werdum and Big Foot hindered Fedor's drawing power.

Also, dont forget the brawl with Mayhem and the Scrap Pack eliminated the possibility of a continued relationship with CBS. It forced SF to make big money signings to turn the ship around. The Fedor "curse", the Mayhem brawl, and big signings to make HWGP led to financial problems that scared away investors.

 

[MMALOPEZ]

First show will be MMA/Kickboxing/Muay Thai

Seronio 4-0 (Bellator vet) vs collard 3-3

Rodriguez is a glory vet

Compton is a 8-3 mw mma (Bellator and lfa vet)

Wodicker is a lion fight vet she should be facing Bade who is a Muay Thai vet from NY


Regional show … similar to Strikeforce when Coker started it

 

[tehMoose]

Coker is the GOAT at finding talent

He has a winning record against UFC (with Strikeforce)
He beat 5-0 Rizin (with Bellator)
He beat 5-1 PFL (with Bellator)


Meanwhile Dana failed every time with Chuck in Pride, with Conor in boxing, with Ed Herman against Jacare in Strikeforce. I mean Lawler went 3-5 in Strikeforce and immediately after that run he signed with the UFC and went on a 9-2 run and became champ

Ngannou also went 0-2 in boxing (without fighting in PFL even once)


Coker > Dana

 

[TorontoTO]

Coker is the GOAT at finding talent

He has a winning record against UFC (with Strikeforce)
He beat 5-0 Rizin (with Bellator)
He beat 5-1 PFL (with Bellator)


Meanwhile Dana failed every time with Chuck in Pride, with Conor in boxing, with Ed Herman against Jacare in Strikeforce. I mean Lawler went 3-5 in Strikeforce and immediately after that run he signed with the UFC and went on a 9-2 run and became champ

Ngannou also went 0-2 in boxing (without fighting in PFL even once)


Coker > Dana

Strikeforce rejects becoming UFC champs, smh

 

[TorontoTO]

 

[Go Go Plata]

Love that fighting spirit within Coker. I wish him continued success

 

[CanCrusher77]

Why then. I think he truly was bellator's problem. He has no idea except let's get those vets from the UFC and build MVP for a thousand years before giving him real comp

Also what Bellator did to Aaron Pico was tragic. They almost ruined that kid.

 

[GSP_37]

Should have named it Giblert FC.

 

[MMALOPEZ]

Seronio 4-0 (Bellator vet) vs collard 3-3

Rodriguez is a glory vet

Compton is a 8-3 mw mma (Bellator and lfa vet)

Wodicker is a lion fight vet she should be facing Bade who is a Muay Thai vet from NY


Regional show … similar to Strikeforce when Coker started it

It’s a Ring Show …. With mma-kickboxing-Muay Thai- possible grappling also (they mentioned wrestling) …

 

[Thesnake101]

Coker is the GOAT at finding talent

He has a winning record against UFC (with Strikeforce)
He beat 5-0 Rizin (with Bellator)
He beat 5-1 PFL (with Bellator)


Meanwhile Dana failed every time with Chuck in Pride, with Conor in boxing, with Ed Herman against Jacare in Strikeforce. I mean Lawler went 3-5 in Strikeforce and immediately after that run he signed with the UFC and went on a 9-2 run and became champ

Ngannou also went 0-2 in boxing (without fighting in PFL even once)


Coker > Dana

Wait, wouldn't this mean he succeeded with Marquardt against Woodley? Or Diaz's run? Not to mention Lawler was an UFC prospect first and foremost.

And you conveniently left out how Bellator champs have historically done poorly in the UFC (Lombard, Brooks, Chandler, Askren) and Gilbert's historically shit run. Tito beating Shlemenko was also bad, but I think that was pre-Coker if my memory isn't failing me.

Spoiler

I get you were probably being tongue-in-cheek with your post, but I'm Coker hater. Never forgave Dada/Kimbo and Royce/Ken 3 completely nuking Bellator's reputation for the rest of its lifespan. Shit even Kimbo/Ken was pushing it.

 

[skylolow]

Strikeforce had value????? A little I'll give him that. His investors had plenty of money to fund Strikeforce if they felt there was a way to ever make money back on it. On top of that Coker didn't even know until the 11th hour his investors where selling out. It was sold with millions of debt. Been awhile but I recall correctly it was reported something like 12M to 18M in debt pay back was part of the 40M Zuffa paid. The other offer they had was 20M for Strikefore and 20M in future investment of Strikeforce(chance are very high this wasn't a guarantee) from Pro Elite. Which if you take the debt into consideration they weren't paying much for the product at the end of the day.

Bellator had value?????????????????

Does he not know zero money changed hands in the deal and what was given was nothing more than basically a lottery ticket hoping you scratch off a decent winner at some point down the road. Viacom in a nutshell said we are done. No buyer or deal Bellator won't exist right now. They couldn't find a group that was even willing to pay actual money for the product that was even worth while for Viacom to accept the amount. Which is kind of sad considering they did have a hell of fight library, decent roster, and media/sponsorship deals.

 

[TorontoTO]

Wait, wouldn't this mean he succeeded with Marquardt against Woodley? Or Diaz's run? Not to mention Lawler was an UFC prospect first and foremost.

And you conveniently left out how Bellator champs have historically done poorly in the UFC (Lombard, Brooks, Chandler, Askren) and Gilbert's historically shit run. Tito beating Shlemenko was also bad, but I think that was pre-Coker if my memory isn't failing me.

Spoiler

I get you were probably being tongue-in-cheek with your post, but I'm Coker hater. Never forgave Dada/Kimbo and Royce/Ken 3 completely nuking Bellator's reputation for the rest of its lifespan. Shit even Kimbo/Ken was pushing it.

Using Chandler and Askren is somewhat unfair, Chandler was coming in when he was already mid 30s and Askren had spent a decade in ONE and had retired due to a bad hip before he came back for the ufc run

 

[Thesnake101]

Using Chandler and Askren is somewhat unfair, Chandler was coming in when he was already mid 30s and Askren had spent a decade in ONE and had retired due to a bad hip before he came back for the ufc run

He used Ed Herman and Conor & Ngannou boxing as examples tho.

 

[CorninginChristianburg]

It's 2024. A little known football player who Scott Coker gave a shot as a 5-4 fighter in Strikeforce, and then invited onto Strikeforce Challengers at 7-4 in 2010, just won a main card fight in the UFC.