Coker: How Bellator plans to challenge the UFC

The biggest fight in combat sports is not MayGregor and it doesn’t take place in a cage. It’s between the $4 billion WME-IMG owned UFC vs. the Viacom-owned Bellator MMA. The fight would appear on it’s face to be grossly disproportionate, with only a handful of fighters in the top 25 pound for pound. However, parent company Viacom has a market cap of around $20 billion, giving it the resources to grow.

In a long interview with Alan Dawson for Business Insider, Coker detailed his plan to challenge the UFC. It’s not crazy talk. The sports are built on stars and the biggest star in MMA history, Ronda Rousey, came to the UFC when they bought Scott Coker’s Strikeforce, and now Coker runs Bellator MMA.

Coker identified six key factors in Bellator’s rise.

1. Poaching and cherishing fighters

“You either write a $4 billion check or you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on fighters,” said Coker. “That’s the key.”

“I grew up as a martial artist and I’m still a martial artist at heart. At the end of the day, I’m a fan of these athletes. The sport is artistic, it’s beautiful, and at every show I have the best seat in the house. Yes it’s combat but it’s self-defense at the very highest level. All my fighters know I’m a fan of theirs. They know I think of them as the stars and that we will facilitate in the building of their stock.”

“It’s about putting fighters first.”

Top names at Bellator include Ryan Bader, Fedor Emelianenko, Benson Henderson, Lorenz Larkin, Rory MacDonald,Wanderlei Silva, and Chael Sonnen.

2. Blue-chip sponsors

Bellator is sponsored by Miller Lite and Dave & Buster’s among others, but the relationship with Monster Energy has massive potential. Monster is bringing the Bellator brand to NASCAR, and NASCAR has a massive television and live audience.

3. Development of talent

“Look at the stars of MMA today. Ronda Rousey, Tyron Woodley, and Daniel Cormier all came from Strikeforce,” said Coker.

“When I first came to Bellator I wanted to take it back to what we accomplished at Strikeforce and look at the next generatio. So we signed the Aaron Pico’s of the world and put them in our development programme to nurture them.”

“We are really good star identifiers and star builders. Let’s say you are a 17-year-old prospect on the judo or wrestling Olympic team. We’d sign you on a contract and support you on your Olympic bid.

“If you are successful in that bid then you go to the Olympics and come into MMA, with us, after the Games. Regardless of whether you are a judoka or a boxer we would then recommend camps to build on other aspects of MMA, such as jiu-jitsu. We also provide you with a monthly wage to get you going and support yourself.”

“Pico’s first MMA fight is on Saturday in New York City and I can tell you this: He will be a big, big star.”

UFC Hall of Famer and current Bellator brand ambassador Royce Gracie has identified other fighters with the potential to break through, including Michael Page and AJ McKee.

4. Exploiting the “free agent business”

“We told camps that, when it came down to it, to think of us,” said Coker. “When Benson Henderson came over, the floodgates opened. Chael Sonnen, Wanderlei Silva, and Fedor Emelianenko all signed.”

“We pay what an athlete is worth but what I really want to know is this: 1) Do they like Bellator? And 2) Do they want to fight in Bellator?

“Between legends like Fedor, free agents like Chael, big names like Rory MacDonald, and prospects like Pico, we have a very solid base.”

5. Producing TV-friendly fights

“Great fights means great TV ratings,” explained Coker.

In 2014 Bellator averaged 762,000 TV viewers on Spike TV. In 2017, that had increased 20% to 922,000 TV viewers. Coker vowed that by the end of the year the Bellator main events would be getting between one and two million viewers.

And if Saturday’s Bellator NYC does well on PPV, the good times may have already arrived.

“To me, any [buy rate] in the mid-200,000s would be respectable,” said Coker to ESPN earlier this month. “And anything in the 300,000s would be considered a big hit.”

6. Happy fighters

“I feel like I let fighters down in Strikeforce and I’ll tell you why,” said Coker. “When I left, prices for fighters dropped by 25 percent. When there’s only one buyer in the marketplace, prices go down. But now there are two main buyers and fighters are happy we are back.”

“Bellator is Strikeforce 2.0. We’re going to make it bigger and better.”

“If we keep doing what we’re doing right, [the gap with the UFC] will keep closing,” Coker says. “Fighters are jumping ship and people notice that as fighters are popular. It’s also good for the industry.

“There’s no incentive for fighters to be paid what they deserve when there’s only one show in town, but when you have another bidder [UFC] has to stay sharper and on their toes, but so do we. Ultimately it’s the fighters who win and the industry also stays healthy.”

“Stay tuned. I promise you this: 2017 and 2018 will be huge, huge years. We will keep digging this beast as Bellator is on the rise.”