Scott Coker planning to change Bellator into a more traditional format

Scott Coker was officially announced as the Bellator President on late Wednesday afternoon in a conference call and he is planning to turn Bellator into a more traditional mixed martial arts format.

Jason Floyd - The MMA Report
Jason Floyd – The MMA Report

Since the start of Bellator, former Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney believe in the tournament format where fighters had to go through a tournament to secure a title shot.

Rebney called the Bellator tournaments the “Toughest Tournament in Sports,” but this format is coming to an end under the new leadership of Coker.

During a media conference call today, Coker explained that we plans to move away from the tournament format but is still open to doing tournaments when the situation is right.

“As we move forward, my plan is to evolve the league from the tournament that we have all known to to see on Spike TV to more of a traditional format where fans get to see the fights they want, more super fight format” Coker said. “Will we ever do tournaments again? Sure. We will do tournaments when the situation makes sense. I feel that tournament has a place in mixed martial arts. The timing has to be right, the fighters have to be right, and we will determine that on a case-by-case basis.”

One of the other focal points of Bellator throughout there history is the season format. While Coker would not say that they are going away from the season format, he does believe that mixed martial arts is a sport that needs to take place year round.

“To me, my vision is a little more continuity and maybe not something that happens every week,” Coker stated. “Build big super fights and I think that the season — should be a year round sport. This should not have a season but to be honest, that is something I need to sit down with Kevin and all of the guys at Bellator and see the direction. I will have a better understanding tomorrow after I go down and meet the staff.”

Over the past two years or so, there has been several negative PR moments for Bellator and most of them have dealt with contract situations. Coker is firmly aware of the negative feeling that some people have about the organization and he plans to win those fans back by putting on exciting fights.

“Well, we are going to put on exciting fights. That is something I know we can do. I watch Bellator in the past and I have seen some exciting fights and have seen some great athletes there. As far as contracts and all that, we will review that and take action as how we see benefits the company.”

http://themmareport.com/

http://themmareport.com/2014/06/listen-to-the-viacom-conference-call-at-6-p-m-et-announcing-scott-coker-as-bellator-president/

hit the link to listen to the conference call

he also mentioned that he will bring fighters that are not exclusively with the company, i hope this opens the door for mamed vs shlemenko and other kind of super fights of fighter exchange

Well atleast its starting to sound more like strikeforce but I'm still reserved.

this is not gonna go well

Fairweather wrote:this is not gonna go well

Why do you think that? I believe this will get fans and fighters looking at bellator in a positive light again!

MR.WILLIE wrote:he also mentioned that he will bring fighters that are not exclusively with the company, i hope this opens the door for mamed vs shlemenko and other kind of super fights of fighter exchange

That would be unreal and Coker would be the one to do it. Glory partnership is another great option.

PRIDE4EVER wrote:

Fairweather wrote:this is not gonna go well

Why do you think that? I believe this will get fans and fighters looking at bellator in a positive light again!

Agreed

I am really not happy with this as of right now.

Fairweather wrote:this is not gonna go well

I have the same feeling.

Audax just wait to see what happens...

1)signings
2)production values
3)the way they organize fights

It will be all but see through once they make a move in any of these categories then I will judge...

Until then I'm not really enthused.

AudaxSmoke wrote:

Fairweather wrote:this is not gonna go well

I have the same feeling.

That makes three of us. The tournament and season format is what distinguished Bellator as an MMA promotion. My take on it is that Viacom wanted to go for the entertainment format, but Rebney was against it, so they had to get rid of him. Turn it into something else and it isn't Bellator any more.

This is the best thing that could happen right now. Im actually excited about mma again. The bellator season format got old and kinda boring. Coker has a fetish for the bigger fighters like me so everything is looking great. Bring in pudz to destroy kimbo! Give kharitonov the titleshot and manhoef as well.

Coker is most likely lurking here like all other important promoters so here´s a shopping list for him..

Stephen Quadros & Bas
Lenne Hardt
Kharitonov
Konstantin Erokhin
Magomed Malikov
Gluhov
Grabowski
Jim Yorke
Smoldarev
Tybura
Guram
Manhoef
Tyrone Spong
Zaromskis
Joachim Hansen
Minowaman

^Good shopping list or co-promoted fights/fighter sharing.