“I feel like there’s a little bit of a funk in the MMA space right now,” Coker told Ariel Helwani. “And I don’t know what it is. But, I just feel it’s it’s got a funk to it right now. So, you know, let’s go stir it up. The thing with MVP, their show, they’re stirring it up. It gets people excited. It gets people to root for somebody. And then we’re we’re gonna do the same. People are gonna root for us too, and we’re gonna go stir it up. So to me, I think the sport needs a little bit of shaking the cage — and that’s something that we’re really good at.”
Coker’s leadership team includes Kevin Kay, Chief Content Officer (Paramount Network, Spike TV), Tom Fox, Chief Operating Officer (Gatorade, NBA Properties, Arsenal), Rich Chou, Executive Vice President, Athlete Relations (Strikeforce, Bellator MMA), and Chris DeBlasio, Executive Vice President, Global Head of Communications (Showtime Sports), among others.
“We turned away $40 million,” Coker added. “I said, ‘No, we don’t want it.’ Because I don’t want to be diluted to where I don’t control the company. This isn’t going to be my company the way I want to run it … I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m going to be losing control of this company because I don’t ever want that to happen. So, we turned them away. There’s a learning curve in this business, and if you don’t know it, you’re gonna be paying crazy money out because you don’t know it. And you know what? I’ve been in the business almost four decades, or over four decades now. I know this business.”
Whether or not he knows enough to stay afloat remains to be seen.
