Scott Coker, former MMA boss of a few different leagues over past few decades, is back in the MMA business, or at least that’s what he claims.
At a media event in New York earlier this week, the 63-year-old executive announced that not only had he secured $60 million in funding for a new MMA project, but that he had aspirations of putting together a truly global organization.
Coker, the former head of Strikeforce and Bellator, currently runs a regional group, Fight Night at The Tech, alongside Gilbert Melendez, but has much grander aspirations with the brand new “Ki MMA,” inspired by the Japanese word for energy, promotion. The initial plans call for a 32-man featherweight tournament with events in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia to eventually lead to a world champion to be decided in the finals. There are also plans for “super fights” with major names in the sport to serve as a compliment to the tournament bouts. Outside of a planned launch of early-2027, no roster or dates have been announced for the Ki MMA concept.
I have to be honest, upon hearing of this story, the first thing that I thought was, “how in the wide world of sports did someone put up $60 million for another MMA project?” and then my second thought was that I will wait to see if any of this actually happens before I put too much stock into Coker’s vision of a new MMA format.
In truth, this is one of those concept that looks great on paper, but will falter in application. Ideally, from a purist perspective, the best 145 LBS fighters from different continents competing in tournament to crown a literal world champion sounds spectacular, almost as if it was something from a Jean Claude Van Damme script.
But, the logistics and reality of the fight game will rain on that MMA parade.
The reality is that the Ultimate Fighting Championship is the undisputed king of mixed martial arts for a reason, a position that was only strengthened through the merger with the WWE to form the TKO corporation, and the massive $7.7 billion Paramount deal that puts the UFC pay-per-views on the streaming service for the next seven years. The once pricey pay-per-views are included in the $7.99 subscription to Paramount+ so more fans will have more access to UFC PPVs than any other time in the history of the organization.
If I had to guess, I’d say that the investors of Coker’s new project probably view a media rights payoff as the carrot on the stick so to speak, as far as the long-term goal with the promotion. Assuming that the $60 million of funding is legitimate, and there’s no reason to believe that it isn’t, at least at this point, it sends the message that this isn’t a novelty venture. If these guys are willing to put up serious money like that then this appears that it will a legitimate attempt at the ambitious global strategy.
As mentioned, details were sparse, with no fighters, dates, or locations announced. It was noted that the bouts will take place in a ring rather than the standard cage usually seen in America. With the ring, as well as the Japanese name in the title of the company, it’s obvious that Coker wants to re-create a slice of Pride Fighting Championship from its heyday in Japan in the early-2000s. The meteoric rise and fall of Pride is a different discussion for a different time, but Coker borrowed from the Pride playbook in the past, with bouts like Ken Shamrock vs. Kimbo Slice or Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie under the Bellator banner.
There’s no doubt that the sideshow fights can garner attention, a 60-year-old Mike Tyson getting back in the ring to fight Jake Paul drew more than 65,000 fans at AT&T Stadium in Texas, and brought in such a mega audience for Netflix that the streaming giant almost crashed because of the sheer amount of viewers that tuned in around the world. In some ways, Coker proved that he can get the general public to pay attention to his MMA ventures when he used a similar business model.
The problem is, the novelty wears off and eventually the actual substance of the product will succeed or fail based on its own merit. It’s easy to capture the public’s attention for one night, and if you’re promoting a one-off, you can “steal a house” so to speak in terms of a draw based on superficial content, but there’s a reason that none of the sideshow concepts, including some of the groups that Coker was involved with, truly found their audience in the grand scheme of things. Bellator or Strikeforce had cards that the general public paid attention to for the evening, but the UFC was still regarded as the representation of the sport in the United States.
As I said, the concept is fantastic, but assuming that the timeline that was announced is accurate, how are Coker and his investors going to realistically put this together within six months or so?
I’d say that the main reason that I don’t put any faith in this company getting off the ground is that it’s simply too ambitious. Rome wasn’t built in one day, and if you’re religious, even God had to rest after he created the earth. It took the UFC a few decades in business, and several years under the ownership of the media powerhouse of Endeavor to truly expand itself to a global entity. It’s a process, not just with building a brand name that can draw in different countries, but also with the ability to properly promote and effectively advertise within foreign markets. For example, Ki MMA might be able to generate ticket sales in Brazil for their South American plans, but how will that concept translate to Europe? If ticket sales are sluggish in London, that could be a net negative to the bottom line. It sounds trivial, but something as elementary as finding the right venues in the right cities could be a hurdle to success with something on a global scale.
Furthermore, and this might be the biggest piece of the puzzle, where is Ki MMA going to find 32 featherweights to stock this tournament? More importantly, how is the organization going to properly promote 32 different fighters around the world? Where’s the star power? Again, the bottom line is, while the featherweight division has some very talented fighters, the top talent are under contract to the UFC, There are simply not enough known featherweights for Ki MMA to be able to realistically generate an audience for its product.
Granted, Coker could bring in some legends from the past to be the selling point of these shows, allowing the younger guys in the tournament to theoretically have a platform to make a name for themselves, but how many of those aging legends would be able to safely get back in the ring to compete? Are there really enough of those match-ups to serve as the drawing card for the tournament contests to be held on the same events?
As we’ve covered, the rights fees are where the big money is right now, as the media landscape continues to evolve, continuing to find its balance between how many streaming options will the market support compared to what will remain staples of traditional television. What distribution will Ki MMA secure? If the group is going to try to run cards in different locations around the world, you’d assume that they would need a streaming deal so that anywhere with an internet connection could potential watch the events. It goes without saying that landing on a mainstream streaming platform instead of just a random place online is going to be key for the success of the project as well.
The bottom line is, while I can appreciate the ambition, there are too many hurdles for Ki MMA to make a dent on a global scale, and with the UFC low on star power currently for a myriad of reasons, it’s not as though there’s a demand for more MMA among casual sports fans the way there was two decades ago when Coker worked with Strikeforce. The ESPN deal arguably put too much content behind a paywall and the overall UFC eroded as a result. The Paramount contract is part of a rebuilding process to make the sport more accessible to more viewers at a cheaper price. The demand just isn’t there for another MMA option. If Coker wants to re-create Pride in some form or fashion, he’s somewhat misguided. Pride Fighting Championship was legendary for the impact that it had on mixed martial arts, but it was very much a commodity of its time and place. More specifically, Rizin has more or less been a decent, but lesser version of Pride in Japan for more than a decade. Yes, there are more platforms now Ki MMA to find distribution, but the other side of the coin is that there’s also expotentially more competition for viewers across the sports and entertainment industry today. All things considered, there are too many obstacles, particularly on a global scale for Ki MMA to find a profitable portion of the market.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
