Before PFL acquired Bellator in 2023, the company’s former president and CEO, Scott Coker, as it turns out, threw his name into the hat to acquire the promotion he had led since 2014. However, he was denied that opportunity. And now, as he begins his new MMA promotion, the long-time promoter appeared in an interview with Ariel Helwani where he uncovered what went down behind the scenes that prevented his $150 million rescue of Bellator post the Viacom-Paramount merger in 2019, when the promotion desperately needed a rescue plan.

“I went in with a private equity firm… and we offered to buy Bellator… from Paramount,” Coker revealed. “So this was about when I first heard they were going to sell. And they said, no, we can’t sell it to you, specifically me, because I’m the CEO of their company that’s owned by Viacom, and it’ll lead to shareholder lawsuits or this and that.”

There’s one reason why Paramount Global couldn’t simply sell the MMA promotion to Scott Coker. The issue was that Coker would have effectively been on both sides of the deal as CEO, meaning the transaction would likely have required independent board approval and third-party fairness opinions to avoid conflicts of interest.

Since Paramount was also a publicly traded company, any such sale would have faced additional scrutiny from shareholders, many of whom may not have supported the deal. Had the company moved forward with the sale under questionable terms, shareholders could have argued that Paramount breached its fiduciary duty by failing to act in their best interests.

While management buyouts and CEO-led acquisitions are not uncommon, they typically involve significant legal and corporate governance hurdles. In this case, those obstacles ultimately prevented Coker from acquiring the company.

“‘We can’t even do a deal.’ I was really surprised because I said, ‘You know what, [there aren’t] too many operators that can operate at this level to really run this thing,’” Coker continued. “This private equity firm was willing to put in $150 million of operating capital [and] growth capital. They wanted to put in growth capital, and Paramount would have been diluted.

“Or Viacom would have been diluted down to a certain percentage. But that was the offer, and it was a written offer that they received, but it just didn’t work out.”

The famed MMA promoter noted an important point: there was more than one reason why Paramount didn’t want to sell the company to Coker. Had they jumped all the hurdles to do it, Coker’s equity firm would’ve bought shares that would have diluted Paramount-Viacom’s stake in the promotion, something they likely didn’t want.

But regardless of those attempts, after mounting losses, Paramount eventually sold Bellator to PFL in late 2023 in a massive deal that saw Paramount continue to retain a minority stake in the company.

Today, their Paramount+ platform has become the new broadcast partner for the UFC. This means they have a financial interest in the success of both UFC and PFL. In any case, though, Coker didn’t leave this failed deal empty-handed. He learned his lesson and is now looking to implement them in his new MMA promotion.

Scott Coker has a new team and a new endeavor

In the same interview, he reflected on his new MMA promotion and the lessons he has learned from his role leading Strikeforce and Bellator.

“Watch this unfold after so much work, because there’s one thing to do in a fight company where you’re building from the ground up, like Strikeforce,” he said. “But I remember sitting down with Kevin Kay. And I said, ‘Kevin, I don’t know if I can even help you, because this ship is tilting already, right?’

“I’m jumping on a ship that might tilt, that might sink as I’m on it… That’s why this new opportunity is so, it’s been so much fun, and it’s been amazing.”

This past Tuesday, Coker’s new MMA promotion announced its new team. Joining him is former Bellator matchmaker Rich Chou, expected to take up a role similar to the vice president of athlete relations. Also, former Paramount executive and Spike TV president Kevin Kay has joined the promotion as the chief content officer.

Meanwhile, the chief operating officer’s role has been taken up by former Gatorade and Nike executive Tom Fox. Others, like Lawrence Stuart, Paolo Boccotti, Chris DeBlasio, and C.J. Tuttle, have also joined the promotion in various roles.

With the new promotion, Scott Coker appears to have new goals in the MMA world. However, much like his failed bid to acquire Bellator, the MMA sphere isn’t easy to traverse. But if someone knows those treacherous waters, it’s Coker.