The new league frames itself as a premium sports venture built by 'world-class experience and industry relationships.' Coker emphasizes honoring fighters, gyms, and fans while promising fresh international content. The spin is all about athlete empowerment.
Insiders know this reunion didn't happen overnight. After UFC jumped from Spike TV to Fox and Viacom acquired Bellator, Kay personally recruited Coker. Now they're back together with $60M — but an unnamed league against the UFC machine? That's a tall order, even for these veterans.
Kevin Kay greenlit The Ultimate Fighter for 14 seasons at Spike TV and developed hits like Lip Sync Battle and Yellowstone. Strikeforce under Coker put 50% of revenue back into fighters — a model the new league is reportedly adopting. League debut: early 2027.
Scott Coker and Kevin Kay are betting $60 million that fight fans want more than weigh-in drama. Whether an unnamed promotion can actually challenge UFC's dominance remains to be seen — but these two have history of delivering when others doubted them.
Scott Coker is back in the fight game, and he's brought serious firepower. The former Bellator boss and Strikeforce founder has unveiled his new MMA venture with a star-studded leadership team headlined by Kevin Kay, the ex-president of Paramount Network, CMT, Spike TV and TV Land. The league — still unnamed, debuting early 2027 — is backed by $60 million from strategic investors including Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners as co-founder and chairman.
"We have assembled a team of premium sports leaders who share our values and respect for combat sports," Coker said in Tuesday's announcement, calling his new hires "world-class." Kay isn't just any television executive — he's the man who greenlit The Ultimate Fighter at Spike TV, running that reality hit for 14 seasons, and was instrumental in bringing UFC to the network before Viacom acquired Bellator. That's when he first teamed with Coker over a three-hour Los Angeles coffee meeting that Kay says convinced him immediately.
"I realized right away that he was the right guy to run Bellator because of his success as a promoter," Kay told The Hollywood Reporter, later adding: "His track record in mixed martial arts is just amazing." The roster around them reads like a who's-who of sports media veterans: Tom Fox (COO, formerly Gatorade, NBA Properties, Arsenal FC), Rich Chou (EVP athlete relations from Strikeforce and Bellator MMA), Paolo Boccotti (EVP European production with Fight Code and Bellator experience), Lawrence Stuart (EVP media rights with CMP, Screenz, ICM Partners background), and Chris DeBlasio (EVP communications, former Showtime Sports press lead).
Advisory board heavyweights include ex-TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis and former Sony Pictures Television chairman Steve Mosko. But here's where it gets interesting for the drama crowd: Kay's content philosophy is a direct shot at how MMA currently operates. "Mixed martial arts is a great story, and the stories of fighters are great stories, but they're not always being told in the right way," he said.
"No offense to anybody, but I feel it's gotten to a point where the way that fights are promoted is having weigh-ins, and the fighters yell at each other, and they push and shove." His plan? Short-form content first — because "so many mixed martial arts fans have grown up on social media platforms" and audiences want "bite-sized stuff." Coker's own track record includes discovering Daniel Cormier, Ronda Rousey, and Gina Carano before they became household names.
Under his Strikeforce model, 50 percent of revenue went back into fighters — a figure the new league is likely counting on for recruitment leverage against established promotions. Whether this unnamed venture can actually compete with UFC's global dominance remains the $60 million question. But with these two veterans reunited and talking about fighter-first storytelling over spectacle? The MMA world should be paying attention.
