A Look At Scott Coker's Bellator Run Two Years Later

A Look At Scott Coker's Bellator Run Two Years Later
July 28, 2016
By Ryan Porzl

On June 18, 2014, Bellator MMA and Viacom made the announcement that Bellator CEO and chairman Bjorn Rebney had left the company and replacing him would be former Strikeforce CEO and Founder Scott Coker. In the two years since he became CEO, Coker has made many changes to the point where the organization is, in many ways, not the same as it once was. So what has Scott Coker gotten right? What has he gotten wrong? We'll take a look at both as there's plenty of both.



Pluses
The talent has improved in Bellator as Coker still proves he has a great eye for talent as he brought in a mixture of talent. During Coker's run, we've seen many up & comers and/or prospects like Rafael Carvalho (who has since gone on to win the Bellator Middleweight Championship), the returning Tony Johnson (who fought once in 2011), Adam Piccolotti, Chidi Njokuani, Emmanuel Sanchez, James Gallagher, Justin Lawrence, A.J. McKee, John Teixeira, Hisaki Kato (originally signed to a one fight deal, he was signed to a multi-fight deal following win over Joe Schilling), Chris Honeycutt, Guilherme Viana, and Alex Huddleston. Along with MMA fighters, Coker has also signed a number of decorated amateur wrestlers including featherweight Aaron Pico, welterweight Joey Davis, middleweight Ed Ruth, light heavyweight Jarod Trice, and heavyweight Tyrell Fortune although none have yet to compete due to aspirations to compete at the 2016 Olympics though Davis is set to debut in August. Along with up & comers, Coker has also signed many familiar faces that casual and long time MMA fans may know including Paul Daley, Melvin Manhoef, Matt Mitrione, Oli Thompson, Josh Koscheck, Sergei Kharitionov, Stephan Bonnar, Hideo Tokoro, Alessio Sakara, Satoshi Ishii, Francis Carmont, and Josh Thomson. There's also aging legends and freak show fighters like Ken Shamrock, Royce Gracie, & Kimbo Slice and while you could make great arguments against them fighting, their fights have delivered the highest ratings in Bellator history. Coker has also managed to lure some good to great fighters from the UFC including former UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson and top ten light heavyweight Phil Davis. If nothing else, Coker has brought just about every kind of talent. Obviously, some are better than others but Coker is leaving no stone unturned by bringing in both prospects for the future as well as familiar fighters for the fans who may not be familiar with Bellator or their fighters. MMA is like a lot of things in that some fans usually need somebody they know and could root for to help them get acquainted with a company as it is hard to follow a company when you don't know any fighter and thus, don't know who to follow other than maybe the champions.

Coker has also shed a lot of the bad stuff that hurt Bellator during the Rebney era. Because Bellator used to only run in indian casinos, they didn't have to work with athletic commissions and that eventually led to accusations that Bellator was not drug testing their fighters. This allowed fighters to endanger their health for an added edge but also get an unfair advantage. Since taking over, Coker has occasionally run in some of the indian casinos but also in regular arenas which meant cooperation with athletic commissions and drug testing. Coker has also worked with athletic commissions for international shows as he worked with the Mohegan Sun Commission for the Bellator 158 show which took place in the UK. Then there was the controversy regarding their contracts and the matching rights which lead to a well documented pissing contest with former Bellator Champion Eddie Alvarez as well as with other fighters like Tyson Nam, Roger Howlett, and Tony Johnson (who has since returned in 2015) who have had issues with their contracts and getting out of them. Coker has largely been able to avoid the matching rights and had even offered releases to unhappy fighters. Because of all that, unhappy fighters no longer feel like they're "imprisoned".

There has also been an increase in production most notably with the use of fancy sets and entrances like Japanese Mixed Martial Arts for their big shows. In the end, it's universally known that the MMA community make a huge deal about fighters in the UFC almost to the point where certain fans and writers pretty much say fighters have to be in the UFC to be worth any hype. Yes, The UFC has the majority of the best fighters but they don't have all the best. Nevertheless, no MMA company is going to match the UFC with steak especially when not only do many fans believe the best are in the UFC but almost, if not all, major MMA websites that have top 10 rankings fill 95% of it with UFC fighters. Scott Coker, himself, knows this as he made the argument when he ran Strikeforce that his fighters could compete with UFC fighters but many fans and even some in the media acted as though he was insane while some in the media acted as though working in Strikeforce was a waste of time. So, if you can't have the better steak than the UFC, then you can certainly have more sizzle. While UFC holds the majority of the best fighters in the world, they're not flashy as they have don't have fancy sets or special openings or special entrances or any pomp and pageantry. By having Bellator have all these things, it looks and feels big time instead of a company that once was running most of their shows in small indian casinos. Bellator also uses the special stuff for their "Tent Pole Shows" which is a good way to tell audiences which shows are the biggest of the year along with the fact they have some of the biggest fights available. It's almost like the old days of PRIDE where you knew which were the biggest shows of the year which were the grand prix events (Total Elimination, Critical Countdown, & Final Conflict) and New Years Eve.

While removing the tournament format has been very controversial especially among long time fans, it was necessary. The tournament format was a great idea in the beginning to give Bellator an idenity and establish which fighters are the elite. It also seemed like a great idea at the time as it gave Bellator it's slogan "Where Title Shots Are Earned, Not Given" which made them come off more "pure" than boxing or the UFC with both at various points having made title fights over money instead of who earned them. However, the tournament system over time clearly began to show more and more to be a very flawed system. The first problem was the grind of it as winners had to fight three times in 90 days which is very exhausting for a fighter who pretty much has no time off and has to fight then get back in the gym immediately, fight, back in the gym immediately, and fight again. In some cases, you could see fighters fight five or six times a year depending on how many tournaments they're in and how well they did. This could result in wearing fighters out and shorten their careers since they're far more active and little time to rest. The tournament format also became an issue as more title changes occurred. When Bellator only had one fighter ever hold a certain belt then it wasn't that bad but once champions started losing their titles, it became a huge issue. By early 2014, it became clear that Michael Chandler and Pat Curran did not want to have to go back into another tournament to earn another title shot after having lost the Bellator Lightweight Championship and Bellator Featherweight Championship, respectively. This led to Bellator giving them immediate title shots despite not having gone through a tournament which resulted in fighters, fans, and the media calling the promotion out on it's hypocrisy. The tournament system also potentially prevented the company from getting certain prospects and big names as there's a good chance that many fighters didn't want to compete in Bellator if they had to constantly compete in tournaments for a title shot. Champions were also the biggest victim of the tournament format as they only defended their titles against tournament winners. This caused huge problems for the company as the promotion was only able to do a certain number of tournaments a year which meant they couldn't keep churning out enough challengers to keep champions busy. Champions usually found themselves only able to fight once a year cause Bellator couldn't provide them with enough challengers especially for the heavier weight classes. The promotion did try giving their champions non title fights but it still wasn't enough as champions were still reduced to sitting around and twiddling their thumbs until a tournament concluded. Then there were the times when tournament finals were delayed due to injuries or a championship fight had to be delayed when a challenger got hurt and the champion wasn't giving a substitute. There have been fans and MMA media that believe and rightfully so that this is the reason why first ever Bellator Heavyweight Champion Cole Konrad retired. After going 7-0 in 2010 with his last fight of the year being him winning the season 3 Heavyweight Tournament (which he became the first Bellator Heavyweight Champion), Konrad only fought once in 2011 and once in 2012 as the promotion wasn't able to provide him with enough fights. No doubt this was a big reason for his retirement as no MMA fighter outside of the UFC's elite can afford to fight only once a year and Bellator didn't allow their champions to take fights outside the company.

The seasonal schedule was also dropped in 2015 and Bellator have since run one to two shows a month like regular MMA promotions. The seasonal schedule was another big detriment as Bellator's schedule would see them run twelve weeks straight with week ten usually being a "Road To The Championship" special which previewed the last two shows of the season. After the season concluded, the company would go six to eight weeks with no show at all. Meanwhile, their Summer Series shows feature one show in June and July each but no show in August. The schedule wouldn't allow Bellator to build momentum as they would go three months straight with a weekly show only to then have no show for a month or two. By doing monthly shows or two shows a month, the promotion never has an off month with no shows and they can continue to build momentum as there will be no off-months and at the same time, one to two monthly shows doesn't oversaturate the product either.

Minuses
Perhaps what should be the biggest criticism that can be directed at Coker is regarding cuts as he's made a lot of questionable and head scratching ones. Sometimes, it feels like there's no patterns as fighters could get cut even without being on a losing streak. Among those that were shockingly cut include former Heavyweight Champion and two time tournament winner Alexander Volkov, tournament runner ups Blagoy Ivanov, Kelly Anundson, Alexander Sarnavskiy, & Desmond Green, then Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez, then Bellator Lightweight Champion Will Brooks, Bantamweight Tournament Winner Rafael Silva, former Bellator Light Heavyweight Champion Attila Vegh, and Bellator Lightweight Tournament Winner Dave Jansen. He also cut a number of prospects including Julio Cesar Neves, Ray Sloan, Raphael Butler, Carlos Eduardo, Stuart Austin, Zeilton Rodrigues, and Austen Heidlage to name some. All these fighters had potential so it's weird to see Coker cut them and to make things more head scatching, only Volkov and Jansen were on losing streaks. Why were these fighters one and done? In fact, while Volkov and Jansen were on two fight losing streaks, Volkov is a former champion and both won tournaments so you would think they would've been spared even after a two fight losing streak. Even worse is that since these cuts, most of the fighters have done very well as Volkov won the M-1 Global Heavyweight Championship, Ivanov won the WSOF Heavyweight Championship, Eduardo regained the Shooto Brazil Light Heavyweight Championship, Austin won the BAMMA Lonsdale Heavyweight Championship while challenging for the BAMMA Heavyweight Championship, Alveraz won the UFC Lightweight Championship, and Green won the Titan FC Featherweight Championship. Given these fighters have done well and won titles, it only makes you wonder why were they released? Sure, these companies outside the UFC are supposed to be smaller than Bellator but it still comes off as Coker being a little hasty in cutting them and may have done these companies a favor. Not to mention that there's much better choices to cut which I'll get to a bit. To be fair, I do have to point out that there may have been good reasons for some. Volkov showed very poor grappling skills in his fights with Tony Johnson and Cheick Kongo so maybe Bellator thought Volkov needed work on his ground game or else he would continue to be exposed. Alvarez was probably a show of good will as Alvarez only had one fight left in his deal and was emotionally gone due to the legal problems he had with Bjorn Rebney. Brooks, though talented, has also shown to have a sour attitude as he gained a reputation of complaining during both Rebney and Coker's runs as he would complain about his positions on the card to claiming Bellator wasn't hyping his fights enough. Sarnavskiy is a talented fighter but not strong mentally as he's had a habit of mentally checking out of fights that aren't going his way as seen in his losses to Brooks and Marcin Held. Neves seems like a talented prospect but also gained a reputation as a huge can crusher. Silva failed to make weight twice though the first against Joe Warren was because of short notice and he hasn't failed to make weight since his release. Vegh, though a good fighter, was also a critical disaster as his title win over Christian M'Pumbu and title loss to Emanuel Newton were among some of the worst fights in Bellator history with very little action. However, even with some limitations, it still seems odd to cut these fighters before they went on losing streaks or gave any sign that they were a failed experiment.

Meanwhile, there's plenty of fighters that Bellator can cut right now to save space. As of writing, Bellator has a lot of inactive fighters on their roster including Brandon Bender, Paul Sass, Rob Sinclair, Dan Cramer, Adam McDonough, Doug Marshall, Joe Pacheco, Stephan Bonnar, Guillaume DeLorenzi, Rudy Bears, and Josh Diekmann who have not fought for the organization in over a year and Diekmann is the only one to have taken a fight outside the company in the past year. As of July 2016, Sinclair and Bears haven't fought in a year. Cramer, Marshall, Pacheco, and Bonnar haven't fought in nearly two years. Bender and McDonough hasn't fought in more than two years while Sass is closing in on three years. Finally, DeLorenzi hasn't fought in three and a half years with his last scheduled fight being two years ago before being cancelled. At this point, Coker and his crew need to speak with these fighters & their management and if the fighters can't come up with a foreseeable time table for their returns then they need to be cut. Nothing against these fighters but Bellator shouldn't hang on to fighters who are inactive for years. Then there's other fighter who should be released. Ken Shamrock is perhaps the most obvious one as he's needed to retire at least a decade ago. While Shamrock brought great ratings, he brings nothing to the table anymore as putting him with anyone that's not a freak show fighter or an aging legend is dangerous. Plus, Shamrock just failed his second drug test which means he could be looking at a three year suspension. Dada 5000 is a freak show fighter who shouldn't be fighting and suffered health problems due to his weight cut. Thankfully, Coker has said he's against bringing Dada back so he should be released. Rudy Bears and Thomas Diagne are basically cans with a 16-14 and 5-6-1 record, respectively. Neither have a significant win, Bears (who has fought on and off in Bellator) hasn't won a fight in the company in five years, and Diagne is winless in his three fights with Bellator (two losses and one no contest). Joe Schilling may be a top kickboxer but he hasn't fared very well in Bellator MMA. Despite holding a highlight reel win over Melvin Manhoef, he's on a two fight losing streak with a lackluster split decision loss to future champion Rafael Carvalho and a highlight reel loss to Hisaki Kato. Speaking of Kato, he's also coming off another highlight reel loss to Kato at Bellator Kickboxing. Schilling also holds a negative 2-5 record and it's seems doubtful that he'll improve his win-loss record to the point where he has a positive record and could become a title contender anytime soon. The reason I put these names down is in case anybody reading this wants to know who should be cut since I just questioned the fighters that were cut.

Coker also has perhaps shown too much patience regarding Vitaly Minkov and the Bellator Heavyweight Championship. After Minakov successfully defended the championship against Cheick Kongo in April 2014, he went into a contract dispute with the company which resulted in the promotion seeing it's Heavyweight Champion go MIA. While being positive and patient is a good thing, Coker was too positive and patient as he waited over two years since Minakov's last fight before finally stripping him of the title. Eventually, the situation got so bad that it was almost becoming a tradition where every Scott Coker interview featured at least one question involving Minakov. There was also no attempt to have an interim title in the mean time which meant the heavyweights were basically fighting for nothing. Say what you will at Bellator's heavyweights but the quality in talent has gotten better and even then, no champion should go two years without a single defense.

There is also bringing in the freak show fights which has rubbed many MMA fans the wrong way. While Bellator have drawn huge ratings with freak show fights and aging legends, it also compromises Bellator's image as people start to look at Bellator as the freak show company. While sizzle can be great, Bellator may go overboard. It can also lead to PR disasters as well as certain aging fighters like Ken Shamrock shouldn't be fighting anymore and it can endanger his health. Dada 5000 suffered kidney failure and heart attacks due to poor weight cutting. While he thankfully recovered, what if he didn't? What if he collapsed and died in the cage that night? That would be a massive black eye to the company as Bellator would get a reputation of putting people in dangerous situations. While it's technically not Bellator's fault as it's up to the fighter whether they can cut the weight and it's their responsibility to make weight after making a commitment to the company that they could but it still doesn't look good.

Coker has also gained a bad habit of jumping the gun when it comes to fight announcements. On a few occasions, Coker and Bellator have pretty much made future fight announcements only minutes after a fighter has fought which has brought problems. In January 2015, the thought was that Daniel Weichel would face the winner of the Patricio Pitbull/Daniel Straus fight for the Featherweight Championship that took place at that month's Bellator 132. However, before the event was even finished, Coker announced that the returning Georgi Karakhanyan, who defeated prospect Bubba Jenkins in the co-main event, would get the next title shot, not Weichel. This cause some small controversy as many felt Weichel was more deserving since he won a Bellator tournament in 2014 and it didn't help that Coker originally went into Bellator claiming that he would honor the title shots earned by tournament winners. Even worse is Coker didn't even wait until the following month's Weichel/Pat Curran fight to see if Weichel lost or won and when he won, it only made more sense for Weichel to get the shot seeing as how he beat a former two time champion. Ultimately, Karakhanyan would suffer an injury and Weichel got his title shot anyway in June 2015. It would then happen again in June 2016 when Bellator leaked out that on the night of Bellator 157 that Matt Mitirone would have a quick turnaround to face Oli Thompson a month later at Bellator 158. This also caused a headache as Mitrione was dropped in his fight with Carl Seumanutafa and nearly knocked out so Bellator came off as if they didn't have Mitirone's health in mind as they were immediately booking him in a fight before he even got checked out. In the end, Mitirone passed his physical and he ended up fighting but it was another remainder that Bellator should wait to make announcements and think things through instead of jumping the gun.  

Overall, Scott Coker's run in Bellator to date is like a lot promoters as he's brought a lot of good things but also has made questionable decisions. For the most part, Bellator seems to be in good hands with Coker running it but there's still things to work on and improve.