Scott Coker opens door to Bellator-UFC cross promotion

Under the leadership of Scott Coker, Bellator MMA has co-promoted with a number of other promotions, most notably Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation, but also with England’s BAMMA and Italy’s Oktagon.

In fact, RIZIN bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi will take to the Bellator cage to battle Bellator bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell at Bellator 222 on Friday Night in New York City — the latest evidence of Coker’s willingness to work with other organizations.

Of all the organizations Bellator could co-promote with, of course, none would generate quite the same level of excitement as the UFC. While the UFC has never been big on co-promotion — as a matter of fact, the promotion has been against it outright — Scott Coker says he’d welcome the chance to work with the Las Vegas based promotion.

“Listen, it’s not their business model to do that, but if they want to get it on, let’s do it,” Coker said Wednesday at Bellator 222 media day (via MMA Junkie). “We would not be opposed to that.”

“Absolutely,” Coker added. “I mean, c’mon. We got some killers in this league. If they want to get it on, let’s do it.”

While this is a very exciting possibility to think about, the UFC will likely never go for it, as Scott Coker suggests. At least not under the leadership of Dana White.

If the UFC did get on board with the idea, however, it would open the door to some of the most exciting matchups possible in MMA. Patricio Freire vs. Max Holloway, Gegard Mousasi vs. Robert Whittaker, Ryan Bader vs. Daniel Cormier…. the list goes on and on.

Do you think we’ll ever see the UFC and Bellator working together?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 6/13/2019.