UFC/Bellator News: Scott Coker takes a major dig at UFC
What's the story?
Bellator President Scott Coker has been undoubtedly doing a great job with his promotion and is giving the UFC pretty strong competition as well. In a recent interview with MMAjunkie, Coker took another major dig at the UFC, who recently just cancelled their upcoming UFC 233 pay-per-view.
In case you didn't know...
UFC 233 was seemingly scheduled to head-to-head against Bellator 214 in early January, in what was supposed to be UFC's first show of 2019. However, due to the collision between two promotions, UFC President Dana White eventually decided to pull-out and cancel UFC 233, which was going to be headlined by a Champion vs Champion bout between Henry Cejudo and TJ Dillashaw.
One FC veteran and newest UFC signee, Ben Askren was also scheduled to make his UFC debut at UFC 233 against Robbie Lawler but that fight has now been rescheduled for UFC 235.
The heart of the matter
Initially, UFC 233 was supposed to go head-to-head against Bellator 214 which was going to take place just a few miles away at The Forum in Inglewood, which is located nearby to the Anaheim Center.
Bellator 214 is arguably one of the biggest pay-per-view cards' of all time and will be headlined by Ryan Bader and Fedor Emelianenko, who will battle it out for the Bellator Heavyweight Championship and with that being said, Bellator now doesn't have to worry about going into direct competition with the UFC.
Bellator President Scott Coker recently gave his take on the situation and definitely seems to be happy about it, while he spoke with MMAjunkie.
“Absolutely (it’s excited to be unopposed). Everybody has a business to run. They have a business to run; we have a business to run. We’ve been going on that date for the last three years or however long, so everybody knows we’re going to go on that date. It didn’t work out for them because, to me, it’s a roster issue."
Coker further took another dig at the UFC, stating that Dana White's promotion just ran out of bullets.
“Who is going to fight? And if you’re going to bring someone to fight against the Fedor-Bader card, and ours is free on Paramount and on DAZN, and you’re going to run on pay-per-view, then you better have your A-game. I think they just ran out of bullets.”
What's next?
Bellator 214 takes place on the 26th of January is definitely going be one of the biggest MMA events' of all time.