{"id":685602,"date":"2026-05-21T17:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685602\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:38:09","slug":"new-mma-league-style-fight-promotion-targets-2027-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685602\/","title":{"rendered":"New MMA league-style fight promotion targets 2027 debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strikeforce founder and former Bellator President Scott Coker is launching a \u201cyet-to-be-named fight promotion\u201d with $60M in initial funding, according to Mark Puleo of THE ATHLETIC. Coker said that the tournament-styled league will be \u201cadditive to the ever-expanding fight industry.\u201d The promotion does not yet have any media distribution deals or fighters signed, and has \u201cambitions for a debut in the first quarter of 2027.\u201d It will be led by Coker and co-founder Peter Levin, who is the managing director of venture capital firm Griffin Gaming Partners. Levin\u2019s expertise will be \u201cmost valuable in licensing, merchandising and global distribution deals.\u201d He has also played a \u201csignificant role in its raising\u201d of $60M in capital. MMA and combat sports at large have \u201cseen their share of failed startups.\u201d Coker said that \u201chis previous stints as an MMA executive will make a big difference in this new venture\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 5\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n

WHO\u2019S IN: The founders of the league said additional investors include Upper Deck; Steve Kaplan, owner of D.C. United and co-founder of Oaktree Capital; Swimmy Minami, founder of Visional and a limited partner of the New York Yankees; skateboarding legend Tony Hawk; former Fortress Investment Group vice-chairman Dean Dakolias; and others, \u201cincluding several with ownership stakes in both the NFL and NBA.\u201d HOLLYWOOD REPORTER\u2019s Georg Szalai reports the company\u2019s advisory group features former TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis, former Sony Pictures Television Chairman Steve Mosko and former Paramount Network President Kevin Kay (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 5\/21<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Strikeforce founder and former Bellator President Scott Coker is launching a \u201cyet-to-be-named fight promotion\u201d with $60M in initial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,18577,786,1871,785,85],"class_list":["post-685602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-combat-sports","tag-fighting","tag-leadership","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}