{"id":710533,"date":"2026-06-02T14:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710533\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:34:28","slug":"new-scott-coker-mma-league-names-kevin-kay-content-chief-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710533\/","title":{"rendered":"New Scott Coker MMA League Names Kevin Kay Content Chief (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA new MMA league<\/a> from former Bellator<\/a>\u00a0boss and Strikeforce founder Scott Coker, backed with $60 million by a group of strategic investors, has unveiled its leadership team.<\/p>\n

\n\tKevin Kay<\/a>, the former president of Paramount Network, CMT, Spike TV and TV Land, has been named the league\u2019s chief content officer.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther top executives that the new MMA<\/a> player unveiled on Tuesday are Tom Fox, who will serve as chief operating officer after previous work for Gatorade, NBA Properties and Arsenal FC, executive vp, athlete relations Rich Chou, formerly of Strikeforce and Bellator MMA), Paolo Boccotti, executive vp, European production & operations, who has worked for Fight Code and Bellator in the past, Lawrence Stuart, executive vp, media rights & business development, who is a former CMP, Screenz and ICM Partners executive, and former Showtime Sports press lead Chris DeBlasio, who will serve as executive vp, global head of communications.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have assembled a team of premium sports leaders who share our values and respect for combat sports,\u201d said Coker. \u201cTom, Kevin, Rich, Paolo, Lawrence and Chris each bring world-class experience and the industry relationships needed to drive MMA forward, while always honoring its roots, the athletes and the fans who supported this sport from the beginning. Collectively, we see where the sport can go, and we also know where it comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKay developed and launched such hit content as Lip Sync Battle and Yellowstone and was instrumental in building the UFC\u2019s TV presence by bringing it to Spike TV. There, he greenlit the reality hit The Ultimate Fighter, which ran for 14 seasons. Kay\u2019s push into MMA also led Viacom to acquire promotion Bellator, where he first worked with Coker.<\/p>\n

\n\tCoker serves as co-founder and CEO of the still unnamed mixed martial arts venture, whose debut is planned for early 2027. Peter Levin of Griffin Gaming Partners serves as co-founder and chairman of the board. The company\u2019s advisory group includes the likes of ex-TelevisaUnivision CEO and ex-Viacom CFO Wade Davis and former Sony Pictures Television chairman Steve Mosko.<\/p>\n

\n\tCoker\u2019s track record includes discovering and developing the careers of such MMA legends as Daniel Cormier, Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano. When UFC moved from Spike FC to Fox and Viacom struck its deal for Bellator, Kay reached out to meet Coker. \u201cWe got together in Los Angeles and had a cup of coffee that lasted probably three hours,\u201d Kay recalls. \u201cI realized right away that he was the right guy to run Bellator because of his success as a promoter and all of the other work that he\u2019d done.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter a few more conversations, Kay convinced him. \u201cHe did an amazing job,\u201d Kay tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cHis track record in mixed martial arts is just amazing. He built an amazing roster, told great stories and completely rebuilt the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKay\u2019s focus at the new MMA venture is his core expertise. \u201cMy background is really storytelling,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I love. I\u2019ve always felt that mixed martial arts is a great story, and the stories of fighters are great stories, but they\u2019re not always being told in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new MMA league really wants to put them front and center. \u201cScott has incredible relationships with not just fighters, but the fighters\u2019 representatives and the gyms,\u201d explains Kay. \u201cAnd he cares deeply about the athletes, because he is a black belt himself. He really respects and cares about these men and women and about making them successful in a way that transcends all the other promotions.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tA case in point that he mentions is that Strikeforce put 50 percent of its revenue back into its fighters. \u201cWhat Scott\u2019s good at is to spot these talents, build them, invest in them, and then to bring them into their prime,\u201d shares Kay. And he will concentrate on helping to tell their stories. \u201cYou want audiences to get deeply and emotionally involved with these fighters in a way. My role is really about this storytelling, content around the athletes and connecting the athletes to the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat means digging deeper and showing more than just the superficial excitement. \u201cNo offense to anybody, but I feel it\u2019s 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, and maybe a fight breaks out,\u201d Kay says. \u201cSure, that\u2019s exciting for the fans, but a lot of these men and women have very interesting stories around their lives and around how they became fighters and mixed martial artists and why. But those stories aren\u2019t being told.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKay wants to do just that. \u201cReally telling the stories of their personal journeys is important to me, as well as developing really compelling narratives around the fighters and the fights that they\u2019re about to enter into,\u201d he emphasizes, predicting an appealing mix of established names and newer talent.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis content role will mean working with every department inside the new MMA company. \u201cScott is a master of putting fans in seats and getting them to watch these fights on TV,\u201d he shares. \u201cAnd one of the reasons that I agreed to do this is because I love the team he is building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditional details, including the league name, its structure and format, the regions of the world where fights will take place, athlete participation, as well as streaming and\/or TV distribution and event schedules, are expected to be revealed over time. Given Coker\u2019s track record and the desire to build attention for the new MMA league and its fighters, tournaments are expected to play a key role. And the appointment of Boccotti confirms that Europe will be a key region for the new promotion.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt its core, the new promotion is designed to expand opportunities for world-class fighters, strengthen the global MMA community and deliver a fresh international<\/a> product for fans while honoring the gyms, coaches, athletes, and local fight cultures that fuel the sport\u2019s growth,\u201d the venture said on Tuesday.
\u201cAs the league moves toward launch, its mission remains focused on building a global MMA platform rooted in martial arts tradition, connected to athletes and fans, and committed to creating meaningful opportunities for fighters around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKay has an idea what his early content focus will be: short-form. \u201cLong-form [content] gets expensive, and it\u2019s a big bet, and I don\u2019t know that the audience needs it,\u201d he tells THR. He also has \u201csome ideas about some longer-form stuff, but relatively inexpensive things,\u201d says Kay. \u201cWe should be spending money on the fights and the fighters, so I don\u2019t want to get into long-form series just yet. I think that\u2019s a goal further down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter all, \u201cso many mixed martial arts fans have grown up on social media platforms,\u201d Kay concludes. \u201cThey\u2019re used to bite-sized stuff. That\u2019s something that we did with Bellator really well. The social stuff was great. I think that\u2019s where we will start.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new MMA league from former Bellator\u00a0boss and Strikeforce founder Scott Coker, backed with $60 million by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,12059,786,3389,785,85],"class_list":["post-710533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bellator","tag-fighting","tag-international","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710533","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=710533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}