New York \u2014 Monday marked the official launch of Ki MMA, the latest promotion envisioned and founded by longtime industry leader Scott Coker.<\/p>\n
The Strikeforce founder and former Bellator MMA CEO, Coker has been on the sidelines since Bellator was acquired by rival PFL. Now, he\u2019s back with a new venture, and ex-Bellator matchmaker Rich Chou is along for the ride.<\/p>\n
At a press event in New York on Monday, Chou spoke to Cageside Press about what the new promotion will look like. Of course, there is the featherweight tournament, geared towards fighters aged 18 to 25. Rising prospects, future stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those who like numbers, 32 fighters, four continents, you\u2019re going to have to win five fights next year,\u201d noted Chou. \u201cBut trust me, it will be worth it for the young fighter that can climb this mountain and show their Ki.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first three fights will be in regional, or continental if you prefer, tournaments. The final two will be global semifinals and finals, with the winner needing to win twice in one night.<\/p>\n
Yet as was noted during Monday\u2019s press conference, the tournament will make up only 30% of the action Ki MMA puts on in 2027. As to what the other 70% will look like, \u201cthat\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to find out,\u201d stated Chou. \u201cWe\u2019re not just going to jump into certain weight classes randomly. I feel like a lot of promotions out there, and we have in the past, we\u2019ve been guilty of this, heading down certain directions and putting on random fights.\u201d The sort of fights that leave viewers thinking \u201cI don\u2019t quite know where this leads or what\u2019s going on,\u201d Chou added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something we really want to avoid. But the grand prix is the cornerstone next year. It keeps us on track, it lets fans know exactly what we\u2019re doing and focusing on, while we see what else is out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no firm commitment on what weight classes will be involved, and it seems as though some may not be brought it at all, at least initially. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to have eight weight classes. Let\u2019s go find where the most talented, young hungry fighters are, and let\u2019s build there. Maybe it\u2019s welterweight, maybe it\u2019s middleweight. We don\u2019t know quite yet, but it\u2019s our job to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Watch our full interview with Ki MMA matchmaker Rich Chou above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York \u2014 Monday marked the official launch of Ki MMA, the latest promotion envisioned and founded by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,12059,4736,786,15810,15803,11877,15805,801,10280,785,2843,15808,5963,15804,15809,85,15806,787,15807],"class_list":["post-892927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bellator","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-fighting","tag-gsp","tag-invicta","tag-jon-jones","tag-lfa","tag-martial-arts","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-one-championship","tag-one-fc","tag-pfl","tag-rizin","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sports","tag-titan-fc","tag-ufc","tag-wsof"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892927","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=892927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}