Scott Coker has announced six senior executive appointments for his new global MMA promotion, which launched earlier this year with $60 million in financing. Additional details including the league name, competition structure, athlete participation, media partnerships, and event schedule will be announced soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have assembled a team of premium sports leaders who share our values and respect for combat sports,\u201d says Scott Coker, Founder and CEO. \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
The six appointments are:<\/p>\n
Kevin Kay, Chief Content Officer \u2014 Nearly three decades of media leadership across Viacom, Nickelodeon, Spike TV, Paramount Network, TV Land, and CMT. Kay helped develop properties including \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants,\u201d \u201cYellowstone,\u201d and \u201cThe Ultimate Fighter,\u201d and played a central role in bringing UFC to Spike.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox, Chief Operating Officer \u2014 More than 35 years across brand management, sports marketing, and global sports operations, with senior roles at Gatorade, NBA Properties, Nike, Wasserman, Arsenal FC, Aston Villa FC, the San Jose Earthquakes, FaZe Clan, and Isos Capital.<\/p>\n
Rich Chou, EVP, Athlete Relations \u2014 More than 20 years in MMA promotion, matchmaking, and talent relations, including senior roles at Rumble on the Rock, EliteXC, Strikeforce, and Bellator MMA. Most recently VP of North America for MMA Inc.<\/p>\n
Paolo Boccotti, EVP, European Production and Operations \u2014 More than 30 years in global event promotion and television production, including leadership of Bellator MMA\u2019s European expansion from 2018 to 2023.<\/p>\n
Lawrence Stuart, EVP, Media Rights and Business Development \u2014 Experience in global content distribution and media rights negotiation, including building partnerships at Screenz across Fox, Sony, Universal Music Group, and Reliance Jio.<\/p>\n
Chris DeBlasio, EVP, Global Head of Communications \u2014 More than 15 years leading communications for Showtime Sports, including publicity strategy for Mayweather vs. McGregor and Mayweather vs. Pacquiao. Most recently supported Paramount+ for its launch of UFC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Coker has announced six senior executive appointments for his new global MMA promotion, which launched earlier this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-712525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}