{"id":616546,"date":"2026-09-15T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/616546\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T06:46:09","slug":"promoter-behind-strikeforce-bellator-mma-to-launch-new-32-fighter-combat-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/616546\/","title":{"rendered":"Promoter behind Strikeforce, Bellator MMA, to launch new 32-fighter combat league"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Veteran mixed martial arts promoter Scott Coker has \u2060unveiled Ki MMA, \u2060a new global promotion set \u2060to launch in the first quarter of 2027 with a 32-man featherweight tournament spanning four continents.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The former head of Bellator MMA and Strikeforce announced the venture at a news conference in New York on Monday \u200calongside long-time MMA executive and matchmaker Rich Chou, who will lead athlete relations, and media executive Peter Levin, who will serve as the chairman.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ki MMA\u2019s inaugural competition will feature eight featherweight fighters from each of North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. Regional events will determine one finalist from \u2060each continent, who will advance to an international semi-final stage. Who will fight has yet to be revealed.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The promotion is targeting events in the US, Ireland, Hungary, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and either Italy or France, Coker said. \u200cThe initial tournament will be contested at 145lb (66kg), a division \u2060that has produced \u2060some of the sport\u2019s most prominent champions and fighters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran mixed martial arts promoter Scott Coker has \u2060unveiled Ki MMA, \u2060a new global promotion set \u2060to launch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[337,278943,1083,63,2226,8249,85,12110,46,1437,278940,1886,2819,143620,278942,278941,4657,105],"class_list":["post-616546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-asia","tag-bellator-mma","tag-brazil","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-hungary","tag-il","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-ki-mma","tag-new-york","tag-north-america","tag-professional-fighters-league","tag-rich-chou","tag-scott-coker","tag-south-america","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}