Scott Coker

“Bellator has the best welterweight fighters in the world.”

“MMA has evolved. When you look at an MMA fighter's skill set, boxing has to be a big piece of it. All of them have a boxing coach now and strive to have a good stand-up game, knowing that to be a complete fighter, you have to tend to your striking skills.”

“Mike Goldberg and Mauro Ranallo are two of the best in our business, and I couldn't be happier about them joining the Bellator family.”

“When you think about martial arts here in the states, kickboxing was here in the '70s, and it kind of ran its course. But I always felt there was a place in combat sports for kickboxing.”

“I think I'm going to be a juggler when I retire from the promotion business one day.”

“As a martial arts promoter and as a fan of martial arts, you go, 'What would happen if this guy fought this guy?'”

“We are all shocked and saddened by the devastating and untimely loss of Kimbo Slice, a beloved member of the Bellator family.”

“One of the most popular MMA fighters ever, Kimbo was a charismatic, larger-than-life personality that transcended the sport.”

“That's the thing about the fight business is that you don't know what's going to happen.”

“To say martial arts, or the combative form - mixed martial arts - is not an art form is incorrect.”

“In Strikeforce, we're committed to putting on the best fights that we can.”

“A lot of fighters want that freedom to have their own sponsorships. When you think about it, how do you make independent contractors wear a uniform? That just seems strange to me.”

“I think the MMA and boxing are different audiences. I think it's a different intrigue. There's no reason you can't be a fan of both; why does it have to be one or the other?”

“Whereas there's more of a learning curb with MMA, kickboxing is pretty easy to understand and has no geographical boundaries.”

“Sport is made to be live. You can't watch something three hours later already knowing the results; it's not the same experience.”

“I would say, look, any fighter that's out there or any star athlete - not star athlete in the sense of a baseball player, but like a Brock Lesnar - that really wants to fight, we're going to have a conversation with them. Because if they can move the needle, we're going to want them on Spike TV.”

“When I first came to Bellator, I wanted to take it back to what we accomplished at Strikeforce and look at the next generation. So we signed the Aaron Picos of the world and put them in our development programme to nurture them.”

“I'm excited to see Jake Hager debut for Bellator in 2018. When I heard he was seriously interested in competing in MMA, and when you look at what he did at the collegiate level, I was very interested in having him on our roster.”

“Great fights means great TV ratings.”

“When you think about mixed martial arts, you have to think about the entire scope of the athlete.”