Scott Coker Says Ki MMA Can Sign Any Free Agent
Scott Coker told free agents to pick up the phone, saying Ki MMA has a budget large enough that no unsigned fighter is out of reach. The former Strikeforce and Bellator chief made the pitch as his new promotion prepares a 2027 launch built around a global Grand Prix.
“If you’re a free agent, give us a call,” Coker said. He added that the company will spend the next two months adding names and that “we have a budget that there’s not any free agent that’s untouchable.”
The message was aimed at the top of the market as much as the next wave of prospects. “If you’re a free agent at the highest level, we have the ability to sign you, to fight you,” he said.
Coker unveiled the Ki MMA name this week in New York with longtime matchmaker Rich Chou and chairman Peter Levin. The group closed $60 million in financing earlier this year and is targeting a first-quarter 2027 start, with San Jose among the cities under consideration.
The centerpiece is a 32-man featherweight World Grand Prix split across four continents. Eight fighters from North America, South America, Europe, and Asia will run single-elimination regional brackets, with each continental winner advancing to a one-night world final.
That final card is where the old tournament model returns in full. The four continental champions meet in semifinals, and the two winners fight again the same night for the inaugural Ki MMA title, meaning the champion must win twice before the event is over.
Sherdog reported the full path at five fights for whoever lifts the first belt. Regional events feed the finals, and Coker has said the winner of that last night collects the largest share of the prize money.
Bouts will be staged in a ring rather than a cage, a visual Coker has chased since his Strikeforce years and one that nods to Japanese MMA. Ki MMA is planning about 13 cards in 2027, with Coker saying only about a third of the fights will sit inside the tournament itself.
Possible stops include San Jose, Dublin, Budapest, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and Italy or France. Media-rights talks are underway with both traditional and newer distributors, and no broadcast partner has been named.
The roster plan is two-track. Chou has been scouting for three months, with a stated focus on fighters ages 18 to 25 who have fewer than 10 pro bouts, while Coker simultaneously shops the free-agent market to put known names on the same cards.
No contracts were announced at the launch. Coker still framed the next 60 days as an open window, repeating that the budget is built to reach “the highest level” rather than only developmental talent.
He has sold that mix before. Under his watch, Strikeforce developed Daniel Cormier, Ronda Rousey, Luke Rockhold, Miesha Tate, and Robbie Lawler while also putting established stars on major shows.
Coker left Bellator after the PFL acquisition and has spent the past year assembling this staff, which also includes Kevin Kay, Tom Fox, Paolo Boccotti, Lawrence Stuart, and Chris DeBlasio. The stated goal is a global brand that pays young fighters more than they would earn on the regional circuit and gives free agents a place to fight without waiting on the UFC calendar.
He told reporters the pay gap he is offering young athletes can run “hundreds of thousands dollars more than fighting anywhere else in the world.” That claim sits beside the more aggressive line from the same appearance, that no free agent is priced out.
How far that budget stretches will be tested as soon as names start circulating. The UFC remains the destination most elite free agents still prefer, and Ki MMA has not yet shown a signed headliner, a locked first date, or a television deal.
What it has shown is a format and a public invitation. Coker wants prospects in the continental brackets and veterans available for Super Fights on the same cards, with the first Grand Prix reserved for 145 pounds.
San Jose is the sentimental favorite for the opening North American stop, given Coker’s Bay Area history, but the company has not confirmed a venue or a month inside the first-quarter window. The next two months of recruiting will decide whether the “untouchable” line was rhetoric or the start of a roster.
Until those signatures land, the story is the offer itself. Coker is back in the market, the Grand Prix clock is running toward early 2027, and any free agent who wants in has been told where to call.