Michael Page is the latest Bellator fighter to move to the UFC, and unsurprisingly, former Bellator president Scott Coker is rooting for him.
Coker, who has been promoting Page for years, was pleased to see Page raise his hand in his UFC debut. MVP defeated veteran Kevin Holland by unanimous decision on the main card of UFC 299 in Miami last Saturday. It was a solid debut win for him in front of the UFC crowd, and Coker was happy to see it.
“I was very happy,” Coker told MMA Junkie Radio. “I texted him and said, 'Please show me what's going on with that kid because he's talking a mess here.' At the end of the day, what matters is which It's not about whether you fight for a letter or what alphabet you fight for. At the end of the day, you're either a great fighter or you're not, and MVP is a great fighter.
“He's one of my favorite athletes as a fighter because he can do things that people can't do. How many people can do what he does? Knock out the people he knocked out. And the way he did it. Sure, he had some losses along the way, but everyone loses in this sport. Everyone except Khabib (Nurmagomedov) – but, Khabib is on another level. This guy is very talented. I'm glad he won. He's able to show his skills to a different audience now, but I don't think he was like this 10 years ago. I looked at the guy and was shocked at what he was doing 10 years ago.
Paige is one of the many Bellator fighters who have found success in the UFC. Coker, who is proud of the rise he has built in MMA, always tracks the successes of his peers, and Page's case was no exception.
“We put out the clicker like it was a baseball game,” Coker said. “When we sold Strikeforce to the UFC, before the UFC bought it, it was like Dana saying, 'Oh, these guys stink.' Strikeforce has the worst fighters in the world.” So, I'm sitting there listening to the clicker and I'm like, 'Okay, we're 7-1, now we're 8-1, 9-2, it's like a baseball umpire.' I'm like, 'Okay, this fighter. Everybody sucks, but now I'm kicking your boots over there.''
“For me, it's about fighters. We've developed some of the best fighters in the world. We did it in Strikeforce, we did it in Bellator, and we'll do it again wherever we go.”
Coker parted ways with the Bellator brand in November after parent company Viacom sold the brand to PFL, ending his 10-year run with the brand. It was recently announced that Coker will serve as executive producer and former martial artist Gilbert Melendez will help launch and run the fight promotion Fight Night at the Tech. It is unclear whether Coker will go deeper into the MMA promotion.
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