10 Ways Scott Coker Can Improve Bellator To Compete With UFC

4. Push Hard To Sign Big Names

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edMhqdI6h6Y Scott Coker was loved by fighters for a few reasons, but the most obvious was that he handed out big paydays. Ask Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, etc. Jake Shields earned more than the entertainment he brought there. Frank Shamrock once earned over $350,000 to take a drubbing from Nick Diaz. Cung Le made a flat $100,000 for kicking Scott Smith into the next century. Fedor got $400,000 in his first loss, to Fabricio Werdum, who took home $100,000. Lucky for Le and others, some of these contracts carried over to the UFC. Cung Le made $420,000 in losing his UFC debut to Wanderlei Silva (that figure includes a $70,000 Fight of the Night bonus). Even for his next fight, a win over Patrick Cote, Le picked up $150,000. Now, Coker has the deep pockets of Viacom backing him. If he can make Bellator contracts less iffy, and improve the image of the company into a fighter-friendly one, he could once again lure some of the biggest names around to Bellator - the only problem is, the talent outside the UFC is far below what was available back when Strikeforce was in its prime.