Coker: UFC 249 will ‘affect everybody’ if something goes wrong

Adam Hagy-USA TODAY Sports

Bellator CEO Scott Coker is a bit concerned about UFC 249 pushing through.

The UFC is looking to defy all odds by being the only professional sports league to hold events amid the current global crisis. On Friday, the company announced that it will push through with UFC 249 on May 9th, as well as three other cards scheduled for May 13th, 16th, and 23rd.

Company officials did give the assurance that health and safety measures will be taken for the said events. Without knowing the specifics, Bellator CEO Scott Coker expressed some concerns, which he says will affect the sport across the board.

“That’s pretty ambitious. I don’t know what’s their protocol,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “That’s the one thing I would say: Let’s all be sensible because at the end of the day, if you don’t figure it out and you don’t have all the answers, there could be something bad that happens.

“And then everybody is backtracking, everybody is going to be in a defensive position, and it’s going to affect everybody. Not just them, but us as well.

“If it was a situation where the communication was – if I was talking to (UFC vice president of regulatory affairs) Marc Ratner, I would just say, ‘Hey, Marc. Be careful, man, because this is a very serious situation,” he added. “Make sure everything gets done properly because we don’t want to have something bad happen in this sport.’”

In late March, Coker announced the postponement of all Bellator events for the month of May.