The father and son team behind the Jacksonville Jaguars and popular wrestling company AEW are reportedly interested in purchasing one of the top promotions in the mixed martial arts business.
For the better part of the last decade, Bellator MMA has stood as the top alternative to the UFC in the MMA industry. The company is led by former Strikeforce boss Scott Coker and has one of the better cage-fighting rosters outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. However, despite their strong MMA offering, they have had difficulty cutting out a notable share of the industry.
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That is why there have been rumblings in recent months that Bellator MMA’s parent company Viacom is interested in selling off the promotion. Last week, Coker stunned many media when he revealed that the rival fight league the PFL was in serious talks of a merger with Bellator. But that was just one of the possible contenders to buy the No. 2 MMA promotion in the world.
Jacksonville Jaguars boss looking at buying popular MMA promotion
On Wednesday, long-time MMA insider Ariel Helwani confirmed during a new edition of the “MMA Hour” that the PFL is indeed in meaningful conversations about a merger, but so are Shad Khan and his Tony Khan, the owners of the Jacksonville Jaguars and AEW, respectively.
“Liberty Media was one that has looked into them. I can also tell you that the Khan family has looked into them. To what degree is unclear. And when I’m talking about the Khan family, I’m talking about Shad Khan and his son Tony Khan, who of course owned the Jacksonville Jaguars, Fulham, and All Elite Wrestling.
“That would be a wild one, right? Imagine they own Bellator and AEW, while Endeavor owns WWE and UFC. That would be wild stuff. But I can also say that as of a couple of weeks ago, PFL got back into the mix and have great interest and they do have some new investment coming up.”
– Ariel Helwani
Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, came to an agreement to merge with WWE and form a new publicly traded company they would both fall under. AEW and Bellator under the same umbrella would mean the No. 2 companies in wrestling and MMA would be working together as well.
Tony Khan is the son of Jacksonville Jaguars boss Shad Khan and previously held a role with the NFL team before starting All Elite Wrestling and becoming their CEO and head of creative. The duo reportedly also had an interest in purchasing WWE when the company was up for sale earlier this year.