Despite recent reports stating otherwise, Tony Khan and his father are not in discussions to purchase Bellator MMA.
All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan took part in a media scrum this afternoon for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door to answer a wide variety of questions. When asked about the reports that his family was interested in purchasing Bellator MMA, Khan said he was surprised by the news because there’s no truth to it whatsoever.
“I was surprised to see that report. I haven’t had any conversations with them about that,” Tony Khan said. “So I don’t know what that was about. My father hasn’t had any conversations with them either. I don’t even know, honestly, who owns the promotion. Is Scott Coker, the owner, the President? I’m not sure.
“I’m familiar with Bellator. I’m familiar with MMA and have never worked professionally in this space other than having some stars from UFC appear at times in AEW. But I saw that report, and yeah, there’s really nothing to that. I’m not sure where that rumor got started. But obviously, it’s an interesting time in the MMA business, just as it’s a very interesting time in the pro wrestling business with a lot of things happening and with the success of AEW and our international expansion.
“Big things like this sold out Forbidden Door show and all the international interest around it. And the anticipation for AEW All In with over 65,000 tickets sold setting all sorts of attendance and revenue records. It will be the biggest wrestling event ever in Europe and outside of a couple of the WrestleMania as it stands right now and only a couple of them in all the years. It would stand only next to a few of those as the most successful highest-grossing wrestling event of all time. And there are so many things exciting there on the business side and with the launch of AEW Fight Forever. All this is happening at the same time. It’s just a really great time for the business right now.
“So I believe that with all those great things happening, people would look at that and say, well, sure, it would be great if there was that same competition in MMA. It’s that same spirit of competition. I do believe we are the greatest challenger brand in all of sports people have written that this is the most successful sports startup since the AFL. And I believe that I think this will end very differently than the AFL because I don’t intend to become part of the league we compete with.
“I think it’s good for us to be two separate leagues, whereas the merger of the AFL and the NFL turned out to be the best thing for the fans in the end. It was also a merger of equals, and it will involve parity, and the NFL is the greatest league for parity of competition and running the business in all sports, and all sports leagues aspire to be that. I think in pro wrestling, what we built in a relatively short time is very exciting and looks good to a lot of people, and if you could create that in MMA, it would be very exciting.
“But I honestly have never had any talks, and my father has never had any talks about buying Bellator, so I was surprised to see that. I was at the show I was backstage yesterday; somebody sent me that. Was that something Ariel Helwani reported? Well, it would not be the first inaccurate thing Ariel Helwani has reported that is completely inaccurate, but that’s Ariel Helwani for you.”
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What do you make of Tony Khan’s comments? Do you think it’s a good thing that the Khan family is staying out of the MMA business? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Media Call with a link back to this article for the transcription.
