HONOLULU – Bellator President Scott Coker believes UFC 233 was canceled because the promotion couldn’t put together show worthy of pay-per-view.

And as he alluded to once before with a GIF on Twitter, he’s not complaining.

Prior to the UFC pulling the planned Jan. 26 event at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., UFC 233 was supposed to go head to head with Bellator 214 just a few miles away at The Forum in Inglewood. It’s a huge card for Bellator and one that would certainly make fight fans think about which one to tune into.

Bellator 214, which is headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Ryan Bader, will no longer have direct competition on the night. And for Coker, that’s a win.

“Absolutely (it’s excited to be unopposed),” Coker told reporters, including MMAjunkie, post-fight on Saturday at Bellator 213. “Everybody has a business to run. They have a business to run; we have a business to run. We’ve been going on that date for the last three years or however long, so everybody knows we’re going to go on that date. It didn’t work out for them because, to me, it’s a roster issue.

“Who is going to fight? And if you’re going to bring someone to fight against the Fedor-Bader card, and ours is free on Paramount and on DAZN, and you’re going to run on pay-per-view, then you better have your A-game. I think they just ran out of bullets.”

During his tenure as Bellator boss, Coker has been careful not to criticize the UFC too much. He’s taken away notable talent from the UFC in recent years through free agency, but other than that, Coker has been mostly cordial toward the biggest organization in the MMA space.

Coker has been at the forefront of Bellator’s push to greater prominence, though, and it was difficult for him to hide his pleasure with seeing the UFC back down. However, he said it won’t change his approach moving forward.

“This is not the first time,” Coker said. “This is like the second, maybe even the third time this happened on that weekend. It is what it is. For the most part I feel like we’ve just got to focus on our business and keep running, but we have a great card on that day.”

In addition to the Bader-Fedor heavyweight grand prix final, a middleweight title fight between Gegard Mousasi and Rafael Lovato Jr. is on tap, as well as the return of rising prospect Aaron Pico vs. Henry Corrales and the debut of former WWE star Jake Hager.

For more on Bellator 214, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.