Bellator president Scott Coker has big plans for the thriving MMA promotion.

Back in the UK for Saturday’s London show at the SSE Arena, Wembley, the latest stop on their European tour once again brings together emerging talent and some of the sport’s outstanding names – namely middleweight king Gegard Mousasi, who headlines this weekend’s card against the undefeated Rafael Lovato Jr.

Ireland’s James Gallagher, a true rising star of MMA, and Fabian Edwards, younger brother of UFC contender Leon and one of the UK’s biggest middleweight prospects, are among those fighting on the stacked card in the capital who the promotion have huge hopes for.

Bellator remain determined to discover and cultivate their own talent and having developed fiercely loyal fan bases in the US, UK and Ireland, Coker insists the long-term plan is to take the show further afield.

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“This localised series is a like a test model for us, we would love to take it to Latin America, to Asia, to Australia and New Zealand", Coker told Standard Sport.

“We need star fighters. That’s our core business. Can we find the next group, the next wave of fighters in the UK, in Ireland, in Asia in Latin America? I believe the answer is yes.

"We are going be a company that produces 50 or 60 events a year in the next three or four years.”

While further developing Bellator is the goal, Coker understands collaboration can play a big part.

Bellator has been involved in cross-promotional fights with Japanese promotion Rizin, staging a champion-vs-champion bout at one of their biggest shows to date last Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Rizin bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi added the Bellator belt to his collection that night with victory over Darrion Caldwell.

Horiguchi will continue to fight for both promotions, defending his Bellator title once a year, says Coker. “He is our champion, he is part of the family, he is my guy too.”

The arrangement between Bellator and Rizin inevitably raises questions over cross-promotional matches with UFC fighters. UFC has traditionally distanced itself from the prospect of talent-sharing – but the appetite for such match-ups exists.

After beating Caldwell, Horiguchi immediately called out newly-crowned UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo.

Flyweight champion Ilima-Lei Macfarlane admits she is open to the idea, while Saturday’s headline act Mousasi says he would love to take on his UFC counterpart Robert Whittaker.

“All I am saying is we have so much talent and are deep in so many divisions now, that if they want to do it, we would get it on,” Coker said of Bellator vs UFC.

“I feel like if they would allow it and we did it, the fans would love it.

“The hype Horiguchi vs Caldwell brought to MMA was substantial. People want to see it, champion vs champion. But working together like that, we have to have trust with the other promoter, it’s a process.”

Collaboration plans extend beyond deals with other MMA promotions.

While Bellator signed a television deal with Sky Sports and Channel 5 in the UK earlier this year, they are served in the US by Paramount and DAZN – the latter being the platform that exclusively broadcasts Matchroom's boxing fights Stateside.

Coker is a big fan of Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn and his star attraction, the now former heavyweight champion of the world, Anthony Joshua.

“I look at the boxing here [in the UK] and I couldn’t believe there was a fighter who could sell out an 80,000-seater stadium,” he said of Joshua’s Wembley showdowns with Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin.

“It’s unbelievable, I don’t think you could do it in America.”

With Bellator and Matchroom sharing broadcast interests with DAZN and Sky Sports, Coker believes one epic night of combat sport featuring both boxing and MMA is a compelling possibility.

“Eddie and I, we talked about how maybe we could work together, some collaborations maybe.

“But really they have their own business with AJ, we have our own business with Bellator. But whether it is AJ or someone else, I personally would like to see a fight night where you come and watch a big boxing fight, a big kickboxing fight and a big Bellator fight.

"Changing the ring over, it takes 15 minutes. That would be a fun night.

“If someone offered that, I would go for it, it would be so much fun. Hopefully we can continue having conversations like that. AJ has a rematch, they are only worried about that for now.

"But I will continue to talk to DAZN about other opportunities to collaborate with some of the top promoters in boxing.”

While Mousasi and Lovato Jr headline Bellator 223 on Saturday, plenty of attention will fall on 22-year-old Irish bantamweight Gallagher.

The Strabane-born fighter takes on Jeremiah Labiano with the two involved in a heated confrontation during Thursday’s pre-fight press conference in Leicester Square.

But while he understands the importance of hyping a fight, Coker insists business must come first.

“There’s a lot of heat in this fight, they don’t like each other,” Coker admitted. “I tell the guys at the press conference, nobody gets paid today. Everyone gets paid on Saturday.

"If you want to fight for free, give me a call. This is not the time for things to unravel because if that happens nobody is going to get paid. That’s your job, be professional. If you want to hype it up a little bit that’s fine. But my job is to get that fight to the cage on fight night.”

Backed by media giant Viacom, Bellator’s roster has grown considerably in recent times and possesses the financial backing to go after some of MMA’s biggest names.

While cultivating young talent is a priority, Coker insists his promotion will always be firmly in the market for any MMA stars looking for change.

“All I will say to free agents is: Come give us a call. We are not for everybody, but for the people that we want, we will be very aggressive, put it that way.”

Tickets for Bellator London: Mousasi vs. Lovato Jr. are now on sale and can be purchased online from axs.com/uk and Bellator.com