Execs at both the UFC and Bellator MMA took issue yesterday with actress Meryl Streep's comments about MMA in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes on Sunday night. "I was a little taken aback," said Bellator MMA President Scott Coker. He tweeted out an invitation for Streep to attend Bellator 170 in L.A. after Streep’s speech. “To say mixed martial arts is not an art form? I totally disagree,” Coker said. In accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, Streep criticized President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about a disabled reporter and foreigners. Streep said, “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if you kick us all out, you'll have nothing to watch except for football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts." Coker said he did not understand why Streep would “knock” MMA and was surprised by her comments. He added that his invitation to Streep to attend the Jan. 21 event is sincere and he hopes she accepts. “If she did attend I would sit there and I would explain to her what is going on,” Coker said. Coker said he does not want an apology from Streep. He said, "It to me is when someone of her stature and her level of understanding the art of acting, she should know these guys are artists. That is why we call it art, mixed martial art-ists. This is an art form. They are expressing themselves through bodily movement, which is an art form, which happens to be combative.” UFC President Dana White was also miffed, telling TMZ Sports Streep was “an uppity 80-year-old lady.” Asked if he thought Streep targeted MMA generally and him specifically in her comments because White was a speaker at the Republican National Committee’s convention last summer at which Trump accepted the Republican nomination, White told TMZ Sports he did not know. Streep's publicist did not immediately return a request for comment. The NFL also did not return a request for comment.
