Promoting MMA on the regional scene is a different beast. For many promoters, it’s a hobby and a labor of love. Many have tried and very few have been successful. It takes tremendous investment and even more work to put on a show with no guarantee there will be a profit at the end of the show. The only people that actually know and understand what it takes to put on a professional MMA show are those that do it.
The December edition of The MMA Chronicles is here! Featuring Kyle Prepolec, Sarah Kaufman, the Atmeh Brothers, Serhiy Sidey, Unified MMA President Sunny Sareen, Cody Kent, Xmas Gift Ideas, Canada’s Top Amateur Prospects, Cutting Weight with Matt Speciale and many more.
Check it out now at themmachronicles.ca/magazine
The September edition of The MMA Chronicles is here! Featuring Adam Assenza, BFL President Jay Golshani, Aaron Jeffery on his return to Dana White’s Contender Series, new UFC talent Orion “Galaxy” Cosce, Gym of the Month — Adrenaline MMA (with Sam Stout, Mark Hominick and Chris Horodecki) and many more.
Check it out now at themmachronicles.ca/magazine
The June edition of The MMA Chronicles is here! Featuring Tristan Connelly, Josh Emmett, Dave Fish, Paul Jalbert, Dave Shaw, Lupita Godinez, Kyle Prepolec, Dr Ed Gray and more.
Check it out now at themmachronicles.ca/magazine
The first volume of The MMA Chronicles is available now! Features articles with Josh Hill, Mike Malott, Haim Gozali, Kru Alin Halmagean, Ask a Fighter w/ Ryan Dickson, and a Q&A w/ BTC Fight Matchmaker Rob Veevers.
Check it out now at themmachronicles.ca/magazine
Promoting MMA on the regional scene is a different beast. For many promoters, it’s a hobby and a labor of love. Many have tried and very few have been successful. It takes tremendous investment and even more work to put on a show with no guarantee there will be a profit at the end of the show. The only people that actually know and understand what it takes to put on a professional MMA show are those that do it.
I like to think of myself as a “jack of all trades” type of guy. There are a lot of people that don’t see the value in it; They think people should have a speciality, that everyone needs to be the best at something. I personally think that’s a load of crap, and i’m sure that any MMA fighter would agree. If you want to be the best in the cage, you need to be multifaceted, but what does it mean to be a well-rounded fighter?
In this interview rising Women's Flyweight prospect Jasmine Jasudavicius talks about fighting for the first time at BTC 8 on November 30: Fighting so close to home training with Niagra Top Team and Syndicate MMA out in Las Vegas her war with Kylie O'Hearn in Cage Titans and having her parents come and see her fight. A fun interview so check it out.
Ok, so I know that the title is pretty loaded, but I mainly want to focus on more recent changes we’ve seen in MMA. Recently in MMA (keep in mind that I mean in like the past 3 years), we’ve seen a resurgence of high-level and spectacular striking with Israel Adesanya, Yair Rodriguez, Stephen Thompson and Zabit Magomedsharipov, becoming easy favourites.
This is in a sharp difference from what has been the consensus that wrestling is the most important skill in MMA (not saying that it isn’t btw) and therefore the main deciding factor in fights. But to add to this change we’ve seen that high-level wrestlers and other grapplers have begun to add more intricate striking into their arsenal as the game keeps evolving.
In the last decade, we’ve seen a rise in not only the number of traditional martial arts stylists in MMA, but also, they’re doing pretty damn good, with a lot being ranked in the top 10 of their weight class.
In the early days of the sport, when it was basically just Tekken with all the matches being style match-ups, traditional Martial Arts were taken out of the tournaments pretty quickly, especially by grappling styles like BJJ and Wrestling. This led people to the conclusion that most if not all traditional Martial Arts styles are useless in a real fight, especially if that style lacks a grappling component. But in recent years we’ve seen how fighters who have experience in traditional martial arts using traditional martial arts techniques like the sidekick, spinning attacks and some like Wonderboy Thompson even use the side on stance in their fights and this is because of the addition of wrestling into their MMA arsenal.
Both these men are traditional strikers with excellent Wrestling defense
We all know how important wrestling is, it’s the base of the MMA pyramid says the famous Epstein conspiracy theorist Joe Rogan and he’s not wrong, the ability to determine where the goes are the most useful one to have.
In the early days, MMA traditional martial artists were taken down easily, especially off of their spectacular kicks, but nowadays it’s a bit different. High-level strikers like Israel Adesanya have tremendous takedown defence, as well as the ability to get back on their feet if they do get taken down. This wrestling training not only allows strikers to keep the fight standing but also allows them to throw more flashy techniques or heavier shots without the fear of going to the ground.
In this interview, Tobias Baker opens up about with a really cool story on how he got into MMA, transitioning from wrestling to MMA, moving from North Dakota to Oregon and talks about his upcoming fight at Purecombat: Battle of the Brave vs John Simon (UFC Fighter Ricky Simon brother). A fun and open interview so please check it out.
“I know boundaries exist. It’s all in how you choose to handle it. We knew 100% going into this that it’s a male driven sport and industry. I think we’re confident, strong women, and I knew that we could handle ourselves. It’s just about being tough and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone. I would like to see more women do that. Whether it’s hop in the gym and train in this sport. Just because it’s mostly men doesn’t mean you can’t do that. We can make excuses and focus our effort on saying that it is male driven or we can just do it. I think we should spend more time saying ‘I want to do that, I fit there, this is what I’m gonna do.”
Possibly the best reason for fans choosing to migrate more to the sport as a whole rather than just following the fighter themselves, comes from arguably the most important voice surrounding MMA today. Joe Rogan puts it in such a simple way that it’s hard to argue against. He calls MMA “the least bulshittable sport.” And he’s right.
High-level mixed-martial artists should focus on winning their bout and nothing else.
The matchmaking, the promotion, and marketing of the fighter, and the overall well-being of the fighter should be taken care of by a management team. They are as important as the athlete in shaping a successful career.
Last Saturday Prospect Fighting Championships (PFC) put on their annual event "Knockout Kidney Disease" event AKA "Showdown in the Downtown 11" in London, ON to support a variety of charities, projects and research groups. Not only did they support a good cause but they brought a great card to the Forest City filled with a ton of Canadian talent. The card was headlined by Windsor's TJ Laramie (9-3, 6 KO's, 2 Subs), #3 ranked Canadian featherweight, against dangerous out-of-towner Paris Stanford (5-1) and the co-main event showcased the return of London standout, Jesse "The Ghost" Gross (10-4), against BJJ specialist Armando Gomes (10-3) who has cut his teeth on the Brazilian regional scene.
MMA is the worlds fastest growing sport hands down; promotions are popping up everywhere (including our own very BTC fight promotions). Its quickly becoming one of the most popular sports in the world (we’re coming for you soccer!) and with that more and more people are starting to become fans of MMA. But with all these promotions and all these fighters the question does come up, are these people watching fans of the sport, the fighters or are they fans of the personalities?
