Fighters Only

Issue 100

April 2013

Growing mixed martial arts equipment brand Punch Town is rumored to be poised to launch an exclusive legend series of gloves, and UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie will lend his name to a pair. If the reports are indeed true, the deal would be a massive coup for the burgeoning four-year-old brand. Royce, the first-ever UFC tournament champion, hasn’t fought since a 2007 decision over ‘Gracie Hunter’ Kazushi Sakuraba but remains a well respected name in the industry.

Fox to rebrand channels, UFC broadcast content set for shift

According to reports, the Fox Network, the US home of the UFC’s TV programming, will rebrand some of its channels into sports-dedicated stations, affecting the lay of the UFC’s current broadcast content.

Live UFC events and shoulder programming is currently aired on Fox, FX and Fuel TV. However, Fuel TV is rumored to be renamed Fox Sports 2 in August, at the same time the Speed channel will become Fox Sports 1. There will also no longer be sports programming on FX, the home of The Ultimate Fighter.

The change stands to improve the reach of UFC programming, as Fox reportedly hopes the rebranding will increase the distribution of the niche Fuel TV station, which can currently only be seen in around 37 US million homes, in comparison to the 98 million US homes that receive FX. Speed, which will become Fox Sports 1, is available in approximately 81 million homes.

Industry jobs

Who: Lex McMahon

Role: President, Alchemist Management

Info: Organizes the fight careers of UFC talent such as Rory MacDonald, Nate Marquardt and Gegard Mousasi

How did you end up in MMA management?

“I have an MBA and a law degree, and I worked in venture capital. I grew up in the entertainment industry; my dad was (The Tonight Show announcer) Ed McMahon, who was on television for probably 50 years.

“I negotiated his contract to appear in a Cash4Gold Super Bowl commercial alongside (rapper) MC Hammer. That’s how I met Hammer. Hammer and I struck up a relationship with the gentleman who owned that company, and we all started talking about MMA. Jeff (Aronson, Cash4Gold CEO) approached me, I was doing some writing about MMA on the side, to get involved with sponsorships for his company in the MMA space. I did that for about a year and got to know everybody in the industry very quickly.

“Jeff and I and Hammer we decided collectively, ‘Why don’t we start this business? There’s a real opportunity; MMA is a growing industry.’ That was about three years ago, and now we’ve got a roster of about 40 fighters.”

What are your day-to-day tasks?

“It’s non stop. We represent a roster of elite fighters and we’re doing everything from marketing, to phone calls with promotions. We’re working on making sure our athletes have their medical clearances and licensing, setting up their endorsement deals, setting up their PR, travelling with them. Put it this way: my phone is almost always dead.”

How would your peers describe you?

“Hopefully well. I think I have a good reputation within the industry and I’m very blessed to have that. I’ve worked hard for that. I think my peers would describe me as someone who’s tenacious, a legitimately a good person who tries to do the right thing by his client.”

255,000

By pulling in 255,000 viewers, the Fuel TV preliminary bouts for UFC on FX 7, which featured Vitor Belfort vs Michael Bisping in the main event, earned the highest ratings of any program in the history of the channel.

Rallying/Crashed: The MMA business can be cruel and kind

Rallying: Lonsdale

A long-established boxing brand, Lonsdale has also stepped into the cage in the past few years and applied its trusted name, and equipment and apparel-making expertise, to a wildly successful line of mixed martial arts items. From shinpads to T-shirts, Lonsdale’s MMA branch is going from strength to strength.

Crashed: Triggonomics

Founded in 2003 but at its peak around 2007, Triggonomics was a line of urban-inspired clothing from former UFC welterweight contender Frank Trigg. Trigg dissolved the company in 2009 partly due to wanting to focus on his return to the UFC that year, he explained at the time.