Issue 026

June 2007

You’ve seen the adverts, you’ve been to the event but you’ve never known what the word Seni actually means have you? And have you really been bothered? It’s a nice name, it’s a great event and now due to the impact of MMA, Europe’s biggest Combat Sports expo has never been more interesting. This month, we introduce the men behind Seni, Joe Long and Paul Alderson, lifelong friends and industry professionals. Oh and we also found out what Seni means!

Joe and Paul first met through a friendship Joe had with Paul’s sister at the comparative ages of 12 and 16 years old. They had both competed in karate from an early age and when Paul moved to Joe’s club a strong relationship between the two evolved. The former training partners went on to become business partners and the route along the way was an exciting one.

Both Joe and Paul competed at an international level in karate and Paul went on to become a world champion, stating their positions in the world of the traditional martial arts. Their love and knowledge of combat sports (combined with entrepreneurial streaks and backed by degree qualifications in leisure and sports management) saw the pair looke to try and build a business that would involve their skill sets, yet would produce something different to the norm, a philosophy they still maintain today.

In 1997 they produced their first ever event, a black tie dinner karate show. Along the same principles as the boxing dinners we have all encountered, it was given that bit more ‘sexiness’, making it more appealing to the media. The show was certainly ‘sexy’ enough to be signed up and aired by Sky Sports, and as a result a recipe for future success was born.

The pair have since gone on to produce a wide variety of shows, ranging from grass roots local events to major exhibitions such as Seni. As the number of events being produced and the success attained from them grew, Paul and Joe established a company called Fighters Inc. A media and planning agency that would not only serve as the host and parent company for the events being produced by the pair (now up to a total of eight) and the management of the fighters competing within them, but would also provide media and planning services for film, TV and Theatre. 

“Fighters Inc is a banner bringing unique sporting events and project management services.” stated Alderson, who this year alone brought to the UK the 10K Grappling Challenge as well as securing non other than the UFC as main sponsors of the Seni show.

The achievements made by the pair under the Fighters Inc. banner are unprecedented in the UK due to the quality of their work and the unique quality of their product and service. “Our goals in business are to work with as many like-minded people as possible yet remaining completely impartial. We are a special events group that achieve goals in combat sports helping clients with exposure in martial arts,” stated Joe Long, who within the last year has been involved in two theatre productions with a martial arts twist and the feature film Sucker Punch (starring Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman). In addition to this, they helped with the media and marketing promotion for the UK premier of Rocky Balboa, produced the Shaolin Monks Theatre Show and even managed the marketing for the ‘Yo Sushi!’ restaurants.

On top of all of this the pair manage to produce Europe’s biggest combat sports exhibition. “Seni has been around for about nine years now and has established itself as the only one of its type. It has exceeded all of our expectations for the event,” said Paul, whose company ethos of improving on each event has certainly been met with in the form of Seni.

This year’s Seni will see a Fighters Inc. produced K-1 event replace the usual Pain and Glory show. Leading K-1 fighters will be in attendance to compete for the pleasure of the Seni crowd. Appreciative of the support they have received, Joe Long said “We want to thank the fans and the fighters for their support over the years, without them we would not be here now.”

With alliances with some of the biggest organizations in the world and a solid and genuine reputation for being some of the industry’s good guys, the pair have big plans for the future. “Watch this space,” says Paul Alderson. “We have some aces up our sleeves still yet to be pulled out!” And in case you were wondering, Seni is the Japanese word for ‘fighting spirit’.