Four hundred dollars. We made it so that some people began to fight with us, others wanted to fight with us, and everyone around us started talking about us. It cost us four hundred dollars,” Greg Apinyan sounds proud in his voice.
Apinyan is a 29-year-old resident of St. Petersburg and organizer of the Strelka mixed martial arts championships. Everyone in St. Petersburg knows what an “arrow” is. There is the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. You can also “score the arrow,” that is, challenge your opponent to a serious conversation. And now here comes the championship.
The name is excellent,” states Apinyan. - My brother came up with it.
Over the two years of its existence, its fighting tournaments have gone from a $400 get-together to one of the leading players in the domestic market of mixed martial arts (MMA - from the English Mixed Martial Arts). Eight million views of Strelka videos on YouTube, victory in the World Press Photo competition in the category “Best sports history", which in 2011 went to the organizers of the championship for filming their tournaments, fights on the football lawn of the Petrovsky stadium, the home field of Zenit, a sacred place for St. Petersburg residents - these are just some of the achievements of Apinyan and the company.
The secret of Strelka’s success is that ordinary amateurs can take part in it, including those who have never been involved in fighting at all. And second: “Strelka” is a street championship. Its participants fight in the open air, on sand, grass or bare ground.
This is what sets us apart from traditional MMA tournaments,” says Apinyan. “Their format scares off many viewers: an octagon, people in a cage, blood, everything is scary and gloomy. And our championships are a completely different matter. Sand, blue sky, sun. And the most ordinary people who sometimes show such strength of spirit that one can only be surprised.
At the first Strelka, held in the summer of 2011, a 40-year-old mustachioed man entered the fight. Compared to the others, he seemed like a grandfather. The man's name was Alexander Reze, he was an accountant. In the next ten minutes, the “grandfather” gave a real fight to an opponent half his age and in the end won. According to the regulations, fights at Strelka do not have a time limit: they go on until one of the fighters gives up or until the referee stops the fight. The record fight in the history of the championship lasted 40 minutes without a break. Everything else is like in classic MMA. The fighters have pads on their hands, they are allowed to throw punches and kicks and fight on the ground.
I worked with the M-1 company, filming Fedi Emelianenko’s fights. Then he brought equipment and T-shirts from fighting companies to Russia and had a store. At first we thought: we’ll organize our own tournament to sell T-shirts better. But very quickly the fighting pushed the store into the background,” says Apinyan.
Information about the first Strelka was distributed across sections mixed martial arts. Everyone was invited to participate. The location was chosen for the St. Petersburg factory "Red Banner" - it once supplied the country with women's stockings, but is now experiencing better times. An agreement was signed with the factory management to rent land in the yard for a period of one day. Friends brought twelve bags of sand, poured them onto the ground and leveled them. Ship ropes were strung along the perimeter to create a ring. Members of city auto and motorcycle clubs were invited as spectators - free of charge; Strelka began charging money for tickets later. They arrived and created a beautiful background: expensive cars, roaring engines, girls in short shorts. It was just a small matter - film everything on camera and post it on the Internet. All this, according to Apinyan, cost the notorious $400. Moreover, almost half of this amount was promised as a reward to the fighters.
Five people volunteered to fight. And then I said: there are six thousand rubles left, we can divide them into three thousand and have two fights. When these fights ended, people really got excited. They threw a hat at the audience and collected another six thousand. New people immediately appeared who wanted to try themselves in battles.
Over the course of two years, eleven mixed martial arts tournaments were held under the auspices of Strelka. The impudent St. Petersburgers were noticed and taken under the wing by the American company Tron, which specializes in organizing MMA tournaments. Apinyan does not disclose the amount for which the Americans bought the right to manage the fighting tournament in Russia. But judging by his cheerful voice and Napoleonic plans, the deal was right. He continues to organize fights, but as a hired employee of the Americans.
Today Strelka offers franchises to regions. A person in any city in Russia can take advantage of its name, its marketing resources, including a sophisticated website, and host the championship at home. Two years of using the Strelki brand will cost him three million rubles. There have been no takers yet. But they plan to raise the price of the franchise even higher. Because, according to Apinyan, Strelka will continue to develop and become more famous:
There will be no more tournaments in St. Petersburg. We feel confident enough to storm Moscow. And then, if everything goes well, in two or three years we will enter intercontinental development.
Today there are 838 people in line to participate in Strelka battles. This is enough for seven or eight tournaments. Fighters in the championship still don't make money big money, fees for winning rarely exceed three to four thousand rubles. However, this does not at all confuse men who want to try their hand at fighting without rules. They come from different areas, with different fighting qualifications. Once even a prisoner called from prison. He said: “I’ll be out in four months, I want to fight.”
Ali Baba and the robbers
Every week, at least a dozen mixed martial arts championships are held in Russia, in which amateurs can participate. Information about them is distributed in social networks and on the forums of Internet sites dedicated to martial arts, such as koicombat.org or mixfight.ru. The geography of these tournaments is extremely wide. This could be the Serednikovo estate near Moscow, the former estate of the Lermontovs-Stolypins, where in 2011 they held competitions in the toughest version of T-1 fighting. Or city sports complexes, as was the case in Makhachkala, Barnaul, Birobidzhan, Voronezh, Krasnodar and almost any other city in Russia with a population of fifty thousand or more.
Often, fighters are brought to restaurants and nightclubs, where patrons enjoy the fights in a snobbish, Great Gatsby manner, sitting at tables with drinks and food. This was the case, for example, in Kolomna near Moscow.
All together, this means that an impressive number of men for whom fighting is not a profession finish their work on Friday, say goodbye to their colleagues until Monday and go earn extra money with their fists. Or, if they don’t offer money, prove to themselves and the world everything that men usually prove.
Alexander Anisimov is a 30-year-old employee of a road construction company in Vladimir. For his debut in mixed martial arts, he chose the version that one authoritative sports publication called “cannibalistic” - T-1. The "T" stands for "total."
According to T-1 rules, competitors compete in shoes with hard soles. It is allowed to headbutt and finish off the opponent with legs if he does not give up. The organizers wanted the participants to fight with their bare hands, without gloves, but the fighters themselves objected. “Not everyone was ready to overcome the psychological barrier and fight with their bare fists,” says German Lvov, president of the T-1 league and popularizer of absolute fights. So in the end the fighters were allowed to fight in mixfight pads.
One of the participants in weight category Alexandra Anisimova dropped out of the tournament, first receiving a blow to the nose with his forehead (his nose was broken), and then, while already lying on the floor, a kick to the head. Alexander turned out to be more fortunate. He reached the final and only there, caught in a painful hold, lost.
At different times I was involved in hand-to-hand combat and wrestling,” he says. - And then I became interested in weightlifting.
When asked what made him leave his wife and one-and-a-half-year-old son in Vladimir and go to a foreign land to fight, he says: “It became interesting.” However, he immediately adds: “The interest was satisfied.” And, at least in the near future, there will be no more fights in his life.
Interest is what attracts many people to amateur mixfight. However, participating in fights can also be a way to earn money. According to the Russian Pankration Federation (this organization seeks to give mixed martial arts Olympic status), the fee for first place in non-professional tournaments ranges from 30 to 50 thousand rubles across the country. The participants themselves name more modest amounts - 10–20 thousand.
The prize fund is collected from sponsorship money or contributions from the participants themselves. Athletes who fight regularly travel to two or three tournaments a month. If you win at least one of them, and take second place in the other (for which they often give half the amount), minus travel expenses, you will get a “salary” of about a thousand dollars. This is a lot for the province. And if you win more often, you can earn more. But there are no such obvious stars in amateur MMA: the rotation of winners occurs constantly.
The man whose nose was broken on T-1 is called Ali Baba. His real name is Vyacheslav Yurovskikh, he is 40 years old. Having no fixed place of residence and sometimes spending the night at Moscow train stations, Ali Baba wanders from one mixfight tournament to another. He searches for information about them on the Internet: he carries a laptop with him, maintains a page on the website mmablog.ru and often surfs social networks.
Ali Baba is lean, wears a beard, and his broken nose reveals him as a person who has had a hard time in life. A couple of months ago they wrote about him in a sports magazine. He gained a reputation among journalists as a difficult person: he refused interviews to many, including, in his own words, “many television people” and “some filmmakers.”
We have been corresponding on VKontakte for some time. Ali Baba writes from N-sk, his hometown, where I went to visit my parents. He hides the real name of N-sk and calls it “Zasransk”: “This is a black hole. It's all Groundhog Day."
In the 90s, he studied at the journalism department of Moscow State University. There he began to study sambo in the university section. And when life threw him, a provincial, to the sidelines - without a permanent job, without money - it was wrestling that became his main occupation. In mixfight, Ali Baba looks like a bearded spider. He rolls up to his opponent, knits, and tries to take the throw. “Fights are not a fountain,” - this is how he himself speaks of his fights.
VKontakte is one of the few ways to communicate with Ali Baba. “I threw away my phone last November. There is no Skype either,” he writes. He says he doesn't do interviews because he wants to remain himself. He has no sponsors. And in Moscow he is still homeless: “To be completely happy, you don’t have your own corner, or even a room.” I could write a book about myself, there have been proposals, but not yet. In the near future there are tournaments in Rostov-on-Don and Belgorod: “This year I fought almost every weekend.”
Very soon Ali Baba's character makes itself felt. Having learned that he will not be the only hero of the article, he curtails the correspondence. There will be “enough heroes without me,” his last message says.
25-year-old native of the Leningrad region Vyacheslav Kashuba is the complete opposite of Ali Baba. He willingly answers questions, and he is not embarrassed that they are going to write not only about him.
“Mom told me: intellectuals shouldn’t fight!” - Three years ago, Kashuba, an engineer with a specialty in navigation, went on voyages. Sailed to America, Canada, Europe. Then I found out that very close by, in St. Petersburg, they were holding strange fights on the sand - “Strelka”, and sent an application to participate. “They didn’t answer my first letter. The second time they called back, and so my adventure began.”
Today he is known in the world of amateur mixfight under the name Moryachok. Although the sea is long gone: Vyacheslav flaunts a daring mohawk on his head, trains every day and dreams of making professional career in mixed fights. He has four fights at Strelka (three wins, one loss) and experience in other tournaments. So far, he says, mixfight does not generate income. But before his eyes is the glory of UFC tournaments, the main promotion company in MMA.
In the ranks of the UFC are all today's mixedfight stars: black giants Jon Jones and Anderson Silva, curly-haired fighter with African-Korean roots Benson Henderson, light and hard as steel, Chael Sonnen. They all receive five-figure salaries and live the life of real stars. They have broadcasts on cable channels, their own fan sites, and they are recognized in any city in the world. But in order to reach these heights, you need to give all of yourself, all your time. Is he ready for this? Vyacheslav Kashuba is not sure about this. So far he has accomplished the main thing: he overcame himself, went out to fight against opponents who were both more experienced and larger. What was the most difficult thing? He recalls street battles in St. Petersburg: “The most difficult thing was to shovel sand out of my whole body!”
Underground
Illegal fights are a topic that comes up one way or another as soon as we talk about mixfight. When asked “underground fights in Moscow,” the Internet provides links to a series of journalistic reports. All of them are written extremely harshly, are replete with details and, most likely, do not contain a word of truth.
“In the twilight of a nightclub, guys with fists like sledgehammers gather. Losers often leave the arena on stretchers,” writes one author. Another paints an even more sinister atmosphere: “The Moscow police began to discover the corpses of young people. Obviously violent signs of death indicated that the guys were killed in a fight. But where, how and who remained a mystery<…>And after a while it opened terrible truth <…>Underground battles took place in Moscow. Real fights to the death."
In the Investigative Committee database, the only mention of fight victims dates back to 2008. And even then we are not talking about underground battles, but about completely official championship. A 16-year-old participant in a karate tournament in Kemerovo died of cardiovascular failure after receiving a blow to the chest. The blow was within the rules; no violations were found in the actions of the doctors. Due to the lack of evidence of a crime, they did not initiate a criminal case.
The existence of bloody underground battles is also denied by the Arbat district police department in the capital. In the late 90s, there were legends about this area: supposedly the most terrible tournaments took place in gambling establishments on Arbat. “If this ever happened, it’s long gone,” says a department employee who asked not to use his last name. “Today we have no data on unofficial fighting tournaments.”
The President of the Russian Pankration Federation, Vladimir Klenshev, agrees with this assessment:
There is more noise around so-called street fighting games than real facts. Yes, we have information about such tournaments. But almost always this is the initiative of teenagers who have seen enough films. It ends with a couple of broken noses, and the next day the teenagers start doing parkour or something else they saw on TV. In other words, none of this is serious.
Main men's work
The boom around amateur mixfight is alarming official organizations.
All these fights lack the main component of the sport - children's sections, systematic, comprehensive work with young people. All I see is the desire to make money,” laments Vladimir Klenshev. - Organizers of amateur tournaments want to protect themselves from liability as much as possible. To the point that they force fighters to sign contracts where they take on all possible risks. Does this sound like what sports should be?
Klenshev suggests following the example of Fedor Emelianenko, the legendary MMA fighter. Everything is right with him, the president believes: Fedor trains young people and, by his own example, guides them in the right sporting direction.
21-year-old Tolgat came to Moscow from Uzbekistan, and, unlike the president of the Pankration Federation, amateur fighting tournaments arouse only enthusiasm for him. Six days a week, Tolgat repairs the sidewalk on Leninsky Prospekt as part of a construction crew. Then, if there is strength left, he goes to the area with the horizontal bars in Neskuchny Garden. MMA fighters generally love horizontal bars. It is believed that they allow you to build muscles in moderation: so that they do not interfere with hand speed. Tolgat carefully folds his T-shirt with the logo of the M-1 promotion company and begins to practice his punches.
In his homeland he studied Thai boxing, not for long - only a year and a half. But in Moscow, he heard, this is enough to be recruited for fights and become a star.
Construction is not my life. This is the second,” Tolgat sums up. - And the main thing is the fight.
One hit. Second. Third. Fiftieth... When his time comes to step into the mixfight cage, he wants to be in shape.
Like Tolgat, other men also practice their blows. They do it in gyms. In the parks. In the hallways while waiting for the elevator. In our own kitchens, while no one sees. They work as programmers, sales managers, freight forwarders, whatever. But the main thing - and even their relatives may not realize this - is not their job. The main thing is the fight.
One hit. Second. Fiftieth…
Since 2007, Vladimir Putin has been to nine mixed martial arts tournaments (MMA - Mixed martial arts) and has never come to boxing - not even to the stars Alexander Povetkin and Vladimir Klitschko. MMA in Russia is ahead of boxing not only in the attention of top officials, but also in the number of news events, tournaments and popular professional fighters. The audience for mixed martial arts is concentrated on the Internet, it is younger and more active.
In 2016, because of MMA, or rather children's fights, Ramzan Kadyrov and Fedor Emelianenko, a businessman from Forbes list Ziyaudin Magomedov buys the Fight Nights organization, a tournament with a budget of $5 million is held in St. Petersburg. All major MMA organizations in Russia are connected with North Caucasian investors: Magomedov is an Avar, DIA and Akhmat are supported by the regional public fund named after. Akhmat Kadyrov, and Ingush businessman Alikhan Yandiev became a co-owner of M-1.
Wrong amount
On September 25, 2016, on his 48th birthday, the owner of the Summa group, Ziyaudin Magomedov, sat in the front row of the arena in Kaspiysk and watched the Fight Nights organization’s tournament. The winner's speech after the fight is a separate genre: anything can be said. Rasul Mirzaev, for example, conveyed mysterious greetings to Lyudmila Nikolaevna, and Akhmed Aliyev thanked his opponent for putting him on an IV a year ago. But that evening all the performances had one thing in common: the winner of each fight took the microphone and thanked Magomedov.
In September 2015, it became known that the billionaire had acquired a 51% stake in Fight Nights. According to the general producer of the organization, Kamil Gadzhiev, Magomedov invested several tens of millions of dollars in the project, deciding to develop his own promotion rather than invest in shares of the successful American UFC project.
In July 2016, the UFC, purchased in 2001 for $2 million by the owners of the Station casino chain, the Fertitta brothers, was sold for $4 billion to WME-IMG, which performs agency functions for a number of world stars of sports and show business - as a result, a minority shareholder of the UFC turned out to be, for example, WME-IMG client Maria Sharapova.
On June 17, during the international economic forum in St. Petersburg, Fight Nights held a tournament in the city with a stated budget of $5 million and with the participation of Fedor Emelianenko, whose fights were attended by Vladimir Putin three times. An invitation was sent to the president this time too, but he did not come. “Apparently, it was a very busy schedule,” Kamil Gadzhiev regrets. “But the president called Fedor and wished him and all the fighters good luck.”
Gadzhiev says that Fight Nights managed to earn about $500,000 from the sale of tickets to the tournament with Emelianenko’s participation (more than 7,000 spectators were present in the stands). Vadim Finkelshtein, president of M-1, the oldest Russian promotion in mixed martial arts, was skeptical about the amount mentioned and noted that such revenue did not exist even in 2011, when he was the organizer of the Emelianenko fight in the full “Olympic”. Fight Nights and M-1 are not hiding their confrontation. Both held their tournaments during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum - in the fight for its guests. In addition, a major sponsor, the engineering company Express Group, left Fight Nights for M-1. “They are trying to dump, please our partner, dragging us to their tournament,” says Gadzhiev. “If my sponsor for Fight Nights leaves me, I will regret that I did something wrong. But it’s the sponsor’s right to decide who to give money to,” answers Finkelstein, who in 2016, for financial reasons, lost the fight for Fedor Emelianenko to Fight Nights.
Uncle Fyodor
Vadim Finkelshtein did business in MMA on a grand scale in the mid-2000s. His company M-1 held tournaments, including in America. Finkelstein's partner in holding two tournaments with the participation of Fedor Emelianenko was Donald Trump. “Trump said that MMA is the sport of the future, and, as we see, he was not mistaken,” recalls Finkelstein. - He liked fights. He's such a funny guy."
Finkelstein’s most valuable asset was Fedor Emelianenko: their collaboration began in 2003, when the fighter had already become an MMA star, but due to the nature of his management, he did not receive all the money due to his status. For example, out of a $50,000 bonus, only $5,000 reached him. When Emelianenko began collaborating with Finkelstein, his fees immediately increased from $30,000 to $115,000 per fight, and later he began to earn more than $1 million.
Emelianenko’s negotiations with the UFC began in 2007 - and continue to this day: neither three defeats in a row nor a three-year career break affected this. In 2010, the owners of the UFC flew to the island of Curacao, where Emelianenko was vacationing. According to UFC President Dana White, they made a very good offer to the fighter. “With Fedor and Vadim there was a guy in a jacket, whose mother was either the mayor or the governor of some region. He sat like this, lounging. Hearing our proposal, this guy didn’t answer anything, but just started laughing,” White told reporters.
Sergei Matvienko, the son of Valentina Matvienko, was a co-owner of M-1 and financed the western direction of the promotion’s development. According to Vadim Finkelshtein, at that meeting with White, not just the question of signing Fedor Emelianenko to the UFC was raised: “They made an offer to buy M-1. But Serezha Matvienko decided not to sell.” The meeting on the island of Curacao took place in 2010, and the very next year Matvienko left the co-owners of M-1, which coincided with the departure of Fedor Emelianenko from the sport and the end of Valentina Matvienko’s powers as governor of St. Petersburg.
“Sergei just lost interest,” says Finkelstein. - Still, this is a business in which you need to invest and invest. I'm still investing. But I gave MMA 19 years - and I’ll never give up.” In 2017, Finkelstein plans to complete the construction of the multifunctional complex “M-1 Arena” in St. Petersburg, the capacity of which, due to retractable stands, will vary from 1,000 to 3,000 spectators.
“The cost of the project is about a billion rubles,” says Finkelstein. “I plan that the “Road to M-1” tournaments will be held there once every two weeks, where young fighters will fight according to the Olympic system, and the winner will receive a contract with our organization.”
According to Finkelstein, depending on the level and media exposure, a fighter can earn from $2,000 to $50,000 per fight in M-1. “I would be happy to pay more - at the same level as in the UFC. We just don't make money like the UFC. And our fighters are no worse. Who fought on high level in Russia, he is also among the strongest in the UFC,” says Finkelstein.
Fighter in a hat
On November 12, 2016, 28-year-old native of the village of Sildi, Tsumadinsky district of Dagestan, Khabib Nurmagomedov could become the first Russian UFC champion. He had everything for this: the status of an official contender, the best wrestling skills among all fighters in the world in the weight category up to 70 kg and 1 million subscribers on Instagram. Nurmagomedov is the only fighter from Russia who not only spoke in the USA without an interpreter, but also did not hesitate to joke, call his opponents paper champions and chickens - in general, act in the manner accepted in the UFC.
Nurmagomedov began going to weigh-ins and fights in the USA wearing a Dagestan papakha, sacrificing part of his income for this: once upon a time the UFC was allowed to appear at official events wearing clothes with the symbols of its sponsors - and if Khabib had gone to his debut fight in the UFC not wearing a papakha, and wearing a baseball cap with a logo, he could get about $1000 for advertising. But he was better remembered in his hat.
Nurmagomedov is invincible in the cage (he won all 23 of his fights, 7 of them in the UFC), but is vulnerable outside of it: he did not fight for two years due to knee injuries, and then broke a rib and was forced to withdraw from three fights in a row.
The title that Nurmagomedov so wants to get to is now held by the American Eddie Alvarez. After returning to the cage, Khabib received the status of an official contender for the championship belt, signed the one sent to him from UFC contract for the fight with Alvarez on November 12 and began to wait for Alvarez to put his signature on the document. And he didn’t wait.
Here it must be said that a huge number of people are rooting for Nurmagomedov - mainly, of course, fellow countrymen. At the end of April 2016, at his autograph session in the store sportswear About three thousand fans came to Moscow, which led to complete destruction. When Alvarez signed a contract for a fight other than Khabib on September 27, the entire public, using obscenities in bad English and Russian, hashtags #khabibtime and emoticons, went to trash the Instagrams of Alvarez and UFC President Dana White. But Eddie Alvarez can be understood because instead of fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov, he chose to fight Conor McGregor.
Pay and watch
Irishman Conor McGregor is the highest paid and most popular UFC fighter. He has excellent statistics - eight wins in nine fights, and he took the championship belt in the up to 66 kg category by knockout in 13 seconds. But for the UFC and Conor’s rivals, something else is more important - McGregor knows how to promote fights, which allows all parties to earn many times more.
The income of a promotion organization directly depends on television: if in Russia all UFC tournaments are shown on Match TV for free, then in North America the main events can only be seen for money (broadcasting the tournament with the main fight Alvarez - McGregor in HD costs $30). And McGregor on the poster is more than $1.5 million in sold broadcasts: he is noisy, scandalous, he has an unconventional, partly cinematic style of fighting, other celebrities periodically come to train with him - Cristiano Ronaldo or The Mountain from Game of Thrones. And most importantly: he is Irish. There are about 40 million people with Irish roots in the United States - and this is a more solvent public than Nurmagomedov’s fans. In addition, the tournament came to New York for the first time in the history of MMA, and in this city the Irish are one of the most powerful ethnic groups.
At the same time, Conor’s own earnings, taking into account television money (he receives a percentage from broadcasts sold), can be more than $10 million per fight (of which $3 million is a guaranteed amount for entering the cage). In the fall of 2016, McGregor publicly promised that his income for the year would be $40 million - in the Forbes list of the highest paid athletes, this would raise him from 85th place to the top twenty. Perhaps that is why six months ago Conor did not react in any way to the offer to fight in Russia for $2 million on the Fight Nights show. In fact, this was the first attempt by a Russian promotion to organize a fight in Russia for a current foreign MMA star. At the same time, UFC fighters have the opportunity to earn money in Russia even without fighting. For example, the Brazilian Fabricio Werdum (who defeated Fedor Emelianenko in 2010) collaborates with the Akhmat club, supports it even in conflict situations, and periodically comes to Chechnya himself (such a contract can bring a fighter of Werdum’s level from $30,000 a month) . And in 2013, the same Werdum and other MMA stars came as guests of honor to two “Legend” fighting shows (the organizer of these tournaments, Ruslan Suleymanov, was detained in 2016 in connection with the theft of 800 million rubles).
Continuous television
Russian promotions cannot yet live on money from the sale of television rights. “Russian television pays the UFC for the rights to show tournaments, and offers us to pay for the work of a mobile television station,” says M-1 head Vadim Finkelshtein.
Fight Nights has given the rights to broadcast its events to the rest of the world to the UFC Fight Pass platform, which for $10 a month gives access to archived videos and live broadcasts of tournaments around the world. “I won’t say that Fight Pass signs any significant contracts,” says Kamil Gadzhiev. - But, firstly, this is stable money. Secondly, we get access to audiences in the USA and Canada - and there the viewer will learn what Fight Nights Global is. This is important because we are planning to host the tournament in the USA. Sometimes the cost of rights to broadcast our tournament on Fight Pass varies depending on the size of the event. Conventionally, we earn more at the Emelianenko-Maldonado tournament than at the Mokhnatkin-Maldonado tournament.” Gadzhiev clarified that there is no official data on the number of views of the Emelianenko-Maldonado fight through UFC Fight Pass, but this is about 1 million people in North America, and the total audience of the fight was 10 million people (7 million of them in Russia).
Several years ago, the UFC tried to buy the entire video archive of the M-1 company from Finkelstein. “I was offered several million dollars, but I didn’t take it,” says Finkelstein, who has since invested more than $100,000 in creating his own mobile platform. “I intend to develop my platform and make money from it.”
There is no doubt about the prospects of this direction. In addition to Fight Nights, Kamil Gadzhiev oversees another sports project Ziyaudina Magomedova, hockey club“Admiral”, and can appreciate the resonance and impact of these sports. “It seems to me that MMA is more effective,” says Gadzhiev. - Of course it is different stories. Hockey is mainly a social project: it is supported, as a rule, by city-forming enterprises. People in the region are given the opportunity to see a major sporting event once a week. A sponsor comes to MMA for clear interaction with the brand’s target audience. I can say: MMA will become more expensive, hockey will become cheaper.”
Organizations of fights without rules
The guest of episode No. 17 of the “Radioroom” podcast of the Blood&Sweat portal will be a fighter of the ACB league and one of the main contenders for the featherweight champion belt, Murad Machaev.
Yana Kunitskaya will meet with Lina Lansberg
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Cruz believes he deserves title shot against Dillashaw
Former UFC champion Dominick Cruz (22-2) explained why he should be the next contender for the championship belt in the bantamweight division.
Ricardo Ramos: “O’Malley and I should fight for the title of the best prospect in the division”
Brazilian prospect Ricardo Ramos (12-1) explained why he wants to fight Sean O'Malley (10-0).
Kevin Lee: “Khabib will definitely find a reason to withdraw from the fight with McGregor”
Top UFC lightweight Kevin Lee (17-3) is ready to replace him if one of the participants in the fight between Conor McGregor (21-3) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (26-0) withdraws from the fight.
Poirier on the possible intervention of GSP in the title race: “This will not happen”
Top UFC lightweight Dustin Poirier (24-5) commented on the words of Georges St-Pierre (26-2) about a possible meeting with the lightweight champion.
Georges St-Pierre: “I would bet on Khabib winning over McGregor”
Former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (26-2) shared his thoughts on the confrontation between Khabib Nurmagomedov (26-0) and Conor McGregor (21-3).
Darren Till: "Fuck the money! Legacy is more important to me."
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Dillon Danis: McGregor can beat Khabib in a grappling match
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Cody Garbrandt and Demetrious Johnson weighed the same on the day of UFC 227
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Vitaly Minakov: “I expect to receive a more lucrative contract from Bellator”
Former Bellator champion Vitaly Minakov (21-0) spoke about training in ATT, the situation with Bellator and his departure from the Eagles MMA team.
TJ Dillashaw not interested in rematch with Dominick Cruz
UFC champion TJ Dillashaw (16-3) believes Dominick Cruz (22-2) should earn the right to challenge for the bantamweight title again.
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Business forum
Fights without rules
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Galabel 06 Apr 2015
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Zhanibek 06 Apr 2015
Danunax 06 Apr 2015
A fight without rules as such does not exist, there are rules everywhere, except for a street fight, of course a street fight is illegal, but creating a promotion similar to the UFS M-1 is quite possible, but this requires serious investments. Type in Google UFS Wikipedia you will see a lot of useful things
valday 16 Apr 2015
kosmich11 16 Apr 2015
Igor161 01 Sep 2015
Sergey96 04 Dec 2015
Validant 18 Dec 2015
Sergey96 25 Dec 2015
Of course the topic is interesting, and nothing is impossible :o)
Business forum
Fights without rules
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Tell me, knowledgeable people, if you organize fights (consider a fight) without rules among everyone. On departure. The winner will have some kind of prize. To what extent is it illegal or legal, but what “sauce” should it be served with? And if it’s legal, will the idea work and make money? what are the pitfalls?
Galabel 06 Apr 2015
Alexey, strange question. Do you want to organize underground fights in which people will be injured and ask whether this is legal?
Organize better betting for legal competitions. Even at the regional level, a sufficient number of them are carried out. If people know you, there will be no problems.
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Not. no underground. problems with “organs” are not needed. The question is how legal? Is it possible to do this legally?
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
you didn't quite understand me. My question is exactly how legal is this as a business? and so that there would be no problems with the “authorities”, if it is possible to make everything official, just under what sauce.
Zhanibek 06 Apr 2015
A fight without rules as such does not exist, there are rules everywhere, except for a street fight, of course a street fight is illegal, but creating a promotion similar to the UFS M-1 is quite possible, but this requires serious investments. Type in Google UFS Wikipedia you will see a lot of useful things
Danunax 06 Apr 2015
A fight without rules as such does not exist, there are rules everywhere, except for a street fight, of course a street fight is illegal, but creating a promotion similar to the UFS M-1 is quite possible, but this requires serious investments. Type in Google UFS Wikipedia you will see a lot of useful things
What you want to do is not legal. And for this to be legal, you need a lot of money, 1, 2, athletes must participate in competitions and that’s all. Then they must have insurance and pass a medical commission, then contracts are concluded with the fighters where all the rules of the competition are spelled out, etc. And by the way, one fighter should have no more than 1 fight in one day, and a competent athlete will not come to you to knock you for some gift because professional fighters of the same M1 have a maximum of 1 fight per month and he doesn’t need your teddy bear when they They get 50 rubles per fight. Of course, you can organize competitions and do it all legally, but you cannot make money from it. Well, if only to sell tickets. But the expenses will be higher than the earnings and God forbid if you end up at 0. And remember in M1 for teddy bears no one wakes up to fight. And they also get punished for leaving.
valday 16 Apr 2015
Watch the movie " fight club»
kosmich11 16 Apr 2015
Igor161 01 Sep 2015
The law of marketing is that where two people fight, a crowd is sure to gather. :ac7:
Sergey96 04 Dec 2015
A few years ago, the all-Russian Strelka tournament was held with minimum rules, anyone could come and try their hand. They fought until someone lays down or the judge stops. All this was even shown on television. There was also a tournament held by White rex, the same thing only in the ring. The finalists in Moscow probably won something there.
I think this counts sporting event, this is where you need to dance.
Probably some kind of permits are needed to hold such an event, the mandatory presence of doctors, and so on. It won't be easy to make money from this. You'll be able to grab more trouble than earn money.)))
Validant 18 Dec 2015
Don’t scare the person, they’ve been working for so long. They organize fights without rules, and not at the same point, but we’re on tour, admission is FREE! There must be a betting pool during fights, but from this I’m thinking of doing just the main tange. The whole trick is that there are 2 fighters, as in the “scheme with two boxers”, in which all this is chewed up and in which a friend earns 40K greens from non-professional boxers in a couple of weeks - just on the betting, because you, as the organizer, already have fight, it is known which of the fighters the most money is bet on, that is, who should fall 😉 Plus, the near-fight sale of everything related to fights, starting from magnets, mini-gloves that Roy Jones gives out to children for free, ending, roughly speaking, with punching bags, etc. before the fights and sale after the fights. We have such fights every year in our city, only the entrance is paid. What is the difference from my idea, is that when the entrance is free, more to the people, which is to our benefit + renting a room is different from renting a room “by ticket”, it costs a penny to rent. The fighters are tame, playing for the audience, a show for the local population - we give them joy, we tange ourselves.
Sergey96 25 Dec 2015
Don't you need to share profits with tame fighters?
Maybe then wrestling will be organized like an American one, only with a Russian twist, and rolled around the country like a circus tent: o) Just kidding, of course.
If someone gets seriously injured, how is the issue resolved? It is clear that everyone understands where they came to fight, and what could happen, but nevertheless.
We had this happen in a shopping center supposedly designed for the sale of sporting goods. The tickets were not expensive, up to a thousand. There were a lot of people. The fighters fought for real for 1 round for 3 minutes, it seems so, not very spectacular, of course, nearby there were several shops with the right theme, they were full of people. The betting was no, I don’t know.
Well, the final was already held in the big sports complex and the ticket price reached 2 thousand.
We advertised the topic a little and started accepting applications and questionnaires, there are a lot of combat schools in the city, there were quite a few applicants, from 55 to absolute weight. Participants even came from other cities. If only they had invited a star, it would have been great.
A fight without rules... And according to the law?!
“Fights without rules are in fashion now. They say they are held in the houses of people who are not poor, and bets are made. But this is a risky thing, injuries are possible. I have even heard of one death as a result of such a duel. I have a question: are the organizers of such fights liable before the law? And in general, are such fights allowed? Or a fight, even leading to the most dire consequences, is allowed if there is mutual consent?FOR YOUR AND OUR RIGHTS!
“Nowadays fighting without rules is in fashion. They say they are held in the homes of people who are not poor, and bets are made. But this is a risky thing, injuries are possible. I have even heard of one death as a result of such a duel. I have a question: are the organizers of such fights liable before the law? And in general, are such fights allowed? Or is a fight, even one that leads to the most dire consequences, permitted if there is mutual consent?”
Stanislav Razgonov, Ekaterinburg
I would like to note right away that fights without rules have existed for quite a long time. Just recently, a tournament was held in Moscow between athletes from Russia and the USA, which, by the way, ended in a convincing victory Russian athletes(4:1). However, this competition was held in strict accordance with the current legislation of Russia, and the organizers, of course, were responsible for compliance with all laws.
Carrying out such unauthorized events threatens with very severe sanctions.
According to requirements Article 4 of Federal Law No. 128-FZ dated 08.08.01 “On licensing of certain types of activities” Licensed types of activities include those types, the implementation of which may entail damage to the rights, legitimate interests, health of citizens, defense and security of the state, and the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
Part 1 of Article 17 definitely requires obtaining a license in the case of organizing and maintaining betting shops and gambling establishments.
If it is established that the activity of holding fights without rules was carried out without making a profit, which is of course unlikely, then its organizers can be brought to administrative liability under Article 19.20 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and punished with an administrative fine of five up to two hundred minimum wages (depending on the person involved: citizen, official, legal entity).
If the relevant authorities establish that the activities of conducting unauthorized fights without rules were aimed at making a profit, then not the administrative, but the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will come into force, which will “reward” such enterprising citizens with a whole bunch of its articles.
Under such circumstances, liability may arise. Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishing liability for illegal business. If, during such events, harm is caused to anyone, then the person who is directly guilty of this will be prosecuted for causing harm to health or murder, and the organizers will be subject to prosecution for complicity in the crime.
And at the end of the topic, for some reason I remembered the words of the German scientist and publicist Wilhelm Schwebel: “If violence is carried out with the help of money, morality and law are silent!” Why would this be?
BY THE WAY
5 THOUSAND BUCKS AND... SOFTWARE
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Fights without rules, also called MMA and mixed martial arts, are brutal and spectacular. They combine large number techniques, schools and styles of martial arts, which makes each fight diverse and unique. This sport has its own strict rules.
History of fights without rules
The idea of holding such competitions was invented during antiquity. The first version of mixed martial arts was called "pankration", and it was presented at Olympic Games. These fights were extremely brutal and often ended in death. Fighting without rules received a new round of development thanks to the Gracie family, who practiced jiu-jitsu, but few believed in the effectiveness of this martial art. As a result, they had to fight with fighters from other types of martial arts, demonstrating their skills.
The history of mixed martial arts is multifaceted and confusing. Interestingly, MMA fights without rules began to be called relatively recently, but since 1995. This was done by Rick Blum, who was the president of one of the first MMA organizations (Mixed Martial Arts). The name quickly spread and took root in many countries. In Russia, fighting began to develop in 1979. Ratings are regularly compiled, which include best knockouts in fights without rules for different periods.
MMA Rules
Although this type of martial arts is called “fighting without rules,” restrictions still exist and relate to many aspects:
- Equipment. The main clothing is shorts, which are selected by the fighter to his taste. In most cases, shoes are not used. In addition, athletes wear open-fingered gloves. Mandatory elements are a mouthguard and groin equipment.
- Rounds. Fights include several rounds, which usually last 5 minutes, but without a break. There are organizations that reduce the time to 3 minutes. Regular fights usually involve three rounds, while championship matches involve five.
- Technique. Fighters use overhead strikes and lower limbs, and also different techniques. There are strikes in no-rules combat that are prohibited; they will be discussed below.
- Ring and arena. The square ring area should be between 6.1 m and 9.75 m on a side. The floor should have closed cell foam flooring. The platform should not be higher than 1.22 m. As for the arena, it can be round or have six equal sides. Its width should be from 6.1 m to 9.75 m.
Fights without rules are allowed different ways, thanks to which you can win the fight:
- Submission. The opponent can surrender, for which he must knock several times on the opponent or on the mat.
- Knockout. As a result of the fight, the athlete loses consciousness and cannot move. This happens after an accurate hit or throw.
- Technical submission. Victory is awarded when a fighter loses consciousness due to a technique performed (usually a choke). The referee stops the fight.
- TKO. The decision to stop the fight is made by the referee when he sees that a person can no longer defend himself while receiving serious blows from his opponent.
- If one of the above options was not used, the winner will be determined by the judges.
Athletes taking part in demonstration performances or in competitions, are divided into certain categories according to their age. Fights without rules of heavyweights and people with light weights are allowed, the table is presented below. It is worth noting that some MMA organizations do not have weight classes up to 145 or over 265 pounds. After the official weigh-in, if there is an overweight, the weight that will be dropped by the fighter must not be more than two feet. The reset should occur one hour after weighing, no later.
Fighting without rules - what is prohibited?
There is a certain list of prohibitions regarding this type of martial arts, for example, it is forbidden to enter the ring without protection: mouthguards and shells. The referee must check this. Athletes cannot use doping, this also applies anabolic steroids, and drugs. There have been recorded cases where athletes caught taking prohibited substances were disqualified for a long time. Knockouts in fights without rules cannot be caused by the following prohibited techniques:
- blows with the head and heels to the kidneys and spine;
- bites and blows to the back of the head;
- effects on the throat, trachea and groin area;
- deliberately striking the nostrils, ears and mouth;
- beating a lying person.
Fighting without rules - lethal outcome
Many people perceive this sport as “bloody”, but in fact, according to published information, since 1993, there have been only four cases where injuries received during a fight caused death. It is worth pointing out that in two cases a fight without rules with fatal was unauthorized.
- In 1998, in Kyiv, American Douglas Dage took part in an illegal battle, and two days later he died.
- In 2005 in South Korea There was a fight without rules in the restaurant, in which a man surnamed Li participated. He died due to a heart attack.
- In 2007, in Houston, Sam Vasquez took part in a fight, as a result of which he was knocked out. He was hospitalized and underwent two operations to remove blood clots in the brain, but the man never woke up.
- In 2010 in South Carolina, after a knockout, Michael Kirkham did not come to his senses.
If we talk about ordinary street fights, then in most cases they last no more than five minutes and often result in injury or even death to opponents. A street fight without rules arises from various reasons. In addition, it is worth talking about organized, but illegal street fighting, whose main goal is to make money. Often fights are life-or-death.
Women's fights without rules
Not only men, but also representatives of the fair sex take part in this sport. Fighting with women without rules is especially popular in Japan, where the “Pearls” and “Valkyrie” tournaments have been held since 2000. Women's martial arts are also developing in America, but there they do not attract the same attention from sponsors as men's sparring. The most popular in women's MMA are Gina Carano and Christian Santos, with the former being the face of women's MMA fighting. There are no relaxations in the rules for the fair sex.
Ultimate fights in movies
This theme is actively used in cinema, so films about ultimate fights are presented in a wide range, here are a few of them:
In 2015, Forbes magazine estimated Ziyavudin Magomedov's fortune at $800 million. He owns the Summa group, which owns 25% of the Novorossiysk commercial sea port, 49.99% of the Fesco transport group, the Transengineering engineering company, the gas producing Yakut fuel and energy company, as well as 50% minus one share of the United Grain Company. Magomed Magomedov, Ziyavudin’s brother, has a stake in a number of Summa’s assets, for example, NCSP and the engineering business.
Eurasia Fight Nights (FN) clearly stands out from the rest of Magomedov’s assets. The businessman became its owner several months ago. The club was founded in 2010 absolute champion world kickboxing Batu Khasikov, vice-president of the Moscow Federation of Mixed Martial Arts MMA Kamil Gadzhiev and captain of the KVN team “RUDN Team” Sangadzhi Tarbaev. Later, the managing director of the Moscow office of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, Sergei Arsenyev, and designer Sergei Shanovich, became co-owners of the club.
What is mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts (English: Mixed Martial Arts, MMA) is a type of martial arts that is a symbiosis of different martial techniques and schools and answers the question that interests many: “If a boxer and a wrestler meet, who will win?”
Fights in MMA are conducted in full contact; fighters can use both striking and wrestling techniques. A standard fight lasts three rounds of five minutes with breaks of one minute, title fight- five rounds. Fights are held in a “cage” - on an 8x8 m area with a fence that does not allow fighters to leave the ring.
In the early days, MMA tournaments were sometimes promoted as “fights without rules,” which was an advertising slogan and not true. According to a report published in 2015 by the American Association of Ring Physicians (ARP), in professional boxing over the past 25 years, an average of 4.8 athletes per year have died in the ring, in the UFC (the main American MMA organization) - 0.28 athletes per year for 15 years. years.
Russia recognized mixed martial arts as an official sport in 2012.
What the Fight Nights club was like as a business before the deal with Magomedov is unclear. According to Kamil Gadzhiev, FN’s annual turnover is 350 million rubles. and even before the deal with Magomedov, the business reached self-sufficiency. But it is impossible to verify his words. In the SPARK-Interfax database, the financial indicators of Fight Knights LLC, whose founders are Khasikov and Gadzhiev, in 2013 and 2014 are completely identical: revenue - 9.517 million rubles, net loss - 18.7 million rubles. Other companies associated with Fight Nights through their founders - Fight Knights Jim, Fight Knights Global, Fight Knights Entertainment, Eurasia Sport and Summa Sport - do not publish reports. In addition, most of them were created in 2013-2014.
What exactly Magomedov bought is also unclear: neither Magomedov himself nor his representatives have commented on how the deal was formalized legally. Taking into account previous investments in the club - this is sponsorship of the club’s fighters, assistance in organizing events and advertising - the transaction amount amounted to “several tens of millions of dollars,” Kamil Gadzhiev told RBC, whose words were confirmed by Magomedov’s representative.
“Summa” is first in the list of “general partners” on the club’s website. The group, for example, sponsored the opening sports club FN in Makhachkala: Magomedov was personally present at the Fight Nights Dagestan tournament. The businessman himself says that he works out several times a week, often at the Moscow Fight Nights club.
Combat Profits
In addition to the club on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, FN has three more - in Elista, Makhachkala and Bryansk. The Moscow club provides training not only in mixed martial arts, but also in boxing, cross-fit and even yoga and Pilates. In the company's online store you can order clothes and sports accessories with FN logos and autographs of stars for delivery. But the main business of Fight Nights is organizing mixed martial arts fights: in 2014, FN fighters took part in five fights, in 2015 - in nine (including in St. Petersburg, Sochi and Kaspiysk). Fight Nights also held its own club championship in Moscow.
The club’s main income, according to Gadzhiev, comes from ticket sales, television broadcasts and advertising. Tickets for the final FN event “Battle 20” at Luzhniki on December 11 cost from 1 thousand to 70 thousand rubles. To seats in the stalls at a price of 5 thousand rubles. “two master classes with the champion” were also included. According to Gadzhiev, previous events of this level managed to attract 6-7 thousand spectators, that is, FN will be able to earn about 15-20 million rubles from tickets. But expenses for the organization This will not cover the event - it costs no less than 30 million rubles, admits Gadzhiev.
At the fight between Russian Mikhail Mokhnatkin and Brazilian Ednaldo Oliveira, organized by Fight Nights, on October 23 in St. Petersburg Ice Palace 6 thousand tickets were sold, says Gadzhiev. Revenue from ticket sales is unlikely to cover 30% of total costs, with the rest theoretically covered by television broadcasts and advertising. In addition to broadcasts on Match TV, all top FN fights are broadcast on the Internet for a fee, jointly with Ultimate Fighting Championship(UFC) UFC Fight Pass channel - viewing cost averages $10 per evening. Match TV does not comment on the conditions under which the channel broadcasts fights.
The world's largest MMA promoter, the American UFC, holds about 40 fights a year not only in North and Latin America, but also in Europe, Australia and the UAE. For spectators, this is not a cheap entertainment: for example, for the Aldo vs. McGregor fight on December 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, at the time of writing this material, tickets could be purchased for $505 to $6,900. At the same time, the UFC cannot boast of high business profitability.
UFC is superior
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a promotion company from the United States, the world's largest organizer of MMA fights. Initially, it was an experimental, one-time championship. But the success of the first tournament in Denver in 1993 inspired businessman Art Davey and Brazilian jiu-jitsu school teacher Rorion Gracie to create their own company. In 2001, the company was acquired for $2 million by the Fertitta brothers, owners of the Station Casinos casino chain. Boxing promoter Dana White (pictured) became the general producer and president of the UFC.
The Fertitta brothers bought and merged most of the world's competitors into the UFC, including Pride Fighting Championships. The annual turnover of Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, is, according to various estimates, from $250 million to $350 million. According to Forbes magazine, this is 90% of all global revenue in the MMA industry.
According to S&P, up to 75% of the company's revenue comes from the sale of television rights. According to the Zuffa report for 2014, the company's revenue amounted to $554 million. According to S&P, the company's EBITDA has been declining since 2010, which is associated with high costs for the acquisition of competitors and foreign activities. Zuffa's debt is about $450 million. At the beginning of 2015, S&P predicted a decline in EBITDA by another 40% and downgraded Zuffa's rating to BB-.
If business is not going very well for the world's largest promoter of mixed martial arts fights, what can Fight Nights, a very small club compared to the UFC, count on? Magomedov’s investment will “contribute to the expansion of FN’s business,” Gadzhiev says. In addition to increasing the level of events and broadcasting, FN wants to focus its main efforts on marketing and audience building. This means more advertising, including outdoor advertising. Gadzhiev believes that “she performs well in the regions.”
But for real commercial success sporting events spectators are needed not only in stadiums, but also at the screens, then the audience becomes of interest to large advertisers, and TV channels are ready to pay for broadcast rights. The UFC's television audience reaches 800 million people a year - you can watch fights not only on TV, but also on the Internet (a monthly subscription costs €7.99). In 2011, the UFC signed a seven-year television deal with Fox Sports. Its amount, according to the newspaper The Telegraph, $700 million
Ziyavudin Magomedov: “Growing up on the streets of Makhachkala is a sport in itself” (Photo: Yuri Chichikov, Anna Sergeeva for RBC)
Stars and money
In Russia, Match TV began broadcasting top UFC fights in the fall; before that, they were shown by the Rossiya 2 channel. “The UFC format is certainly in demand; MMA has its own steadily growing audience in our country,” says a representative of Match TV. The fight between six-time UFC champion Ronda Rousey and title challenger Holly Holm on November 16 on Match TV was watched by 5.8% of male viewers aged 25-59. “The numbers clearly demonstrated the potential of such a product,” notes a representative of the channel, but he does not want to talk about the possible prospects of broadcasting Fight Nights fights.
FN's main Russian competitor is the promotion company M-1 Global. Its founder and largest co-owner Vadim Finkelshtein said in an interview with RBC that he is not at all sure that broadcasting mixed martial arts on Russian TV is a source of income and not additional costs. According to him, TV channels either do not pay for broadcast rights at all or pay very little. And for spectators, the image of mixed martial arts is blurred, due to the fact that MMA itself in Russia does not have a clear sports structure and almost anyone can open their own federation. “The viewer no longer remembers their heroes and is not ready to pay for viewing,” notes Finkelstein.
But FN believes that world-class events with the participation of Russian athletes will be of interest to both viewers and federal channels. “Ideally, the regions will each root for their fighters; the public there is very open and interested. Yes, advertising will be needed, but these will be our stars,” says Gadzhiev.
It takes an average of three years and $1-2 million to promote one athlete to the level of a media personality that the audience will follow, says Gadzhiev. For a major event there should be at least four such fighters. Tournament grid FN doesn't, so a top event is one or two star-studded headlining fights, a few mid-level fights, and an entertainment show with singers, performers, and dancers. It will be difficult to “beat them off” only by selling broadcast rights, says an analyst at a large agency specializing in sports advertising. “If some federal channel buys this broadcast, then even for a top fight it will cost more than 3 million rubles. no one will pay,” he believes.
Combat Economy
$5 million- UFC record fee, according to Dana White (recipient unknown)
$180 000 — Holly Holm's fee for defeating Ronda Rousey, November 2015
$24 500 — average UFC fighter fee per fight
$50 — the price of a paid subscription to broadcast a top fight
Sources: The Economist, UFC
The only chance to at least recoup the costs of organizing a show is to sell sponsorship and advertising packages. In this sense, MMA has good prospects, says Anton Efimov, managing director of the OMD Fuse advertising agency: “Their main target audience is men who watch them on television, and men with high incomes - this is the core of the audience attending competitions, and this is a stable marketing platform for brands that want to build an association with strength and courage.” Taking this into account, the cost of an advertising package for such a show can be from 10 million rubles. and higher within one evening, Efimov calculates. But there is another problem, he notes: “In martial arts there is no constant schedule, like in football or hockey, and it is very difficult to draw up a map for a partnership even for a year.”
A representative of another major advertising agency does not even share this modest optimism: “In Russia, even football broadcasts have an audience that is not always large enough to advertise there. And MMA is unlikely to attract serious money.” In his opinion, FN, UFC and other similar organizations do not open their financial statements because this will make it obvious to everyone that “there is no income, there is only turnover.” The only chance for a promoter in this sense is a large sponsorship contract, in which the advertiser will be interested not only in the size of the audience, but also in the image component of the sport itself, adds a representative of the advertising agency.
In 2015, the UFC signed the largest sponsorship contract in its 21-year history: Reebok will pay $70 million over six years for the right to become the official supplier of equipment. This year's list of sponsors includes Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Bud Light beer, Toyo tires, etc. Ideally, Fight Nights should sign such a contract, but for now FN is considering the previous stage of UFC development - the launch of its own reality show.
The Ultimate Fighter show on American TV began in 2005. In the first episodes of the show, 16 fighters from two teams compete with each other, viewers can follow their training and details everyday life. The losers are eliminated, and in the season finale, two fighters fight for the title of The Ultimate Fighter and a major contract in the UFC. The start of the new season in September 2015 was watched by 745 thousand viewers. The show allowed the UFC not only to expand its television audience, but also to change it, said UFC head Dana White: “When we bought this company, our main audience was men from 18 to 34 years old. After the release of The Ultimate Fighter<…>women make up 45% of our viewers.”
“If we really want to gain a critical mass of spectators, our fights should become a family spectacle, including for women,” agrees Gadzhiev. FN does not yet have a specific launch date for the show. A Match TV representative declined to comment on this idea.
Training of fighters from the Moscow club Fight Nights (Photo: Yuri Chichikov, Anna Sergeeva for RBC)
"Images of Heroes"
Home Russian star mixed martial artist Fedor Emelianenko was never able to agree on performances in the UFC. But in the American organization there are fighters from Russia, for example Khabib Nurmagomedov and Rustam Khabilov. Training fighters of this level is also a type of income that the co-owners of FN count on.
“We are no longer only a promotion company, but also a base, a kind of sports incubator for top fighters that trains world-class MMA stars,” says Gadzhiev. While FN does not supply fighters to the UFC, the same Minakov, who won the MMA championship belt according to the American version of Bellator, is the first candidate. “In the UFC, our lightweight Ali Bagautinov plays a leading role. I think that in a couple of years, our other athletes, such as Volodya Mineev and Sergey Pavlovich, could perform successfully in the UFC, and they will strive for this,” says Magomedov.
The Last Emperor
The most titled Russian mixed martial arts fighter is 39-year-old resident of Stary Oskol, Fedor Emelianenko, nicknamed The Last Emperor. He holds the titles of four-time MMA heavyweight world champion according to Pride FC, two-time - according to RINGS and according to WAMMA. Attempts to negotiate about Fedor's performance in the UFC were unsuccessful.
In the summer of 2015, Emelianenko announced his return to the ring after a three-year pause: the first the fight will take place On December 31 in Japan, it will be held by the local MMA organization Rizin Fighting Federation. Fedor’s opponent will be 28-year-old Jaideep Singh.
Fedor Emelianenko fights
34 victories (ten by knockout, 18 by voluntary surrender)
4 defeats (three by knockout, one by voluntary surrender)
