Four hundred dollars. We made it so that some people began to fight with us, others wanted to fight with us, and everyone around started talking about us. It cost us four hundred dollars,” Greg Apinyan sounds proud.
Apinyan is a 29-year-old resident of St. Petersburg and the 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, call your opponent to a serious conversation. And now here is the championship.
The name is excellent, - states Apinyan. - My brother invented it.
In the two years of its existence, its fighting tournaments have gone from a $400 cabal 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's videos on YouTube, victory in the World Press Photo contest in the nomination "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 holy place for Petersburgers, 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 combat at all. And second: Strelka is a street championship. Its participants fight in the open air, on sand, grass or on bare ground.
This is what sets us apart from traditional MMA tournaments,” says Apinyan. - Their format scares away many viewers: an octagon, people in a cage, blood, everything is scary and gloomy. And our championships are quite another matter. Sand, blue sky, sun. And the most ordinary people who sometimes show such fortitude that one can only be surprised.
At the first Strelka, held in the summer of 2011, a 40-year-old mustachioed man came out to fight. Compared to the others, he seemed like a grandfather. The man's name was Alexander Rese, he was an accountant. In the next ten minutes, the "grandfather" gave a real fight to an opponent half his age and eventually won. According to the rules, fights on 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 rubbers on their hands, they are allowed to strike with their hands and feet and fight on the ground.
I worked with the M-1 company, filmed the fights of Fedi Emelianenko. Then he brought equipment and T-shirts of fighting firms to Russia, had a store. At first we thought: we will organize our own tournament in order 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 in sections mixed martial arts. Everyone was invited to participate. The St. Petersburg factory "Red Banner" was chosen as the place - it once supplied the country with women's stockings, but now it is not going through better times. We signed an agreement with the management of the factory on the lease of land in the yard for a period of one day. Friends brought twelve bags of sand, poured onto the ground and leveled. Ship ropes were pulled around the perimeter - it turned out to be a ring. Members of city auto and motorcycle clubs were invited as spectators - free of charge, Strelka began to take money for tickets later. They came and made a beautiful backdrop: expensive cars, roaring engines, girls in short shorts. It was a matter of small - to shoot everything on camera and put it on the Internet. All this, according to Apinyan, cost those 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 three thousand and have two fights. When these fights were over, people really turned on. A hat was thrown at the spectators and another six thousand were collected. There were also new ones who wanted to try themselves in battles.
In two years, under the auspices of Strelka, eleven mixed martial arts tournaments were held. The impudent Petersburgers were noticed and taken under the wing of 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 already as a hired employee of the Americans.
Today, Strelka offers franchises to the regions. A person in any city in Russia can use its name, its marketing resources, including a sophisticated Internet site, and host the championship. Two years of using the Strelka brand will cost him three million rubles. No applicants have yet been found. But at the same time, 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 the intercontinental development.
There are currently 838 people in line to take part in Strelka battles. This is enough for seven or eight tournaments. The fighters in the championship still do not earn a lot of money, the fees for the victory rarely exceed three or four thousand rubles. However, this does not bother men who want to try their hand at fighting without rules. They come from different areas, with different fighting skills. Once even a convict called from prison. He said: "I'm going out in four months, I want to fight."
Ali Baba and the robbers
At least a dozen mixed martial arts championships are held in Russia every week, 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 Lermontov-Stolypins, where in 2011 competitions were held in the toughest version of the T-1 fights. Or urban sports complexes, as was the case in Makhachkala, Barnaul, Birobidzhan, Voronezh, Krasnodar and practically any other city in Russia with a population of fifty thousand or more.
It is not uncommon for fighters to be taken to restaurants and nightclubs, and then visitors enjoy the fights in the snobbish manner of the Great Gatsby - sitting at tables with drinks and food. So it was, for example, in Kolomna near Moscow.
Taken together, this means that an impressive number of men, for whom fighting is not a profession, finish their work on Friday, say goodbye to colleagues until Monday and go to earn extra money with their fists. Or, if they don’t offer money, prove to yourself 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 that version of them, which one authoritative sports publication called "cannibalistic" - T-1. The letter "T" means "total".
According to the rules of T-1, opponents perform in shoes with a hard sole. It is allowed to strike with the head, to finish off the opponent with his feet, if he does not give up. The organizers wanted the participants to fight with their bare hands, without gloves, but the fighters themselves were already opposed. “Not everyone was ready to overcome the psychological barrier, to 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 rubbers.
One of the participants in the weight category, Alexander Anisimov, dropped out of the tournament, having first received a forehead blow on the nose (the nose broke), and then, already lying on the floor, with a foot in the head. Alexander was more fortunate. He reached the finals and only there, falling for a painful hold, lost.
At different times I was engaged in hand-to-hand combat and wrestling, - he says. - And then 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 to the amateur mixfight. However, participation in fights can also be a way to earn money. According to the Federation of Pankration of Russia (this organization seeks to give mixed martial arts an Olympic status), the fee for first place in non-professional tournaments ranges from 30 to 50 thousand rubles across the country. The participants themselves call more modest amounts - 10-20 thousand.
The prize fund is collected from sponsorship money or contributions from the participants themselves. Athletes who fight regularly go 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), after deducting the cost of the road, you get a “salary” of about a thousand dollars. For the province, this is a lot. And if you win more often, then you can earn more. But there are no such obvious stars in amateur MMA: the rotation of winners happens all the time.
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 railway stations, Ali Baba wanders from one MMA tournament to another. He searches for information about them on the Internet: he carries a laptop with him, maintains a page on the mmablog.ru website and often sits on social networks.
Ali Baba is lean, wears a beard, a broken nose betrays in him a person who has been hard hit 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 for many, including, in his own words, "many television people" and "some filmmakers."
For some time we corresponded on VKontakte. Ali Baba writes from N-sk, his hometown, where he stopped by to visit his parents. He hides the real name of N-ska and calls it “Zasransk”: “This is a black hole. Solid Groundhog Day."
In the 1990s, he studied journalism at Moscow State University. There he began to practice sambo in the university section. And when life threw him, a provincial, to the sidelines - without a permanent job, without money - it was the struggle that became his main occupation. Ali Baba looks like a bearded spider in the mixfight. He rolls up to the opponent, knits, seeks 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 contact Ali Baba. “I threw away my phone last November. There is no Skype either,” he writes. He says he doesn't give interviews because he wants to be himself. He has no sponsors. And in Moscow he is still homeless: "For complete happiness, there is not enough of his own corner, at least a room." I could write a book about myself, there were offers, but not yet. In the near future - tournaments in Rostov-on-Don and Belgorod: "This year I fought almost every weekend."
Very soon, the character of Ali Baba makes itself felt. Upon learning that he would not be the only hero of the article, he curtailed the correspondence. Heroes will be "enough without me," reads his last message.
25-year-old native of the Leningrad region Vyacheslav Kashuba is the exact opposite of Ali Baba. He willingly answers questions, and he is not embarrassed that they are going to write not only about him.
“My mother told me: intellectuals should not fight!” - Three years ago, Kashuba, an engineer with a specialization in navigation, went on voyages. Sailed to America, Canada, Europe. Then I found out that very close by, in St. Petersburg, strange fights were being held on the sand - Strelka, and sent an application for participation. “The first letter was not answered. On the second they called back, and so my adventure began.
Today he is known in the world of amateur mixfight under the name Sailor. Although the sea is long gone: Vyacheslav flaunts a daring mohawk on his head, trains every day and dreams of making a professional career in mixed fights. Behind him are four fights at Strelka (three wins, one loss) and experience in other tournaments. So far, he says, mixfight is not profitable. But he has before his eyes the glory of the UFC tournaments, the main promotion company in MMA.
In the ranks of the UFC, all today's mixfight stars: black giants Jon Jones and Anderson Silva, curly-haired fighter with African-Korean roots Benson Henderson, light and hard as steel, Chael Sonnen. All of them receive five-figure fees and live the life of real stars. They have broadcasts on cable channels, their own fan sites, they are recognized in any city in the world. But in order to reach these peaks, you need to give all of yourself, all your time. Is he ready for this? Vyacheslav Kashuba is not sure about this. While he did the main thing: he overcame himself, went out to fight against opponents who were both more experienced and larger. What was the most difficult? He recalls street fighting in St. Petersburg: “The most difficult thing was to shovel the sand out of my whole body!”
Underground
Illegal fights are a topic that pops up one way or another when it comes to mixfight. When asked “underground fights in Moscow”, the Internet provides links to a series of journalistic reports. All of them are written extremely rigidly, abound in 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 ominous atmosphere: “The Moscow police began to discover the corpses of young people. Clearly violent signs of death indicated that the boys had been killed in a fight. But where, how and who - remained a mystery<…>And after a while it opened terrible truth <…>Underground battles were organized in Moscow. The real fights to the death."
In the database of the Investigative Committee, the only mention of the victims of fights is dated 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 insufficiency after being hit in the chest. The blow was within the rules, no violations were found in the actions of the doctors. Due to the lack of corpus delicti, they did not initiate a criminal case.
The existence of bloody underground battles is also denied in the metropolitan police department of the Arbat district. In the late 90s, legends circulated about this area: allegedly the most terrible tournaments took place in gambling establishments on the Arbat. “If it was once, it is long gone,” says a department employee who asked not to be named. “Today, we have no data on unofficial fighting tournaments.”
Vladimir Klenshev, President of the Russian Pankration Federation, agrees with this assessment:
There is more noise around the so-called street fighting games than real facts. Yes, we have information about such tournaments. But almost always it is the initiative of teenagers who have seen enough films. The case there ends up with a couple of broken noses, and the next day the teenagers start doing parkour or something else that they saw on TV. In other words, none of this is serious.
Main male work
The boom around amateur mixfight is alarming official organizations.
All these fights lack the main component of sport - children's sections, systematic, comprehensive work with youth. All I see is the desire to earn money, - Vladimir Klenshev laments. - Organizers of amateur tournaments want to protect themselves from liability to the maximum. To the extent that they force the fighters to sign contracts where they take all possible risks. Does this sound like the way sports should be?
Klenshev suggests taking an example from Fedor Emelianenko, the legendary MMA fighter. Everything is right with him, the president believes: Fedor trains young people and directs them in the right sports direction with his own example.
21-year-old Tolgat came to Moscow from Uzbekistan, and, unlike the president of the Pankration Federation, amateur fighting tournaments cause only enthusiasm for him. Six days a week, Tolgat repairs the sidewalk on Leninsky Prospekt as part of a construction team. Then, if strength remains, he goes to the platform with horizontal bars in the Neskuchny Garden. MMA fighters generally love horizontal bars. It is believed that they allow you to build muscle in moderation: so that they do not interfere with the speed of the hands. Tolgat neatly folds his T-shirt with the logo of the M-1 promotion company and begins to practice punches.
At home, he worked Thai boxing, not for long - only a year and a half. But in Moscow, he heard, and that's enough to enlist in fights and become a star.
Construction is not my life. This is the second, sums up Tolgat. - And the main thing is the fight.
One hit. Second. Third. Fifty... When it's time for him to enter the MMA cage, he wants to be in shape.
Like Tolgat, other men practice their blows. They do it in gyms. In parks. In the hallways while waiting for the elevator. In their 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 be aware of this - is not their job. The main thing is the fight.
One hit. Second. Fiftieth…
Since 2007, Vladimir Putin has been to nine tournaments in mixed martial arts (MMA - Mixed martial arts) and has never come to boxing - even to the star Alexander Povetkin and Vladimir Klitschko. MMA in Russia overtakes boxing not only in terms of the attention of top officials, but also in terms of the number of news events, tournaments and popular professional fighters. The audience of mixed martial arts is concentrated on the Internet, it is younger and more active.
In 2016, due to MMA, or rather children's fights, Ramzan Kadyrov and Fedor Emelianenko cannot understand each other, businessman from the 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 associated with North Caucasian investors: Magomedov is an Avar, DIA and Akhmat are supported by the regional public fund named after. Akhmad Kadyrov, and the Ingush businessman Alikhan Yandiev became the 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 tournament. The speech of the winner after the battle 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 a drip a year ago. But that evening, all the performances were united by one thing: the winner of each fight took the microphone and thanked Magomedov.
In September 2015, it became known that the billionaire acquired a 51% stake in Fight Nights. According to the organization's general producer Kamil Gadzhiev, Magomedov invested several tens of millions of dollars in the project, deciding to develop his own promotion rather than invest in the shares of the successful American UFC project.
In July 2016, the UFC, bought in 2001 for $2 million by the owners of the Station casino network, the Fertitta brothers, was sold for $4 billion to WME-IMG, which performs agency functions for a number of world sports and show business stars, 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 days of the international economic forum in St. Petersburg, Fight Nights held a tournament in the city with a declared budget of $5 million and with the participation of Fedor Emelianenko, whose fights were attended by Vladimir Putin three times. An invitation was also sent to the president this time, but he did not come. “Apparently, there was a very tight schedule,” Kamil Hajiyev regrets. “But the president made a call to Fedor and wished him and all the fighters good luck.”
Gadzhiev says that Fight Nights managed to raise about $500,000 from the sale of tickets for the tournament with the participation of Emelianenko (more than 7,000 spectators were present in the stands). Vadim Finkelstein, president of M-1, the oldest Russian promotion in mixed martial arts, was skeptical about the amount mentioned and noted that there was no such revenue even in 2011, when he was the organizer of the Emelianenko fight in the full Olimpiyskiy. Fight Nights and M-1 do not hide the confrontation. Both held their tournaments during the days of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum - in the struggle for its guests. In addition, a major sponsor, the engineering company Express Group, left Fight Nights for M-1. “They are trying to dump, to please our partner, they drag him to the tournament,” Gadzhiev says. “If the sponsor for Fight Nights leaves me, I will regret that I did something wrong. But this is the right of the sponsor - to whom to give money, ”answers Finkelstein, who in 2016, for financial reasons, lost the fight for Fedor Emelianenko in Fight Nights.
Uncle Fyodor
Vadim Finkelstein 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,” Finkelstein recalls. - He liked the fights. He's actually such a fun guy."
Finkelstein's most valuable asset was Fedor Emelianenko: their cooperation began in 2003, when the fighter had already become an MMA star, but due to the nature of his management's work, he did not receive all the money due to his status. For example, from a $50,000 bonus, only $5,000 came to him. When Emelianenko began to cooperate with Finkelstein, his fees immediately increased from $30,000 to $115,000 per fight, later he began to earn more than $1 million.
Negotiations between Emelianenko and the UFC began in 2007 - and are still ongoing: neither three defeats in a row nor a three-year break in his career affected this. In 2010, the hosts of the UFC flew to the island of Curacao, where Emelianenko was resting. According to UFC President Dana White, they made the fighter a very good offer. “There was a guy in a jacket with Fedor and Vadim, whose mother was either the mayor or the governor of some region. He was sitting like this, slumped over. Hearing our proposal, this guy did not answer, but just started laughing, ”White told reporters.
Sergey Matvienko, the son of Valentina Matvienko, was a co-owner of M-1 and financed the western direction of promotion development. According to Vadim Finkelstein, at that meeting with White, it was not just the question of signing Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC that was raised: “There was an offer from them 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 term as governor of St. Petersburg.
“Sergei just lost interest,” says Finkelstein. - Still, this is a matter in which you need to invest and invest. I am still investing. But I gave MMA 19 years - and I will never quit. ” In 2017, Finkelstein plans to complete the construction of the M-1 Arena multifunctional complex in St. Petersburg, the capacity of which will vary from 1,000 to 3,000 spectators due to retractable stands.
“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 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 better. Who fought on high level in Russia, he is among the strongest in the UFC, ”says Finkelstein.
Warrior in hat
On November 12, 2016, a 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 the fighters in the world in weight up to 70 kg and 1 million followers on Instagram. Nurmagomedov is the only fighter from Russia who not only spoke in the US without an interpreter, but also did not hesitate to joke, call his opponents paper champions and chickens - in general, act in the manner adopted in the UFC.
Nurmagomedov began to go to weigh-ins and fights in the USA in a Dagestan hat, sacrificing part of his income for this: once in the UFC they were allowed to appear at official events in clothes with the symbols of their sponsors - and if Khabib had gone to his debut fight in the UFC not in a hat, and in a baseball cap with a logo, he could get about $ 1,000 for advertising. But in a hat, he was better remembered.
Nurmagomedov is unbeatable 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 he broke a rib and was forced to withdraw from three fights in a row.
The title, which Nurmagomedov so wants to get, is now owned by American Eddie Alvarez. After returning to the cage, Khabib received the status of an official contender for the championship belt, signed the letter sent to him from UFC contract for a fight with Alvarez on November 12 and began to wait for Alvarez to put his signature on the document. And did not 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 for his autograph session in the store sportswear about three thousand fans came to Moscow, which led to a complete rout. When Alvarez signed a contract on September 27 to fight not with Khabib, all this audience with obscenities in bad English and Russian, hashtags #khabibtime and emoticons went to smash the instagrams of Alvarez and UFC President Dana White. But Eddie Alvarez is understandable because instead of fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov, he chose to fight Conor McGregor.
Pay and see
Irishman Conor McGregor is the highest paid and most popular UFC fighter. He has excellent statistics - eight wins in nine fights, and he won the championship belt in the category up to 66 kg by knockout in 13 seconds. But for the UFC and Conor's rivals, something else is more important - McGregor knows how to spin fights, which makes it possible for all parties to earn many times more.
The income of the promotional 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 be seen only for money (broadcast of the tournament with the main fight Alvarez - McGregor in HD costs $30). And McGregor on the poster is more than $ 1.5 million of sold broadcasts: he is noisy, scandalous, he has a non-standard, partly cinematic manner of fighting, other celebrities periodically come to him for training - Cristiano Ronaldo or The Mountain from the Game of Thrones. And most importantly, he is Irish. There are about 40 million people with Irish roots in the USA - and this is a more solvent audience than Nurmagomedov's fans. In addition, the tournament for the first time in the history of MMA came to New York, 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 of 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 - on the Forbes list of the highest paid athletes, this would lift 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 at the Fight Nights show. In fact, this was the first attempt by the 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) cooperates with the Akhmat club, supports it, including in conflict situations, and periodically comes to Chechnya (such a contract can bring a Werdum-level fighter from $ 30,000 per month) . And in 2013, the same Werdum and other MMA stars came as guests of honor to two fighting shows "Legend" (the organizer of these tournaments, Ruslan Suleymanov, was detained in 2016 in a case of embezzlement of 800 million rubles).
Solid TV
So far, Russian promotions cannot live on the money from the sale of television rights. “Russian television pays the UFC for the rights to show tournaments, and they offer us to pay for the work of a mobile television station,” says M-1 head Vadim Finkelstein.
Fight Nights has licensed its broadcast rights to the rest of the world to the UFC Fight Pass platform, which for $10 a month gives access to archived video and live coverage of tournaments around the world. “I can't say that Fight Pass is signing any significant contracts,” says Kamil Hajiyev. - But, firstly, it is stable money. Secondly, we get access to the audience of the USA and Canada - and there the viewer will find out what Fight Nights Global is. This is important because we have plans to host the tournament in the US. Sometimes the cost of the 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 Mokhnatkin-Maldonado. Gadzhiev clarified that there is no official data on the number of views of the Emelianenko-Maldonado fight through UFC Fight Pass, but it is about 1 million people in North America, and the total audience of the fight was 10 million people (of which 7 million were in Russia).
A few years ago, the UFC tried to buy the entire M-1 video archive from Finkelstein. “I was offered several million dollars, but I didn't take it,” says Finkelstein, who has since invested more than $100,000 to build his own mobile platform. “I intend to develop my platform and make money on it.”
There is no doubt about the prospects of this direction. In addition to Fight Nights, Kamil Gadzhiev oversees another sports project of Ziyaudin Magomedov, hockey club"Admiral", and can appreciate the resonance and impact of these sports. “It seems to me that MMA is more effective,” Gadzhiev says. - Of course it is. different stories. Hockey is mainly social projects: 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. In MMA, the sponsor comes for clear interaction with the target audience of the brand. I can say: MMA will rise in price, hockey will become cheaper.”
Organization of fights without rules
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Business Forum
Fights without rules
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
06 Apr 2015
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Zhanibek 06 Apr 2015
Danunax 06 Apr 2015
Fight without rules as such does not exist, everywhere there are rules, 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
16 Apr 2015
kosmich11 16 Apr 2015
Igor161 01 Sep 2015
Sergey96 04 Dec 2015
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. Take off. Some kind of prize for the winner. How illegal or legal is it, but under what “sauce” should it be served? And if legal, will the idea work and make money? what are the pitfalls?
06 Apr 2015
Alex, strange question. Do you want to organize underground fights in which people will be injured and ask if this is legal?
Organize better sweepstakes during legal competitions. Even at the regional level, there are a sufficient number of them. If people know you, there will be no problems.
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
Not. no underground. problems with the "organs" are not needed. the question is how legal? Is it legal to do this?
Aleksei007 06 Apr 2015
you didn't quite understand me. my question is exactly how legal is this as a business? and that there would be no problems with the "organs", if it is possible to do everything officially, only under some sauce.
Zhanibek 06 Apr 2015
Fight without rules as such does not exist, everywhere there are rules, 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
Fight without rules as such does not exist, everywhere there are rules, 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 illegal. And in order for it to be legal, a lot of money is needed in 1, in 2, athletes should participate in competitions and nothing more. Then they must have insurance and a medical commission must be passed, then contracts are concluded with the fighters where all the rules of the competition are written, etc. And by the way, in one day, one fighter should have no more than 1 fight, And a competent athlete will not come to you to speak out for some kind of 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 for the battle receive 50tr. Of course, you can organize competitions and do it all according to the law, but you cannot make money on it. Well, if only to sell tickets. But the expenses will be higher than the earned ones, and give boh, if at all, go to 0. And remember in M1 for teddy bears no one fights. And they plyat them just for the exit yet.
16 Apr 2015
Watch the movie " Fight club»
kosmich11 16 Apr 2015
Igor161 01 Sep 2015
the law of marketing - where two people fight, a crowd will surely gather. :ac7:
Sergey96 04 Dec 2015
A few years ago, the all-Russian tournament "Strelka" was held, with minimum rules, anyone could come and try their hand. They fought until someone lay down or the judge stopped. All this was even shown on television. There was also a tournament held by White rex, the same only in the ring. The finalists in Moscow probably won something there.
I think it counts sporting event, from here and you need to dance.
Probably some kind of permission is needed to hold such an event, the obligatory presence of doctors and so on. It won't be easy to make money. It’s more crap to grab and not earn.)))
18 Dec 2015
Yes, don’t scare a person, they’ve been working for so long. They arrange fights without rules, and not at the same point, but on tour, the entrance is FREE! The whole trick is that there are 2 fighters, as in the “scheme with two boxers”, in which all this is chewed up and on which a friend earns on boxers NOT professionals for 40K greens in a couple of weeks, just on a tote, because you, as an organizer, are already up to battle, it is known which of the fighters received more money, that is, who should fall 😉 Plus, the near-fighter sale of everything related to the fights, starting from magnets, mini-gloves that Roy Jones distributes 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, that when the entrance is free, it’s going large quantity to the people, which is in our hands + renting a room is different from renting a room "by tickets", there it comes out renting a penny. Fighters are tame, playing for the public, shows for the local population - we give them joy, tange ourselves.
Sergey96 25 Dec 2015
Do you need to share profits with manual fighters?
Maybe then wrestling will be organized according to the American type only with a Russian bias and roll around the country like a big top circus: 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 be, but nonetheless.
We arranged this in a shopping center supposedly sharpened for the sale of sporting goods. Tickets were not expensive up to a thousand like. There were many people. The fighters fought for real 1 round for 3 minutes, it seems so, not very spectacular of course, there were a lot of people in them near several shops of the right theme. Tote was no I don't know.
Well, the final was already held in a big sports complex and the ticket price reached 2 thousand.
They advertised the topic a little and forward applications and questionnaires to accept, there are a lot of combat schools in the city, there were quite a few who wanted to, from 55 to absolute weight. Even from other cities came participants. If only a star were invited, it would be great in general.
Scuffle without rules... And according to the law?!
“Now fighting without rules is in vogue. They say they are held in the homes of non-poor people, they make bets. But the thing is risky, 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 scuffle, even leading to the most dire consequences allowed if there is mutual agreement?”FOR YOUR AND OUR RIGHTS!
“Now fighting without rules is in vogue. They say they are held in the homes of non-poor people, they make bets. But the thing is risky, 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 scuffle, even if it led to the most terrible consequences, allowed if there is mutual consent?
Stanislav Razgonov, Yekaterinburg
I want to note right away that fights without rules have existed for a long time. Quite recently, such a tournament was held in Moscow between athletes from Russia and the USA, which, by the way, ended with 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.
Holding such unauthorized events threatens with very severe sanctions.
As required Article 4 of the Federal Law No. 128-FZ dated 08.08.01 "On Licensing 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, cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation.
Part 1 of Article 17 it definitely requires obtaining a license in the case of organizing and maintaining sweepstakes and gambling establishments.
If it is established that the activity of holding fights without rules was carried out without making a profit, which of course is unlikely, then its organizers may be held administratively liable under Article 19.20 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and punished in the form of an administrative fine in the amount of five up to two hundred minimum wages (depending on the person involved: citizen, official, legal entity).
If the relevant authorities establish that the activity of conducting unauthorized fights without rules was aimed at making a profit, then not the administrative, but the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will come into effect, which will “reward” such enterprising citizens with a whole bunch of their articles.
Under such circumstances, liability may be Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation establishing responsibility for illegal business. If during such events harm is caused to someone, then the person who is directly guilty of this will be prosecuted for causing harm to health or murder, and the organizers are subject to prosecution for complicity in the crime.
And at the end of the topic, for some reason, the words of the German scientist and publicist Wilhelm Schwebel came to mind: “If violence is carried out with the help of money, morality and law are silent!” What is it for?
BY THE WAY
5 THOUSAND BACKS AND ... SOFT
Professional boxing, of course, is not fighting without rules. But here, too, money severely determines the ardor of battle. A law passed many years ago in the United States prohibits pros from fighting in the ring for free. The minimum bet you cannot go below is $50. 49 - already prosecuted by law, up to and including imprisonment. Today, however, a boxer's prize bet for just one fight happens to exceed $20 million.
Russians on professional ring come out to earn too. True, this money is “ridiculous”, compared with the fees of overseas boxers. According to various sources, the record prize money paid to the champion of Russia among professionals in the entire short history of these fights amounted to 5-6 thousand dollars.
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Brutal and spectacular are fights without rules, which are also called MMA and mixed martial arts. They combine a large number of 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 variant of mixed martial arts was called "pankration", and it was presented at Olympic Games. These fights were extremely brutal and often ended in death. MMA got a new round of development thanks to the Gracie family, who was engaged in jiu-jitsu, but few believed in the effectiveness of this martial art. As a result, they had to fight with fighters of other types of martial arts, demonstrating their skills.
The history of the emergence 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 Bloom, who was the president of one of the first MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) organizations. The name quickly spread and took root in many countries. In Russia, fighting began to develop since 1979. Ratings are compiled regularly, 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 cap and groin equipment.
- Rounds. Fights include several rounds, which, as a rule, last 5 minutes, but without a break. There are organizations that reduce the time to 3 minutes. Ordinary fights include in most cases three rounds, and championship fights - five.
- Technique. Fighters use overhand and lower limbs, as well as various methods. There are strikes in the fight without rules that are prohibited, they will be discussed later.
- Ring and arena. The area of a square ring must have a side between 6.1 m and 9.75 m. The floor must have a closed cell foam floor. 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 allow different ways, thanks to which you can win a duel:
- 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 a precise blow or throw.
- Technical submission. Victory is assigned when a fighter loses consciousness due to a hold (more often it is a choke). The fight is stopped by the referee.
- TKO. The decision to stop the fight is made by the referee when he sees that a person can no longer defend himself, receiving serious blows from an opponent.
- If one of the above options was not used, then the winner is determined by the judges.
Athletes participating in demonstration performances or in competitions, are divided into certain categories according to their age. They allow fights without rules for heavyweights and people with light weights, the table is presented below. At the same time, it is worth noting that in some MMA organizations there are no categories weighing up to 145 and more than 265 pounds. After the official weigh-in, if there is an overweight, the weight to be dropped by the fighter must not exceed two feet. Reset must occur one hour after weighing, no later.
Fights 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: caps and shells. This must be checked by the referee. Athletes cannot use doping, this also applies to anabolic steroids, and drugs. Cases have been recorded when athletes caught taking illicit drugs were disqualified for a long time. Knockouts in MMA cannot be caused by the following prohibited moves:
- blows with the head and heels to the kidneys and spine;
- bites and blows to the back of the head;
- impact on the throat, trachea and inguinal region;
- intentional blows to the nostrils, ears and mouth;
- beating a lying person.
Fights without rules - fatal outcome
Many 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 have caused death. It is worth pointing out that in two cases a fight without rules with fatal was unauthorized.
- In 1998, in Kyiv, an 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 named Lee took part. He died due to a heart attack.
- In 2007 in Houston, Sam Vasquez took part in the 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.
Speaking of ordinary street fights, then in most cases they last no more than five minutes and often end with injuries or even death to opponents. Street fight without rules arises by different reasons. In addition, it is worth talking about organized, but illegal street fighting whose main goal is to make money. Often fights are not for life, but for death.
Women's fights without rules
Not only men, but also the fair sex take part in this sport. Fighting without rules is especially popular with women in Japan, where the Pearl and Valkyrie tournaments have been held since 2000. Women's martial arts are also developing in America, but there they do not attract the attention of sponsors as men's sparring. The most popular female MMAs are Gina Carano and Christian Santos, with the former being the face of women's MMA fights. There are no relaxations in the rules for the fair sex.
Fights without rules in the cinema
This topic is actively used in cinema, so films about fights without rules are presented in a wide range, here are a few of them:
Forbes magazine in 2015 estimated the fortune of Ziyavudin Magomedov 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 Yakutsk fuel and energy company, and 50% minus one share of the United Grain Company. In a number of Summa's assets, for example, in NCSP and in the engineering business, Magomed Magomedov, Ziyavudin's brother, has a stake.
Eurasia Fight Nights (FN) is clearly out of line with Magomedov's other assets. The businessman became its owner a few months ago. The club was founded in 2010 by the absolute world champion in kickboxing Batu Khasikov, vice-president of the Moscow Federation of Mixed Martial Arts MMA Kamil Gadzhiev and the captain of the KVN team "RUDN National Team" Sangadzhi Tarbaev. Later, the club's co-owners included Sergei Arsenyev, managing director of the Moscow office of Goldman Sachs investment bank, and designer Sergei Shanovich.
What is mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts (eng. Mixed Martial Arts, MMA) is a type of martial arts, which is a symbiosis of different martial techniques and schools and answers the question of interest to many: “If a boxer and a wrestler meet, who will win?”
Fights in MMA are conducted in full contact, fighters can use both shock and wrestling techniques. A standard fight lasts three rounds of five minutes each with breaks of one minute, title fight- five rounds. Fights are held in a "cage" - on a platform measuring 8x8 m with a fence that does not allow the fighters to leave the ring.
At the initial stage, MMA tournaments were sometimes promoted as "fights without rules", which was an advertising slogan and did not correspond to reality. According to the report of the American Association of Ring Doctors (ARP) published in 2015, 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.
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 Hajiyev, the annual turnover of FN 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, are completely identical in 2013 and 2014: revenue - 9.517 million rubles, net loss - 18.7 million rubles. Other companies associated with Fight Nights through the founders - Fight Nights Jim, Fight Nights Global, Fight Nights Entertainment, Eurasia Sport and Summa Sport - do not publish financial statements. In addition, most of them were created in 2013-2014.
What exactly Magomedov bought is also unclear: how the deal is legally executed, neither Magomedov himself nor his representatives comment. Taking into account previous investments in the club - this is sponsorship of the club's fighters, assistance in organizing events and advertising - the deal amounted to "several tens of millions of dollars," Kamil Gadzhiev told RBC, whose words were confirmed by Magomedov's representative.
"Summa" is the 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 personally attended the Fight Nights Dagestan tournament. The businessman himself says that he works out several times a week, often at the Fight Nights Moscow club.
Combat profit
In addition to the club on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, FN has three more - in Elista, Makhachkala and Bryansk. The Moscow club hosts 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 with delivery. But the main business of Fight Nights is the organization of mixed martial arts fights: in 2014, FN fighters participated in five fights, in 2015 - in nine (including in St. Petersburg, Sochi and Kaspiysk). Fight Nights also hosted its own club championship in Moscow.
The main income, according to Hajiyev, the club brings ticket sales, television broadcasts and advertising. Tickets for the final event of FN "Battle 20" in 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 attached. According to Hajiyev, 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 on tickets. But the costs per organization this will not cover the event - it costs no less than 30 million rubles, Gadzhiev admits.
On October 23, 6,000 tickets were sold for the fight organized by Fight Nights between Russian Mikhail Mokhnatkin and Brazilian Ednaldo Oliveira at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Gadzhiev says. Ticket revenue is unlikely to cover 30% of total expenses, the rest should theoretically be 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, on the UFC Fight Pass channel, joint with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the cost of viewing is an average of $10 per evening. Under what conditions the channel broadcasts the fights, Match TV does not comment.
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 United Arab Emirates. For viewers, this is not cheap entertainment: for example, Aldo vs. McGregor on December 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, at the time of writing this material, you could buy tickets ranging from $505 to $6,900. At the same time, the UFC cannot boast of high business profitability.
UFC above all
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a promotional 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 teacher Rorion Gracie to create their own company. In 2001, the company was purchased for $2 million by the Fertitta brothers, owners of the Station Casinos chain of casinos. Boxing promoter Dana White (pictured) became the general producer and president of the UFC.
The Fertitta brothers bought and merged with the UFC most of the world's competitors, including the Pride Fighting Championships. According to various estimates, the annual turnover of Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, ranges from $250 million to $350 million. According to Forbes magazine, this is 90% of the world's MMA revenue.
According to S&P, up to 75% of the company's income comes from the sale of television rights. According to a Zuffa report for 2014, the company's revenue was $554 million. According to S&P, the company's EBITDA has been declining since 2010, due to high costs for the acquisition of competitors and foreign events. Zuffa's debt is about $450 million. In early 2015, S&P predicted a further 40% decrease in EBITDA and downgraded Zuffa's rating to BB-.
If the world's largest mixed martial arts promoter is not doing very well, what can Fight Nights, a club that is so small compared to the UFC, count on? Magomedov's investment will "help expand the business" of FN, Gadzhiev says. In addition to raising the level of events and broadcasting, FN wants to focus on marketing and audience building. This means more advertising, including outdoor advertising. Hajiyev believes that "she shows herself well in the regions."
But for true commercial success sports events viewers are needed not only at the stadiums, but also at the screens, then the audience becomes interesting to large advertisers, and TV channels are ready to pay for the rights to broadcast. The UFC 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 broadcast contract with Fox Sports. His 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, the top fights of the UFC began to be broadcast in the fall by Match TV, before that they were shown by the Russia 2 channel. “The UFC format is certainly in demand, MMA has its own steadily growing audience in our country,” says a Match TV representative. The fight between six-time UFC champion Ronda Rousey and title contender Holly Holm on November 16 was watched by 5.8% of male viewers aged 25-59 on Match TV. “The numbers have clearly demonstrated the potential of such a product,” the channel’s representative notes, but he does not want to talk about the possible prospects for broadcasting Fight Nights fights.
FN's main Russian competitor is the promotional company M-1 Global. Its founder and largest co-owner, Vadim Finkelstein, said in an interview with RBC that he was not at all sure that the broadcast of mixed martial arts on Russian TV is an income item, and not additional costs. According to him, TV channels either do not pay for the rights to broadcast at all, or pay very little. And for the audience, 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 everyone can open their own federation. “The viewer no longer remembers his characters and is not ready to pay for viewing,” Finkelstein notes.
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 cheer for their fighters, the audience there is very open and interested. Yes, advertising will be needed, but they 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 person that the audience will “go to”, Gadzhiev says. For a major event, there must be at least four such fighters. Tournament bracket FN doesn't, so the top event is one or two headliner celebrity fights, a few mid-level fights, and a variety show with singers, artists, and dance. It will be difficult to beat them back by selling broadcast rights alone, says an analyst at a major sports advertising agency. “If some federal channel buys this broadcast, then even for a top fight more than 3 million rubles. no one will pay,” he said.
Combat economy
$5 million- record fee in the UFC, according to Dana White (recipient unknown)
$180 000 - Holly Holm's fee for the victory over Ronda Rousey, November 2015
$24 500 - average UFC fighter fee per fight
$50 — the price of a paid subscription to the broadcast of the top battle
Sources: The Economist, UFC
The only chance to even recoup the cost of organizing the 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 are 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.” With this in mind, the cost of an advertising package at such a show can be from 10 million rubles. and higher within one evening, Efimov counts. But there’s another problem, he notes: “In martial arts there is no fixed schedule, like in football or hockey, and it’s very difficult to map partnerships even for a year.”
A representative of another major advertising agency does not even share this modest optimism: “In Russia, even football broadcasts do not always have an audience 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 it will become obvious to everyone - "there are no incomes, there are only turnovers." The only chance for the 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, the representative of the advertising agency adds.
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 sponsors list includes Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Bud Light beer, Toyo tires, etc. Ideally, Fight Nights should sign a similar contract, but for now, FN is considering the previous stage of UFC development - launching its own reality show.
The Ultimate Fighter was launched on American TV 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, the two fighters battle it out for The Ultimate Fighter title and a major UFC contract. 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 audience mass, our fights should become a family spectacle, including for women,” Gadzhiev agrees. FN has no specific launch dates for the show yet. The representative of "Match TV" declined to comment on this idea.
Training of fighters of the Moscow club Fight Nights (Photo: Yuri Chichikov, Anna Sergeeva for RBC)
"Images of Heroes"
home Russian star mixed martial arts 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 FN co-owners are counting on.
“We are no longer only a promotion company, but also a base, a kind of sports incubator for top fighters, which trains world-class MMA stars,” says Gadzhiev. So far, FN does not supply fighters to the UFC, but the same Minakov, who won the MMA championship belt in the American version of Bellator, is the first candidate. “In the UFC, our lightweight Ali Bagautinov is in the leading roles. 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. On account of his titles are four-time MMA heavyweight champion according to Pride FC, two-time according to RINGS and according to WAMMA. Attempts to negotiate Fedor's appearance 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 pass On December 31st in Japan, it will be hosted 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)
