By Rodrigo Galvan
MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world today. Every day, more and more men and women are trying their hand in this sport known as mixed martial arts. Because of it’s popularity, we see fight organizations popping up all over the nation. Let’s face it, the UFC is thriving in popularity, pay per view buys, and putting on the best shows. But other MMA companies just can’t seem to get things going. Why is that? What are they doing wrong? Why do we see them on tv one weekend, and the next they are out of business? What does it take to run a successful mixed martial arts organization? Here in the Mid-South, there is a promotion called Empire Fighting Championships and they definitely know what it takes to not only survive, but to succeed in the fastest growing sport in the world today. ATO caught up with Empire Fighting Championship president Tyler Sory and he explains the way his promotion is ran, what their goals are, and what Empire Fighting Championships is all about.
What’s your ultimate goal with Empire Fighting Championships and how far do you want to take this organization?
There are three things we want to accomplish as far as our short term goals are concerned; First, we want to have a good product where our consumers and ticket buyers can come and enjoy their time and it’s a value to them. Second, we want the fighters to have a quality place to fight, they get the best cage, the best places to stay, and have the best all around experience. Third, we want to grow this promotion with a crawl, walk, run attitude where we start slow and gradually pick up the pace and we want to be good for the sport. We love MMA. There are a lot of promotions out there that aren’t good for the sport and we try to hold our level higher than the average promoter out there. As far as our long-term goals, we’re pretty happy where we are. We’re a mid level promotion. We’ve got options with some tv contracts and we’ve got a good home at Harrah’s casino. We would like to extend that relationship we have with Harrah’s to other Harrah’s casinos around the country. I usually describe the UFC as Coca-cola, Strikeforce is Pepsi, and were San Pellegrino. Were a fine dining water, and that’s where we’re going to stay.
So you have no intent to get to the level of the UFC or Strikeforce?
No. In business you have to look at it from a standpoint like McDonald’s or Coke. UFC is branded. Most people call cage fighting “UFC.” We’ve watched Affliction, Pride, and all these other companies out there go down because they’re trying to compete with the UFC. Even Strikeforce is struggling. That’s not a headache we are trying to have. We’d rather feed them fighters.
What are these companies doing wrong that are trying to compete with the UFC?
Again, it’s the crawl, walk, run philosophy. They go in a facility that is to big, they think they are going to sell 3,000 tickets and make a ton of money, and that’s just not the way it works. Unless you have someone with a famous name like a Randy Couture that’s going to be headlining your fights, it doesn’t matter who the fighter is. Let’s say you have Kiko France who has fought with us. He’s the top jiu-jitsu trainer with American Top Team and was undefeated and never went past 90 seconds. In the fight world that’s great because we all know who he is, but the average ticket buyer out there has no clue. So we have to do a whole different selling market to try to get those seats sold. It’s a process. It’s like any business, it’s a two to three year process. You’ve got to get a few fights under your belt before you start making money.
So pretty much you’ve learned from their mistakes on how to run an MMA organization the right way?
Right.
So how long has Empire Fighting Championships been in existence?
We are on our fifth fight. I’ve actually been in the business for about three years. I’ve joined forces with two partners to start Empire back last September.
Do you ever use former UFC fighters or do you like to build your own fighters?
We’ve used them in the past. We’ve used guys that were on “The Ultimate Fighter” (reality show). On our next show we’re trying to get a heavyweight fight together and one of the guys is a UFC vet. We don’t have any problem with that at all. I’m more in tuned to getting the up and coming guy, that next guy that the UFC is going to want to have. We use a website that has the top twenty unsigned fighters in the world and go in there and try to pick those guys out.
How did you get started with MMA and Empire?
I started in MMA when I was living in Destin, FL. I was overweight and a guy that I went to church with trained Special Forces in that area and started showing me how to maneuver some things on the ground and jiu-jitsu and I just got addicted to it. I joined a gym and started training with the fighters. They had a promoter come through and I took the fighters to meet with him because I had a contractual background and the guy was kind of a snake, so I said, “Hey, I can do this myself, and do things the right way.” So I formed a company and ended up getting a contract with the IP with a different business partner in Biloxi. But I wanted to get back to Memphis and so I parted ways with him and I joined these guys up here and we partnered up with Harrah’s.
What all goes into running a successful show for you guys?
You have three different aspects to running a good show. One is production. Production is huge because that’s what the consumer sees. When they walk into the venue and see the lights, the cage, how it’s set up, the camera angles, the videos that they can see the replays on, your announcer and if he is good, every little part of this plays into the experience and if that ticket buyer is going to come back again. To me that’s the most important from a financial standpoint. Second most important is having a great matchmaker. We use David Ferguson and he has done an unbelievable job for us. We’ve had some of the best fights that I have ever seen. It’s important that we’re organized in this area and that he matches the fighters up right and makes sure that they’re equal fights and exciting fights. Last there is the advertisement and marketing, getting the word out there, the posters, the radio ads, the tv commercials and everything else that we use. We make sure that all of these pieces fit together and form a great puzzle.
So what role do you play in all of this? Do you have your hands on every aspect of this business?
The great thing about us right now is that we’re pretty much a well oiled machine. Our production has been with us from day one so they know what they’re doing. When they come in they know exactly what to do, how to do it, what I want, and what I’m looking for. And if there are any changes in graphics or anything I’ll meet with them. I’ll tell David (Ferguson) up front what our budget is and if there are a couple of fighters I’d like to see matched up and he’ll do his best to make that happen. But I leave that ball in his court because that’s what he’s great at. And from the advertisement and marketing standpoint we team up with Harrah’s. Harrah’s primarily does about 80% of our advertising and marketing. So it’s pretty much a well oiled machine.
Talk about your relationship with Harrah’s. How important is it to put on a show in a venue like that?
Well, there are two perspectives, one being from a business perspective. Harrah’s has the hotel rooms, they have the venue, they have the food. So our fighters can come in and stay at a first class hotel, they get first class food all weekend, and they get to fight in a first class event center. So from that standpoint it’s unbeatable. If you go to an outside venue you have to pay for the venue, pay for a hotel sponsorship for the rooms, and pay a food sponsorship for their meals. If you don’t do this, then the quality fighters aren’t going to want to come and fight for you. From our standpoint and Harrah’s, it’s just a good relationship. Every casino likes to have a fight company at their place. We’re different. We’re not the typical MMA promotion. We cater to the VIP crowd. We don’t play heavy metal music, we don’t play hard core rap. Fighters can come out to whatever they want to, but in between the fights we play fun music and have a great DJ and it’s an enjoyable environment. There is enough testosterone in the cage, we don’t need it in the crowd. So when I go to these businesses in Memphis and try to get them as a sponsor, I have to make sure that when they come to see the fight they can bring their wives or girlfriends and they are going to feel safe and be like “Man this is great!” We get people dressing up and they have wine at their tables, it’s like a 1960’s boxing atmosphere. The casino’s like that because we bring in people who spend money and they go to the tables afterward. It’s a win win situation.
What’s the biggest headache when running a show?
I think the biggest problem is if a fighter drops out at the last minute because of injury or something like that. You then have to scramble around and change the fight card on the site and stuff like that.
Obviously running an MMA organization takes a lot of hard work and time, is Empire Fighting Championships your full time job or do you have another job as well?
I actually have two other businesses. I have a business called VIC (Victory In Christ) apparel which is a Christian apparel company and an EMR company which is an electronic medical records software.
What is your opinion of MMA in the Mid-South?
I think overall it’s good. We have a great amateur show out here, which is actually inside of Memphis and not in the casinos. I think it’s thriving. I think it’s a hard town to break into because there are a lot of walk up people so your presale tickets are very hard to judge on what your night is going to be like.
We’ve got Alan Belcher who is making a name for himself in the UFC and of course you have Quinton “Rampage” Jackson who is a UFC superstar. What fighter or fighters in the Mid-South area do you think we may end up watching on pay per view some day?
There are some good guys here. I think Austin Lyons has potential at 155. He’s coming along quick. There are some guys over at Memphis Judo and Jiu-Jitsu that have some serious potential. They have guys who have been on The Ultimate Fighter. Brian Hall I think as an amateur, if he gets his jiu-jitsu down, has a lot of talent. He’s definitely a good fighter that promotes himself well and he could have a shot.
You just mentioned Brian Hall. I know he fights at 135. Right now the WEC is the only big name promotion around that showcases the Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions. It seems those guys need a place to showcase their talents as well because the UFC doesn’t have those weight classes. Does Empire take advantage of that and use those weight classes on their show?
Oh yeah, we probably have at least two fights a night in that area just because they’re so exciting. Rarely do they knock each other out and to me they’re the most exciting fights. It’s also fun for fans who aren’t really big into MMA, but come down to see a fight or a show down at Harrah’s, it’s a good experience for them because they see that fast paced action.
Talk about your upcoming show on October 9.
We know Mike Wessel and Austin Lyons are going to be on the show. Tim Galuzzi will also be on it. I think Brian Hall is going to be there. We’re just now starting to build that card, but I know those are the local names that will be on there. There are some others I want to come back and fight on our card. Charlie Raider (170) out of New Orleans I’d like to bring back and fight for us. He had a tough decision loss back in February to Jake Hecht out of the H.I.T. SQUAD and has really improved his game since then. I think he’s learned a lot from losing to Jake Hecht. October 9 is going to be good. Two football teams are going to be off that weekend, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Arkansas and Tennessee are playing away, so it’s a good weekend for us. Putting on a fight on a Saturday night during football season is a difficult and October 9 just seemed to make the most sense.
So it’s not just finding a weekend where another MMA organization is not putting on a show, you have to compete with other sports as well?
Oh yeah. It will affect you and will put you out of business real quick. We also look down the road at what UFC fights are coming up on pay per view. They’re doing a better job of letting us know months in advance of when that next UFC fight is because we don’t want to go up against Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin or any other UFC pay per view.
Do you guys feed off the UFC shows because the people who go to the bars to watch these fights are the people who will come to see a fight at Harrah’s?
Definitely. We’ll send a street team, ring girls, fighters out to bars like Buffalo Wild Wing’s and Hooters or whoever is showing the fight and hand out flyers for our show. That’s a big night for us!
Earlier you mentioned boxing. As we all know, boxing is going downhill. Why is it that you think MMA is thriving at a time when boxing is not?
MMA is here to stay. It’s more exciting than boxing. Unfortunately the world of boxing has too many promoters in it. So if you have a Mike Tyson and someone else has another guy who is just as good as Mike Tyson, they can’t fight each other. The promoters don’t communicate. That’s the great thing about MMA right now because the UFC is on top and because they get all of the best fighters, everyone is getting to fight each other. Love him or hate him, Dana White (UFC president) is doing the right things. He’s got a tight grip on the sport, he’s promoting it the right way, and he’s growing it around the world.
I’d like to thank you for your time. It’s been very educational. Before we leave, are there any last words you’d like to leave us with?
I’d just like to thank Harrah’s and my business partners Jay Williams and Aaron Fuller for being there through all of our nicks and dings from the start and we hope to see everybody there on October 9.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
GO TO WWW.EMPIREFIGHTSONLINE.COM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROMOTION AND THEIR UPCOMING EVENTS
And awesome fight last night!!! You kicked ass! 
Just wondering… what was goin’ thru your head before the fight? You looked totally freaked!
