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By: Brad Walker MMATorch Columnist
How does one gauge a promotion's success in the MMA industry? Do we go by tickets sold, or the level of their fighters? Maybe we can go by how the opposition reacts to their debut card. Any of these can be a good sign of how well a promoter is doing running his organization; you can even gauge it by how hard they fight to make it happen. All of these are bumps in the road that have hit Alex Martinez and his company at Praetorian Fighting Championship since the day they began. I am going to simply tell the story of the incredible leaps and bounds they have gone through in their so far short run, and it is truly compelling.
Can they make it? I have no doubt, because they are already a force to be reckoned with.
Their debut card, "Praetorian I: The Beginning" was off to a smooth start, until one main eventer had to withdraw because of a medical suspension, and another potential title contender couldn't get an opponent. These are more common things in the local scene, but less than a week prior to the card, their venue suddenly cancelled on them, and they had to scramble. Alex, keeping his composure, quickly found a venue that had not hosted an MMA event in ages, and made it all come together. There was a problem with the new venue, though, they had no liquor license (promoters make a killing off of drink sales), it had been dormant for quite some time, and well, it was a soccer stadium. Once the cage was set up you would imagine things would settle into place; unfortunately they didn't.
Alex had to bring in his own staff to mow the lawn on the dormant building, as well as set up seats – which the indoor stadium was severely lacking. When I arrived with my business partner Phil, with whom I was doing color commentary that night, we immediately jumped into action to help this company. When we believe in something, we are going to do what we can to see it succeed, we are helpers by nature and Alex has always been good to us. We assisted in moving massive and heavy risers into places where they needed to be to get more seats to accommodate ticket holders, as well as helping answer attendee's questions about where to sit, eat, and find their fighter on the card. Who would ever have thought that wearing a media pass around your neck could bring such questions? Well, we didn't mind.
The card went off fantastically, the fights were incredible, and they even held a musical performance during the intermission, which is a nice touch that you don't see from most promotions. Alex fought against the adversity to bring together a great night of MMA, and now as we look ahead to Praetorian 2 the problems are once again staring this dedicated promoter in the face.
Praetorian 2 was scheduled to take place this Saturday, July 6, in Hoffman Estates, Ill. with numerous tournament fights and title fights; however, Andy Smith, a flyweight title contender, had to withdraw early on due to a staph infection. As I stated before, fighters get banged up or sick, it's not their fault, and knowing Andy if he was allowed to he would have still gotten into that cage and battled. Then things got really interesting; a rival local promotion went to the state with allegations that Praetorian had not secured all of the proper licensing, and drove the fight card out of their back yard.
I know the promotion, whose owner went to the state, and I know his business partner, but I will not name either because this is MMA; people are going to fight over turf for their promotion, it is a part of the business. Whether or not their complaint was legitimate or they truly needed to do what they did I am unsure of, but Alex has given me his word that the way things went down was entirely unnecessary.
Praetorian 2 will now move back to August 24 and will still take place in Hoffman Estates, with Alex at the helm fighting the adversity - and to be honest the bulls*** - that the new guy on the scene is going to take. He has not flinched in his approach, nor has he backed down from any of the challenges that have faced him; this is a man who came into MMA prepared to fight for what he loves and believes in, and has had more chances than most to prove that. I speak with Alex frequently and it seems that there is always a struggle going on, but being a soldier for the sport he powers through, and truly earns the name Praetorian.
In the next couple of days I will be interviewing Alex Martinez about his fight to the top, and give you all the inside details on his company and where he wants to go from there. Be sure if you have tickets to this event to contact them via twitter or any other means so you can swap your tickets for the correct date or receive a full refund if you would rather do so.
Thank you for reading, be sure to follow Praetorian on twitter at @PraetorianMMA
And me as well @BradMMATorch
Remember to support local MMA and the MMA brands that are local to your area, for me that is great brands like Fight Chix (@FightChix) Ima Beast Apparel (@ImaBeastApparel) and Mio Fight Gear (@MioFightGear)
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Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Staff_Editorials_19/article_17482.shtml
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