who would you sign a 5 fight deal with? BAMMA or Cage Warriors

[BakedBean]

This is only my opinion...

Any promoter wants to put on a show that entertains their audience. Some promoters aim the entertainment at the friends, family, club members and training partners of the Fighters, while a few aim their show at a new audience on non-mma people with a goal of attracting new people and expanding awareness and appreciation of MMA as a sport. Whilst there's a market for the fighter's family & friends type of shows, its a restrictive business model that's fundamentally based on Fighters selling tickets to generate revenue.

The majority of UK promoters base their income on a ticket sales model, which means the cost of the venue and the fighter's purses are the main fixed costs, while the venue's seating capacity and the efficiency of the fighters to sell tickets sets their forecast for their expected income and this dictates the budget. In certain cases the promoter has the model down to a fine art and they generate a profit, although in most cases the promoter usually breaks even or makes a loss depending upon the fighters lack of ability to sell their tickets, hence the reason I'm not a promoter...LOL

Graham Boylan is doing a remarkable job with his team at at Cage Warriors as he's taking MMA to a the mainstream public audience and introducing the sport to new cultures across the Europe and the ME in a highly organised manner. Backed with TV and live online coverage with TV rights across the the world with a new level of production, the CW shows will attract new followers and fans that are unknown to or by the Fighters. Clearly this a long term model (albeit and expensive and risky one) but Graham puts his hand in his pocket and knows its his way to ignite the flame that puts MMA onto the map as a recognized sport in the long term and in that sense Graham is a pioneer for International MMA.

On the other hand, BAMMA are also setting high standards and are reaching out to the public with the Watson V Reid showcase, and by putting large scale shows on across the UK at prestige venues. The difference being that BAMMA are unstructured in their approach going from one show and then announcing the next, it makes them seem disorganized but it does keep everyone guessing and their shows are attracting bigger crowds.

I'm not usually verbal on the Forum, but I feel very strongly that having attended numerous BAMMA and CW shows with my fighters, its unfair to knock them. Both offer great exposure for the fighters, both provide great facilities and are generous and hospitable towards the fighters, therefore we should look at the positives when comparing as opposed to the negatives...

Its also worth noting if you are offered a contract by Cage Warriors or BAMMA it means you're considered a highly rated fighter or an up and coming prospect / contender as they're only offered to the select few...

You missunderstand me, Perhaps because you are unfamiliar with previous threads where I explained in detail what my concerns are with BAMMA.

There production and presentation has never been in question in fact I applaud it.

It is the agenda behind what they are doing and given what they have done elsewhere.

I am not going to repeat everything again on this thread but I will say this, BAMMA's owners have proven and have several Court Judgements to support the fact that they do not always pay people.

What I am doing with these threads is not "knocking" BAMMA, What I am doing is making sure that they know that the second they try to knock anybody in our industry I will know and I will make sure the world knows too.

Yes they always state "we have always paid all fighters" this is true to some degree but many have had to chase for months and what was originally agreed upon and promised changed without concent to BAMMA's benifit.

Dont forget that they beloved Champion gave up his belt and stated he would never fight for them again due to their failure to pay only for a deal to be struck making the promotion centre around him getting him to change his mind.

I would love if a big investor came in and bought BAMMA and sunk Millions into it and Giant TV floated off into the sunset but that may not happen and the hole they leave if they fail will be in the pockets of people in our industry.

Not on my watch!

[R.T.G.W]

Lol gotta laugh at this one. Sorry mate but you told me that you took an easy fight in Brighton(i think) just cause it was easy money, well which is it???

If the money is right I will fight any fight I asked for the Taylor fight when opie pulled out they said no and as for my last fight I sad it was easy after the fight as my original opanent pulled out a week before so I had some last Min fighter step up and yes it was good money as I sold a shit load of tickets being my home town but then I always sell around 60 to 80 tickets when I fight in London as anyone who works for BAMMA or UCMMA will tell and to tell you the truth I would go with the show who offed me the best fights as I feel I may only have 2 or 3 fights left in me as I plan to stop fighting the end of the year as I want to spend more time with my family

[G4 MMA Fighters]

OK cool, I was merely responding to the original question raised by David as to whether fighters would choose between CW or BAMMA for a 5 fight contract. As both organisations have paid my fighters, I don't have those concerns about non payment, therefore highlighted they both bring value to the fighters, but in different ways.

However I commend your position and respect your point that you're looking out for the fighters.

[R.T.G.W]

BAMMA get a lot of shit on here but to tell the truth every time I've been on there show I have found them to be very professional and never had a problem with getting paid..

[hysteresis]

Cagewarriors. I really like their no frills, no bullshit approach.

[the mid 90's]

cage warriors 17 shows tv partners espn international - the fight network - fight now tv - skysports - bt vision - fox international ( FX ) - sportklub - highlights on hd net and live on mma junkie.

bamma 1 show tv partners - xtreme sports ?

am I reem or is there something i is missing ?

I agree but since the Alex reed fight BAMMA is the more well known org of the two to the casual fan, that's just my experience, and I 100% think CW is the better org for all of the same reasons every one has put already but when I've been talking to people about MMA in the pub who are not MMA fans most of them have mentioned they watched the Reed fight on BAMMA and if you're a promotion that's exactly what you want, if some guy is just flicking through the channels and sees BAMMA if he recognises it he will probably watch it but if he has no idea what CW is chances are he will just keep flicking.

[Matty H]

What sort of attendances do CW do in Jordan and the other overseas events? The arenas always seem quite small and even if the shows are available to millions of people does not mean millions will watch it.

CW has produced a lot of talent that has gone to the UFC or other big organisations and easily has a better track record in most areas. The only thing I would say with BAMMA is they seem to have the bigger names. Paul Daley was working his way up and building his name when he was on CW's where as he was a UFC vet when going to BAMMA. It's easy to point to CW's as being a better organisation but it's probably more for the real die hard fans. Kyle Watson and Tommy Speer at UFC vets but most fans don't know who they are or are not really interested in the style wise. Wallhead is another who has fought on BAMMA after the highlight of his career at Bellator, or you could actually say beating Trigg and Villasenor are on BAMMA are the highlights.

My point is moot to the title as:
1, I do not fight
2, If I did I would get killed and would never get near being on any of these shows
3, If I'm being honest I wouldn't have the stones to compete in MMA either!!!

As a fan though if I'm being honest I've been more excited for some of the BAMMA cards over the CW's ones.

[RKing85]

Cage Warriors.

Not even close.

First class organization, BAMMA is not by all accounts.

[RabTrue]

If the money is right I will fight any fight I asked for the Taylor fight when opie pulled out they said no and as for my last fight I sad it was easy after the fight as my original opanent pulled out a week before so I had some last Min fighter step up and yes it was good money as I sold a shit load of tickets being my home town but then I always sell around 60 to 80 tickets when I fight in London as anyone who works for BAMMA or UCMMA will tell and to tell you the truth I would go with the show who offed me the best fights as I feel I may only have 2 or 3 fights left in me as I plan to stop fighting the end of the year as I want to spend more time with my family

Good for you for selling tickets, I sell about the same for my local show bud, it's easy fighting infront of your own support but don't you feel bad ripping them off like that thou?
I asked u to fight me and u knocked it back why? So u could take an easy fight and make money from friends who come to watch you, il fight u London no probs mate, infront of your fans bud but don't make out its not about the money, when u made it clear before.

[Grizzly.]

I'm interested to see what happens with Cagewarriors when Graham steps down. He doesn't have long left coming from his own personal views on things...

Cagewarriors has more money than BAMMA and better contacts I'd say with their bits and bats in the middle east but these days I'd not sign a contract with either purely because if you wanted to fight there are sometimes better fights outside the promotion that you may be tied to for example...

If you were signed to Cagewarriors and you were a 7-0 Featherweight...

You'd not be able to fight the following unless the same promotion bring them in which they haven't thus far... Fishgold, Rogers, Walsh, Bowman, James... Etc etc.

Just my two cents.