ATT birthed the sponsor banner
Every big MMA fight on TV now features a banner covered with sponsor logos. MMAJunkie’s Ben Fowlkes wondered when they…
Every big MMA fight on TV now features a banner covered with sponsor logos. MMAJunkie’s Ben Fowlkes wondered when they started, and searched across the sport for the answer.
“I remember them just showing up,” said super manager Monte Cox.
Greg Jackson had no idea.
The UFC ‘s Thomas Gerbasi discussed it with Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs Michael Mersch who discussed it with UFC president Dana White who thought they started maybe before 2006.
Then Fowlkes watched tapes and the first sponsor banner was used by Mike Swick at UFC 69 in April of 2007. Swick trained at AKA, and AKA co-founder ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook said he got the idea from ATT.
“It was probably around 2005,” said ATT owner Dan Lambert. “We had guys fighting all over the place, and I think it was our general manager, Richie Guerriero, who one day said, ‘Hey, we’ve got guys traveling all over the world to fight. Let’s let them represent.’ … In PRIDE they draped it over the ropes, and then in the UFC they draped it over the cage. That’s basically how it started.”
“Guys are bleeding, and you get some of their blood on the flag. Their opponent bleeds, you get some of his blood. It became a badge of honor. Guys wanted to have some of their blood on that flag.”
Then the UFC resisted waving around something that looked like a piece from a WWII movie, and paid sponsor started to appear, and the ATT banner and its clones were retired.
“We always thought we were the first ones to do it,” said Lambert. “That and a dime will get you a phone call.”
So the father of the sponsor banner is American Top Team’s Richie Guerriero, who posts on the UG as, you guessed it, AmericanTopTeam, with the concept being picked up and altered by ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook of AKA.
