FNG coming to America
Kamil Gadzhiev: “Our main slogan is, ‘Better to be than to seem.’ We’re ready to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk in the U.S.”
The UFC is the world’s first and still dominant mixed martial arts organization. For a while, it was head to head with PRIDE, but the league eventually went caveman and ate or killed everything in sight, including PRIDE. Bellator is now a worthy Pepsi, with the world’s 7th largest media company behind it. But there are other well-run, well-funded efforts with global aspirations, like Fight Nights Global.
FNG has broadcast some shows on UFC Fight Pass, promoted the well-publicized Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabio Maldonado fight at EFN 50, and is signing an increasing number of US-based fighters including Cody East, Michael Graves, Tony Johnson, Derrick Mehmen, Tyson Nam and Dominique Steele.
After 25 events in and around Russia, honing tremendous production values, FNG is coming to America. PRIDE came to Vegas and lost a fortune. K-1 came to LA, and lost a fortune. FNG has different plans. Fight Nights Global president Kamil Gadzhiev said he’s not going head to head with the UFC.
As for now, it makes no sense talking about competition, said Fight Nights Global president Kamil Gadzhiev to John Morgan for MMAjunkie. Every company has its own path, its own format. We don’t want to compete with anyone; we want to be the best. You just have to do your job well. I understand that the American audience enjoys a good, quality MMA product. But, if we are to arrange events, we will make sure they arouse the interest of the American audience.
The initial plan is to achieve the same success in the U.S. that we’ve achieved in Russia and other countries. Our main slogan is, ‘Better to be than to seem.’ We’re ready to not only talk the talk but also walk the walk in the U.S.
The goal of any company is to earn money, of course – otherwise, it would not be a business, and we believe that MMA is a business, a very promising one. We are different from many companies in the MMA industry, as we are attracting money from sponsors, money from ticket sales and television rights money. Of course, we expect that the company’s financial performance should improve dramatically since we’re stepping foot on lucrative American soil. The world of today is rapidly changing, and the media world is changing at a rate far greater, so we will emphasize on the so-called ‘technological aspect’ – we see great potential in new technological innovations, and we are actively studying the market and prospects of earnings.
Right now we are focused on figuring out the market. Once we realize how we can attract the crowd, what matchup should be on the program, what TV channels are interested in purchasing our content, etc., we will publicly announce the rest of the details.
In my opinion, the key mistake of all Russian companies which have tried to do something in the American market is that they haven’t started thinking globally. They tried to change the location but didn’t change the mentality. You should be interesting for fans from Russia, the U.S., Brazil, and all those countries where people love MMA.”
The next event, Fight Nights Global 83: Alibekov vs. Aliev, will be streamed on FightGlobe.com. A US-broadcaster has not been secured, yet. The first UFC-based event has not been announced, but Gadzhiev says it’s comign sooner rather than later.
