A lot of things will be different when the MFC makes its Ontario debut on April 8 in Windsor.
Mark Pavelich is venturing into unchartered territory.
It’s not just that his Edmonton-based mixed martial arts promotion is making its first foray into Ontario. But he is doing it with a new mindset.
The typically confrontational president of the Maximum Fighting Championship -- the self-proclaimed No. 2 MMA promotion in Canada -- is expanding his vocabulary as he is set to hold MFC 29: Conquer at the The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor -- in Pavelich’s home town -- on April 8, mere months after Ontario opened its borders to professional MMA for the first time when it decided to start regulating the sport.
“I’m ready to comply,” Pavelich said at a recent visit to the Sportsnet studios. “Which is a new word for me.”
What does that mean exactly? Well, for one, MFC fighters will be competing in a cage for the first time. Until now, MFC bouts have taken place inside a ring, which Pavelich prefers. But Ontario is following the same regulations as the New Jersey Athletic Commission’s regarding MMA, which requires fights be surrounded by a fence rather than ropes.
“I’ve always been a gigantic advocator against the cage,” Pavelich said. “Not because it’s barbaric or anything like that. It’s for the fan. I want them to see the show ... and the cage has always been a detriment to that.”
“But respectfully, whatever the commission wants to use, we’ll do it and we’re not even going to argue about it.”
Pavelich, who has never been shy about ruffling anybody’s feathers, said down the road he hopes to try to explain to the commission the benefit of having a 30-foot, five-roped ring, “where people can actually see.” But for now, there is one aspect to having the cage that he likes.
“It’s going to be cool to because we’re going to be the only organization on the planet that has two different fighting apparatuses to fight in,” Pavelich said.
They’re trumpeting this too. It will be completely circular cage (as opposed to the UFC’s Octagon, and the hexagonal-shaped cage that Strikeforce uses) and they’re holding a “Name the Cage” contest. Get your submissions in; by next week you could win trip to the show.
The MFC has a much different outlook and approach to its shows now, and that’s due in no small part to its new association with S.L. Feldman & Associates, a Canadian talent agency based in Vancouver and Toronto. The two organizations officially partnered up in November, as SLFA is also entering a new domain, branching outside of music and into the MMA game.
“We got involved because of the quality,” said Jeff Craib, senior vice-president at Feldman who accompanied Pavelich in Toronto to promote MFC 29. “We have our hundreds of different properties within entertainment ... We do thousands of events a year. So we’d been watching Mark and MFC because they had something regular going on and we were hearing on the street it was organized and people loved the fights.”
“The fighters on the roster want to stay there. They’re kind of pulling together, they want the MFC to get big and stay. We knew that Mark is building something that wasn’t going to be around for five minutes.”
Another difference with the MFC’s next show is it will be held at a venue that will hold a little more than double the size of the ones the MFC holds at the River Cree Resort and Casino outside Edmonton (roughly 5,000 seats vs. 1,800). Thoughts of trying to go bigger (considering the UFC started with the plan of 42,000 for its April 30 show at the Rogers Centre and ended up with 55,000) were not really part of their vision.
“The shows that people talk about for 20 years aren’t U2 at the Skydome. They’re the Rolling Stones at the Phoenix at a 1,000-capacity theatre,” said Craib, referring to the Phoenix Club in Toronto in August 2005. “So it translates to sports like that ... The energy of the crowd in a 40,000 is good, but you’re still not 25 feet away from a fighter.”
Pavelich and Craib have even bigger plans together long-term. And Pavelich said he’s still not happy settling for the goal as Canada’s top promotion. He’s eyeing No. 2 behind the UFC. And who knows after that.
Yes, there’s still a bit of that rebel in him.
“I came to Ontario because I want to fight in this business,” Pavelich said. “I hate this whole bow-down process (to Dana White and the UFC). It’s not conducive to my business. I’m not going to be better if I keep doing that.”
“I always say DW is the godfather of MMA and I’m the defiant prince of MMA. Everybody wants to kill the king, right?”
NOTES:
-- Like the UFC for its first in Ontario, the MFC is going big with its card. It will feature two title fights, including welterweight champion Douglas Lima vs. Terry Martin and light-heavyweight title-holder Ryan Jimmo vs. Emanuel Newton.
-- The MFC has also signed former UFC top lightweight contender Hermes Franca to a three-fight deal, and he will take on Drew Fickett .
-- Edmonton’s Ryan (The Real Deal) Ford, who started in the MFC, bolted for rival The Fight Club, returned to the MFC late last year but has left again, was a winner Friday night in the main event of Aggression MMA 6: Punishment at the Shaw Conference Centre. In the first show since Aggression acquired TFC, Ford knocked out Johnny Davis in the second round.
