MFC T-Shirts – Get ‘Em While They’re Hot!

http://ironforgesiron.com/index.php/2010/12/mfc-t-shirts-get-‘em-while-they’re-hot/

By Jeremy Latham

One thing I love about mma, sometimes more than some of the fights themselves, is the how easy it is to communicate with the all the personalities involved in the sport. I log in to Facebook and I can joke around with Mike Schiavello about the YouTube link he posted, a corny old video about Austrian yodeling. Fun. I can check out message boards and forums and see Joe Rogan and Tomas Rios go back and forth in a verbal sparring match, all in real time. I love it. Phil Baroni’s Twitter page is an absolute must for my inspirational fix for the day, always “retweet” worthy. There’s always a story somewhere and it makes being a fan of mma a whole lot of fun.

Yesterday, the boss of MFC, Mark Pavelich, had one of the boldest press releases I’ve read in a long time. Describing how Dana White has a mafia-like grip on the entire mma clothing market and in the very first line of the rant The Pav said “I am disgusted by the way mma clothing brands are buckling to DW’s handling of contracts.” After reading that I knew yesterday was going to be a fun day.

Mark goes on to say that Dana is bullying mma clothing companies, demanding that they stop sponsoring non-Zuffa events otherwise they’ll be banned from future UFC shows. It’s not all that surprising, Dana even admitted to making a couple calls to TapouT and had them yank Fedor’s sponsorship and stop selling his Russian themed TapouT shirts for his last fight… and that just sucks because I really wanted to buy one.

I can understand Mark’s frustration, I really can. Imagine it’s you running MFC. You’re building your own brand and you give small clothing companies the ability to get some tv time & exposure at your events. As those clothing companies grow and the fighters they sponsor progress in the sport, eventually they end up at a UFC event. Under the big lights, surrounded by celebrities, they’re told to stop showing up at MFC events or they can’t come back to the big show anymore. These companies think there’s money to be made in the UFC, and this is where Mark schools them. He points out that when these small fries cave in and pay the UFC just to be able to sponsor fighters on their cards, who they also have to pay, they fail to realize that the entire UFC organization as a whole is sponsored by competing clothing companies. The UFC will never allow them to get real brand recognition and eventually chop them down to size if or when they get too successful. Mark says “It’s an uphill battle you can never win.” But still, DW has that influence and it does happen. If I’m Mark Pavelich I’m pretty dog gone angry.

And it gets even more fun. Mark’s statement gets passed around and posted all over the internet. Somebody tweets Dana the article, and Dana’s response “who the **** is mark pavelich?” Seems DW doesn’t even know who The Pav is, or does he?

Not long after, Mark posts a video of Canadian television show Off The Record where both he and Dana appeared on together. With the video, Pavelich says “Remember we have never met. lol”

Remember, these aren’t two fighters or two fans, these are two owners of the mma promotions. This is type of drama is what us fans get to witness on a daily basis. I’m so glad I’m not a baseball fan. I love this game and I love being an mma fan… but remind me not to start a t-shirt company.