After this past Fridays “MFC 25: Vindication” event, The MMA News had a chance to speak to the Maximum Fighting Championship president Mark Pavelich about the show.
Fridays show at the Northlands Expo Centre in Edmonton, the promotions new larger venue, featured a main event bout between Thales Leites vs. Jesse Taylor. Leites earned an early submission victory in the first round and will most likely fight for the vacant middleweight title in his next MFC appearance.
The Canadian city of Edmonton is a busy town, relying heavily on the oil industry. That kind of business can draw many types of entertainment from professional hockey, Canadian football, and other events, including competition from a boxing event on the same night as MFC 25.
“I think the event overall was successful,” Pavelich noted. “We still had more people at the venue than any other show in the city probably, including my shows from the past, so I was happy about that.
“The level of the show, you can see it’s just escalating and escalating. At the same time I can still see holes on our end that other people probably wouldn’t see. That’s something I’m going to fix come Monday morning, I’m gonna fix some holes and some other things, that’s part of this business.”
There were many exciting fights on the MFC 25 card including former UFC middleweight title challenger Thales Leites, but the MFC president was most impressed by Texan Pete Spratt’s performance against Luigi Fioravanti. Spratt earned a TKO victory in the final minute of the third round.
“I was really excited about Pete Spratt, I thought he was unbelievable. Like unbelievable, just the level of where he is at right now. I was really impressed with Ryan Jimmo tonight, I thought he was just something else. To do what he did to Wilson Gouveia, no one has done that to him ever.
When it came to the Brazilian, Pavelich threw praise his way, ranking Leites top ten among the worlds middleweights.
“You look at Thales Leites, he made it look so easy against Jesse Taylor, he just manhandled him like he was nothing. It was so easy. This once again just solidifies Thales Leites as one of the top ten 185 pounder in the world.
“Lots of other people, like that big show in Las Vegas that DW runs. He he wants you to believe he has certain talent, this and that, at the same time I have Antonio McKee at 155 pounds. He’d mop the floor with about 90% of the 155 pound division in that organization. You look at certain fighters that I have now and they can compete with anybody in any place at any time, they really can.”
Pavelich recognizes that the popularity of mixed-martial-arts is growing with many other promotions putting on good shows, but he feels that the MFC is right near the top and is prepared to keep it there.
“That’s one thing that people have to realize. There are more brands of MMA out there and were one of the top brands of MMA in North America and we still have so far to go. We’ve come a long way and we have just as far to go. I’m prepared for that, and on Monday morning I’m going to start working out and jogging to get in better shape. I need to be in better shape physically and mentally to bring my level up higher. There’s so much more left to do and it’s right after the show.”
The World Extreme Cagefighting promotion is planning on having their first Canadian event with WEC 49 on June 20th and the city of Edmonton will play host to that event. This places the event directly at the MFC’s front door but is also a recognition of how popular MMA is in the Alberta capital.
“They (WEC) won’t outdraw what we drew tonight, I’ll bet on it. DW is going to have to come here himself, he’ll have to (parade) down Jasper avenue. I’m going to have to tell him what to do. The card is no where near the level of my card was tonight, not even close. My level of fighters were like three levels of what he’s bringing to this town. I think that people in my city realize that, they’re smart, smart fans.
“I have the highest ticket prices in town. Higher than the Oilers, higher than the Eskimos, higher than everybody and they (the fans) support it because they realize the level of fighters they’re getting to see in the Maximum Fighting Championship.
“They (WEC) have a sense of arrogance, if that organization wasn’t owned by the bigger organization in Las Vegas we’d crush them, crush them. They have three or four fighters with some names and I believe my version of MMA is far superior than there’s. If they weren’t owned by their older brother they wouldn’t be (on the same level).
“It’s just fact.”
Pavelich has shown a strong work ethic and it’s one that runs in his family as everyone has become involved with the MFC promotion.
“That’s why DW had to step in when they went on PPV because the other people running the show just don’t have that…that moxy. Everyone knows that I have moxy, no one can outwork me in mma (promoting). I shouldn’t say just me, but my entire family. My wife, my son, and my daughter, who is now involved in the business.”
From the outside to many, the MFC may look like a success but it’s president knows that there is still a lot of work to be done to make it to that point.
“We have such a long way to go and we’ve been in business for ten years. People think that we’ve arrived but we haven’t.
“This is the first show we haven’t sold out in three years. The venue is double the size than the last one and we sold an extra 1400 tickets compared to the last venue (The River Cree Resort and Casino) and that’s fantastic.
“We have a long way to go and I know that, I’m ready to do it.”
