Canadian promoters comment on Patrick Cote’s recent statement

Over the weekend Patrick Cote picked up his third win in a row and his tenth in his last twelve fights. The Predator made his welterweight debut at UFC 158 in March 2013 and has since gone 5-1 under the new weight class, with his lone loss coming to Stephen Thompson.

The veteran of the sport got his career started back in 2002 on the regional scene in Quebec, Canada. A number of big name UFC talent from Canada got started on the local scene, however it seems like MMA in Canada has been dwindling down a little bit in terms of UFC roster spots over the last few years.

In an interview with Damon Martin of FOX Sports, Cote explained his reasoning behind this. “We don’t have any serious organization to build the next generation. That’s the biggest problem here.”

Without MFC and TKO, the big names are out the door, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t promotions in Canada that are showcasing talent. So I posed the question to a number of promoters across the country, asking them to respond to Cote’s comment about not having any “serious organization” out there.

Lee Mein (Rumble in the Cage President) – He is right. There isn’t money in promoting, so it’s tough to build guys up and pay them what they are worth till they can make it to the UFC and get underpaid. I have the longest running show in Canada. Have had lots of great fighters come through my show, but the budget to go bigger each time is hard, so I have to stick to a strict budget and do what I can. I will keep doing shows, but wish there was a way to afford to have guys from all over Canada come fight here.

It would be ideal if the promotors worked together with a common network deal to have a league of shows but the ego of promoters probably won’t let it happen but I would if we could.

Justin Donally (Fivestar Fight League President) – Here’s the problem, most fans, or even guys who cover the sport don’t realize, Probably 50% (on the low side) of MMA promotions lose money, unless promoting shows in their home towns where they can promote and build homegrown talent that sells tickets.

In the early days of Fivestar Fight League we tested many markets and brought in a lot of big talent. In 2013 we were the most active promotion in Canada and did shows across three provinces, truth be told we lost money on half those shows.

Whether or not they will admit it or not, most of the bigger shows going at that time and still now are losing money on a lot of shows. In 2014 we were forced to tighten things up and stay in the markets closer to home.

So what you’re seeing now are promotions that want to stay in the game for the long haul, settle into markets where they can make money constantly and take a risk on the odd show, much like the old wrestling territory days. That’s why you see the smart guys who are outlasting everyone and staying consistent like the RINC, BFL, Unified, Havoc and ourselves to name a few sticking to one area and promoting the local talent and putting together maybe one or two big fights per card.

Would we like to be doing huge shows every month all over Western Canada and building talent to the UFC, yes! Of course! We love the sport and got into this to build talent, but not at the risk of losing the promotion that builds the talent.

Now maybe the reasons why the tickets aren’t selling is the UFC has flooded the market, or perhaps the sport has peaked, I really don’t know, but I know we are good at what we do and promote hard in every city we visit and we never sell more than 1000-1500 tickets tops.

So I think by promoting smart to last long term makes many of us very serious promotions that continue to do it because we love the sport and although were maybe not building talent at the rate others would like to see or even ourselves sometimes, were still building talent and will continue to for years to come.

Darren Cliffe (XFFC President) – What Cote said was his opinion and everyone is entitled to their opinion. I will just keep putting on great shows and the results will either prove his opinion correct or incorrect. If I was a betting man…. I would lean towards the latter.

Cord Crowthers (Prestige FC President) – Patrick is a close personal friend of mine and of a lot of us here in Saskatchewan. I’ve known Patrick for a long time, he’s a fantastic fighter and a fantastic human being. He makes some valid points and there’s two sides to every coin. The Canadian market has dropped off there is no doubt about it. Is it because there is not enough promotions, it is partially, but then again it’s hard to have the promotions when you’ve got things going against you. Take Ontario for instance — when the commission that was set up in Ontario was set up for one reason, to stop MMA from happening. They’re not there to promote the sport. We have a new commission here in Saskatchewan who is doing an amazing job. They followed the California commission and the British Columbia commission and they helped us all the way along to help build the rules and regulations and they’re doing great. With that happening you’re probably going to see more mom and pop shops opening up in the Western Prairies hopefully. In Canada if it’s not hockey, it doesn’t count. It’s always been the rule, always will be the rules. But we’re trying hard with a company like Prestige, when MFC was going, big companies that want to do right and make it a business, we think we can bring it back and bring it full swing. Are there more fighters than there are promotions, by far. You could have 200 shows doing shows every weekend and still not get everyone fights. Patrick made some points and they’re valid points, but I think companies like Prestige, I think we’re going to our best to change that for sure. There’s some great talent in Canada and every day you’re getting new fighters coming out of every province.

Jay Golshani (Battlefield Fight League President) – I would agree with him out east that is the case and that’s probably what Patrick is referring too. On the west coast things are completely different with the big two promotions holding over 90 pro events combined in the past five years.

So for him to say some of that stuff in the article is uneducated in my opinion. But until you put a show on no one know what it actually costs , people see a big crowd and instantly think you made all this cash which isn’t the case 80% of the time.

I think Alberta is doing great we have 4 solid shows there’s a fight card almost every month and have a lot of legit fighters and up and comers.

Patrick has been around the sport a long time but until you put a show on yourself and spend your own money you don’t realize the cost involved, you can’t just bring in top talent from all over the world like the UFC when you have a 1500 person venue , you’ll be a one and done fight promotion.

Sunny Sareen (Unified MMA President) – I can understand Patrick’s view on it, some of Canada’s largest promotions have come and gone now like The Score Fighting Series, MFC and TKO. Those were all quality promotions that helped build some of the countries elite. But we do have some great promotions starting to build our countries top athletes like Havoc, Xcessive Force, Hard Knocks, King of the Cage and Unified MMA. But it will take time for us to see who starts making an impact on rankings. I’m expecting a solid year from up and coming MMA fighters across Canada.

I think Canadian MMA is pretty strong lately as well. I think they just feel it worse out east because of their commission.