Interview with Legacy Fighting Championship President Mick Maynard: If you have not been following the Houston MMA scene, then you have been missing out on one of the fastest growing MMA scenes in the country. Houston has always been considered one of the top 10 or 15 bets MMA cities, but now more than ever it is really becoming a hot bed for the worlds fastest growing sport. Leading the charge for this explosive growth of the bayou cities MMA scene is Legacy Fighting Championships, a local turned national promotion that started in College Station, Texas. Legacy (as it is referred to by the locals) did its first pro show back in November 2009 and has grown by leaps and bounds since then. The promotion is one of the few featured on HDNet and has seen 2 of its title holders (Daniel Pineda and Andrew Craig) spring-board from the promotion to the UFC. I sat down and talked with Mick Maynard, president of Legacy. I’ve known Mick for several years now, so I wanted to use this interview as a means of introducing him to the Brawl Sports readers out there that may not know much about Houston MMA and/or Legacy. Legacy actually started as Lone Star Beatdown in College Station. We started promoting MMA at Hurricane Harry’s back in 2005, we started off doing 2 shows each year and now we are up to around 10-12 each year. We re-branded it as Legacy so we could appeal to a national crowd. Legacy has actually been the legal name of all of our businesses from the beginning and we [he and his wife Andrea] chose that name because we have 5 kids and want to leave a legacy. It’s a very powerful word. We outgrew Harry’s and then moved to the Houston Arena Theatre. If you have never been to the Arena for an MMA event you are missing out, I think it is the best venue for MMA around. We have done shows in Austin, Huntsville, Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, College Station and of course Houston is our home. You have a pro and an amateur series. How does that work having both? Is the amateur series as a feeder system for your pro series? We love having both because it enables us to help grow the sport from the ground up. Ideally it does serve as a feeder system and without a doubt we look at the guys that were loyal to us and successful as amateurs to making the leap to Legacy as pros. You guys are one of the featured promotions on HDNet. How has that relationship helped grow your brand? It has been an incredible boost to our brand both locally and nationally. HDNet has been a great partner and we hope to be with them for as long as they will have us. People often ask me what will happen if we ever get as big as StrikeForce or the UFC? Would we want to move to a CBS or NBC or some other station. Honestly they [HDNet] have been so good to us that I don’t see any reason why we cant grow with them. They are currently seen in 25 million homes and when the partnership with AEG/Ryan Seacrest media happens and they become AXS we will be in 35 million homes. We have been approached by other folks, but to be honest I see our future being with HDNet/AXS. It’s a great station that is loyal and committed to MMA plus the entire HDNet team is really good to us. We are very fortunate. In the last couple of months you have had 2 of your champions, Daniel Pineda (145lbs/155lbs) and Andrew Craig (185lbs), get signed by the UFC. How does that make you feel? It makes me ecstatic. Honestly if any of our fighters left us to go to any other promotion besides the UFC I wouldn’t be quite as enthusiastic, but these guys have an opportunity to take themselves financially to a place I can’t take them right now by going to the UFC. I am super proud of them. Hopefully one day we can provide the same opportunities as the UFC can. The Houston MMA community is one of the best in the country. It has certainly grown leaps and bounds the last few years. A large part of that was due to your website TheCageDoor.net and now that it is closed I think it will be a big step backwards for the community as a whole. It was kind of like the thread that held everything together here in Houston, so it will be interesting to see what happens now that it is gone. One of my personal goals has always been to see Houston compared to cities like San Jose as far as MMA. It is definitely heading in that direction but we still have a lot of work to do. It has to be a collective effort between the entire community and we need to continue to produce high level fighters. What can fans expect when they come out to see a Legacy Fighting Championship Pro series card? You will see very high level MMA from some of the best fighters in the world. The venue is always electric and fan friendly and the atmosphere is second to none. It really is more than just a MMA event, it an “EVENT” with great music, great crowd, high energy and always a great time. Even if you aren’t a fan of MMA you will have a great time at a Legacy show. Wow, that is a difficult question just because there is so much talent. Our roster is full of UFC potentials. Daniel Pineda’s last two fights in the UFC have finished sooner than his last two fights for Legacy. Andrew Craig’s fight with Kyle Noke was a carbon copy almost of his last fight with Eric Schambari in Legacy. When our guys do go to the UFC they are more than prepared for the next level because they are at that level already in many of the cases. Anything new or exciting on the horizon for Legacy that you can share with us? We have big news being announced on inside MMA on Monday April 2nd, so tune it to that on HDNet to find out. We are looking at other markets and it is looking like we will be doing a show in Dallas as part of Europa August 17th. There are negotiations going on with the possibility of many more cities throughout the nation as well as long as it makes sense financially. Editors Note: 24 hours before this article went to print, Legacy posted the following on their website – “Europa Sports Expo announces that HDNet Fights and Legacy Fights will host a live Pro MMA show under the same roof, during the Europa Sports Expo Dallas Aug 17th. The fights will be broadcast live nationwide on HDNet. Special thanks to Europa Sports Products Dollamur Martial Arts and Torque Sports & Performance for making it happen. More info coming soon.” What is the biggest struggle for you as a promoter? I would have to say getting the message out to those people who only know about the UFC, about Legacy. If you have never been to a Legacy event you are missing out on one of the best shows in the country. Are you trying to compete with the UFC? If not, what are your goals for Legacy? At this point, that really is a long way off. There really has never been another organization even close except for Pride. That said I do believe there is room for another Strikeforce (pre-Zuffa) and that is our goal. Once we get to that point we will look for the next step. Honestly though, I am not even sure I would want that. The thought of being away from my family for the same amount of time Dana White is away from his family is absolutely horrifying. I know we can be very successful without sacrificing what’s most important. - BRAWL SPORTS
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 19:15:26 +0000
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