Rocktagon MMA Aims For, Achieves 5-Star Events at Why So Blu?

Rocktagon MMA Aims For, Achieves 5-Star Events

March 30th, 2011 by Gregg Senko

It’s hard to believe that it will almost be a year when Why So Blu covered its first mixed martial arts event. In that time, we’ve seen fight card after fight card of determined athletes pitted against each other amidst a backdrop of live music and an engrossed fanbase. While the people behind Rocktagon make this look like an easily-assembled formula for entertainment, there’s actually a very determined work ethic taking place behind the scenes, which not only brings the ferocity and education of MMA to the public in an up close and personal style, but is a formula for success if nothing else.

At first bringing the public an amateur-exclusive card and now delving in to the world of professionals, Rocktagon MMA makes sure it does its homework before attaching someones name to a fight. While there may be a fair amount of promoters out there, one thing you will not see from Rocktagon is a feeble attempt to structure an event just for the sake of having an event. They take their work seriously and treat their fighters with deserving respect. Joe Shmo, with a record of 2-5, is not going to be found going up against an opponent that’s 7-0. Even if that means crossing state and country lines to find a suitable match-up, then consider it done. They’ve already rounded up talent from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and the great province of Ontario, Canada to provide a seamless tri-fecta of talent, showmanship, and camaraderie.

How is it all accomplished? It requires far more then a few phone calls and an octagon rental. There’s the matter of landing the right venue. Is it cost effective? Will it hold the desired capacity? Will the demographics of the venue’s location support a paying crowd? Then, as many Rockaton events have been known for, is the addition of live bands. With bone-jarring hits speckling the evening’s landscape, you need to find a sound that’s the perfect precursor to a night worth of fights. A DJ who favors Barry Manilow isn’t going to cut the mustard. You need grit, you need live vocals and the resonance of an electric guitar. You need a sound that revs an audience’s engine for the evening ahead. Sponsors are a big part too. While someone assisting financially is usually welcomed, they need to be a good fit. You wouldn’t have Penthouse sponsor your church function so why have the wrong business apply their tag to your MMA event? That’s where reputable companies like Famous Energy have come along, promoting their products in support of the MMA event they are a part of. Oh, and the beautiful women they bring add not just a pretty face, but an added dimension to an already fulfilling delivery.

Let us not forgot the different states’ boxing/fighting commissions that regulate the sport. If they don’t sanction fighters, you don’t have a show. Establishing a working relationship and regular communication with these commissions is nothing short of vital. Did I mention the doctor? Yeah, you’ll need one of them too because those landed punches, arm bends, and take-downs are the real deal. Not every fighter walks out of the octagon in joyous triumph. The moral of the story is, take all these aforementioned facets of what it takes to put a fight on (and I’m only scratching the surface) and the average person will have sensory overload in a matter of minutes. Add guys like James Jeda and Lorenzo Gentile to the mix and only then you’ll see that to be an effective promoter, you truly need to be an unconventional architect, carefully piecing together the building blocks of not a good event, but a great one. Fans leave these fight series wide-eyed with the excitement of school kids, verbally recapturing the night’s actions during their mass exodus to the parking lot upon the close of the night’s festivities. When you spend money on entertainment and appreciate it to the point that the cost is forgetful but the event wasn’t, then you know you got your money’s worth and more, and that’s a factor that I have seen and heard from countless people who attend these energy-laced bouts.

Jeda and Gentile didn’t throw darts at the wall of occupations to figure out what they wanted to do for a career. Spending years in the music and professional wrestling industry, Jeda has a keen eye for talent and what works when producing an entertaining event. From a wee lad on up, Gentile has spent his life around boxers and sanctioned fights. With his dad being a former champion boxer, the younger Gentile is well aware of what makes a fighter good, and that goes for boxing or his focus of mixed martial arts. Instinct doesn’t come with the territory. These guys learned the in’s and out’s of their respective fields from the ground up and it shows in their events where ’empty seats’ is a concept that can be found on the endangered species list…and that’s in a bad economy. Intelligence, sacrifice, diligence, and a very capable staff all came together to form yesterday’s vision into today’s reality of Rocktagon MMA; a company that prides itself on the integrity of mixed martial arts and a superior level of entertainment that you’ll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.