Martial News would like to introduce you to Pete Falkous, a director of the the hugely successful Northern Fight League, which promotes Cage Fighting and K-1 events across the region.
Peter is the former Art Director for Fighters Only magazine and helped the successful launch of rival MMA magazine MMA Unlimited. He now a freelance graphic designer working with a range of international clients which include MMA related companys.
He has trained in MMA and Thai boxing for four years under expert coaches Barry Norman and Peter Irving.

STANDARDS OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA)

Pete Falkous: At times you always think to yourself ‘that would make great content for my blog’ and suddenly you forget about it, my fault for not taking a notebook everywhere I go… oh well.

I guess it might not just be me who has thought about this before although it is something that never seems to be written about or even talked about outside of friendship circles. The standard of fighters who are competing in MMA seems to vary drastically from promotion to promotion, regardless if it is the UFC or my very own Northern Fight League.

In the early days of going and reporting on events it was taken for granted that not all fighters would be of a high standard, which I believe they are these days on a whole. However there does still seem to be a huge part of some events (not everyone mind so no complaining this is just an observation).

My thoughts have always been that to fight as a professional you should have the ability to train and act like one, not saying everyone has to have a strict criteria, as each fighter has their own unique style and personality and that is what is brought into their training and finally into the cage.

What seems to baffle me is the lack of respect for some people who yeah rightly so deserve some sort of respect for getting in the cage in the first place, but who seem to have a large lack of understanding of what to do when they get in there. 

So many clubs will now make sure that a fighter is ready and is at the right level before making the decision to let them fight at either semi–professional or professional but there seems to be no regulations of having your own club and just stepping up and having ago. 

Maybe it’s a ‘I can do that mentality’ or just they believe that they actually are truly professional at what they do. Either way I have met and spoken to loads of fighters that fit in this category and although most have been really nice people it’s just not something that they totally understand. Training for a total of 8 weeks does not make you a professional MMA fighter.

It does seem like everyone is either a cage fighter or they know someone who does and although the community is growing I still feel that people who are starting the sport should at least see just how much hard work it is to be a professional and its not just a matter of thinking your tough, which in the cage really does not matter as it’s a whole new ball game and people just are not really sure or ready for what it takes to train and be ready for a real MMA fight.

Peter Falkous (Director)
Visit: www.northernfightleague.co.uk

PETE FALKOUS: Well this is my first blog for Martial News and its always tricky to know what to write about for your first outing so I am going to start of lightly. 

I have now be involved in the mixed martial arts (MMA) industry for a good few years now and have seen it grow at such a rapid rate in the past eighteen months. 

The recent launch of the new Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ‘Undisputed’ has now captured a new and ever growing fan-base. This is evident throughout the whole of the country and especially in the North East of England.

In the North East alone there are around 7 events all ran by different organizations and usually attracting different crowds and fighters from the area.

I am lucky enough to be part of one of the latest newest promotions The Northern Fight League (NFL). First off I am not using this blog as a way of free advertising so I will try to keep plugs down to a minimum (I promise).

Over the last few months I have been asked why would you start a new promotion and are you doing it for the money? 

Well I guess to answer the first question would have to be, I started the NFL as I thought that by doing an event with a group of friends we could maybe do something a little different and also be able to feature fighters who we know and train with in the North East. 

Our aim was to feature local fighters as a springboard for bigger and more established events such as Total Combat and Strike And Submit. To answer the second question I would have to say ‘what money?’.

I do believe that the general consensus out there thinks that putting on an event means you are going to be ‘raking it in’, well I am afraid that just does not happen. Sure the math’s is easy, four hundred tickets at £25 is a lot of money, but when you pay for every single part of the event you soon start to realize that the profit margins might not be as great as you might have wanted. 

So I guess why would you continue to keep going? The answer to this is very simple and I am guessing all the other event organizers would say the same thing in that ‘we love the sport’ and that alone is the main reason for putting yourself through lots of hours of organizing and huge amounts of stress to make sure that you have done more than you set out to do.

Next time your at an event and you see the organisers rushing around please for one minute acknowledge that this is not a job for them and they do it for the love of the sport. 

With that in mind there are others who do see it the other way around but that’s for next time.

Thanks for reading and next blog will be about the standard and level of fighters who are active in the region.

Pete Falkous

To visit the NFL website go to: 

www.northernfightleague.co.uk

DFM Martial Arts presents its Cage Fight Night at THe Alnwick Gardens


The event will feature some of the top MMA and kickboxing clubs in the region in an explosive night of non-stop action


There will be pro, semi-pro and amateur MMA
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