We all know the economy is getting tighter by the day. It effects all of us everyday. We hear it all on the news constantly about mortgage deliquencies and blah blah blah. Well this should be no shocker but it has effected the mma world as well. AFO has privately announced a new incentive program for their fighters and their fighter's gyms. I for one think this is a great idea and wanted to share it with you all.
AFO's President, Pete DiLorenzo stated "the AFO has decided to take a few steps to assist fighters and gyms financially, and at the same time, make fighting for the AFO a more attractive venture. All show photos are now free to all fighters.. no longer will a photographer be trying to sell you your photos.. they are yours!" This has already been implemented. The last show, The Perfect Storm, Kelly MacDonald has agreed to the terms and is now in the process of putting up all of her amazing photos for free. We, at WesternMassMMA.com have always put up our photos for free on our fan page and have already done so from this last show. AFO has also said there was another local photographer who will be putting up their photos.
In the next oncoming weeks AFO will be putting up all of their fight videos from Perfect Storm up on their youtube channel. I asked Pete the reason and he told me "All video is now free... we have worked with a few film crews to make great DVD's but they take to long and I don't want to charge fighters.. so now all fights will be uploaded for free to the fighters." This is great news for all the fight fans and of course the fighters. We have done our own videos of fights for various places and it is very tough to fit 10 or more fights on one dvd without sacrificing the quality tremendously. With everything being in HD, it is even more impossible to fit the HD quality on dvds, and one would have to move to BluRay. Point of the matter is, everything is shifting to on the web. Now everyone can show each other their friends their fight videos and spread it all over the web. We will occasionally post some great fight videos as well on here for you all! So subscribe to AFO's youtube channel.
That is not all, the AFO even is giving incentives for local gyms. Pete stated "We are giving away all our front row tickets to fighters for sponsors, family and friends... gym equipment incentives to the gyms for having fighters on our shows... so much more.. any gym that doesn't have the lay out yet can contact us for full details." Not only can you showcase your fighters on their shows but your gym can even get some sweet gym equipment in the process.
I asked Pete what was the reasoning for doing all this and he told me "We did it for the fighters... we did it for the camps. I wanted to make things a bit more simple and more attractive. There are a lot of promotions out there and for the most part we all do the same thing. I'm never comfortable doing the same thing. This puts more money in the fighters pockets and more fans in our seats and more training tools in the gyms."
I know what you all were thinking so I did ask the question we all wanted to know the answer to. What can we all do to get a sweet Leather Jacket that Pete always wears?? Pete told me "Hahahaha..... It can't be bought. I would crumble as the man you have come to know. I walked into the back and Kin Moy didn't wanna talk to me unless I went back out front and put it on. Two other camps Friday night, when saying hello addressed the jacket before me. The jacket is funny! The AFO fighters and fans have fun with it." Yes we do all have fun with it!!
There you have it fight fans. Good things to come to all of us from the AFO. Like I said before I think this is a great idea and will be great for everyone around it. We will all see tons of pictures and videos all around the internet and gyms will get some sweet equipment courtesy of the AFO. Let AFO and us all know what do you think of this incentive program??
If You Enjoyed This Article Please Comment. Support us by following our twitter and our facebook fan page. It is the best way to stay up to date on local MMA! Any news you would like us to share email us at westernmassmma@gmail.com. Thanks!