EXTREME CONTACT FIGHTING PROFILE
Posted on | May 29, 2007 | 4 Comments
EXTREME CONTACT FIGHTING: THE NEW REVOLUTION IN CAGE COMBAT
By: Rich Bergeron
Owner Troy Waller has brought Extreme Contact Fighting into the forefront of the Mixed Martial Arts scene by making a unique commitment to his fighters and catering to the fans with exciting events and promotions.
Waller, an auto body shop operator by day, literally built the organization from the ground up, even constructing his own rugged, hand-built combat cage. The impressive rig even features an observation chair for a cameraman to get a unique angle of the action.
“Basically, it looks the same as everyone else’s. It’s a 20 by 20 octagon cage. It’s the first one I ever did, and probably the last one, but it’s built very, very strong,” said Waller about his creation. “We overbuilt it like crazy, and it’s way better than the other ones you see on-line. I’ve seen those things tore down, but ours is unbelievable. It was really interesting going through the whole process of putting it together, and it was fun to do. It goes together good, and four people can put it up in about an hour and take it down in and hour or less. A couple guys could do it in a few hours with relative ease.”
Waller’s interest in MMA led him to pursue his own cage fighting operation with “O’Goodie’s Irish Pub” Owner Justin Goodno once the fellow fight fans saw a few shows in their area that simply didn’t live up to their expectations. Wanting to provide more opportunities for the massive surplus of wrestlers coming out of their home state of Iowa, they went to work.
“I’ve always been a big fight fan, and I’ve watched UFC ever since the very first one. Basically, I just saw the other smaller promoters here in the Fort Dodge area, and I’d go to their shows all the time, and I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the shows or how they treated their fighters and stuff,” said Waller. “I went from the ground up starting the business and trying to build it, and I’m just out to do better than the competition. I wanna do it the best I can as far as treating the fighters the right way. The fun part about it’s really the journey of getting there. It’s nice to see lot of the wrestlers that now have something to do after high school and college. A lot of those guys focus so hard in the wrestling room, and they train so hard, and once they’re out, boom, they have no way to make money in the sport anymore. It’s nice to give them an avenue for extra income, something to work for. Iowa has the strongest wrestling background here in the mid-west.”
Watching other events he noticed too many fighters getting “used up and thrown away.” He set out to run Extreme Contact Fighting with a mindset that put the fighter at the top of the pyramid and still provided the fans with amazing, highly-charged events. “We offer the whole production, and we try to do a very professional job,” he said. “We always have a DJ and camera men, and we make DVDs out of every show we do. Tim Scott, our ring announcer, is always entertaining, and we have about 20 items in our apparel line, and a kick ass Web-site. Our goal is just to do a professional job, be consistent every single time, and give our venues what they expect, and treat them with the same level of respect we give to the fighters. We’d love to see some of our younger guys make it to the big show. That’d be awesome, and we’re glad to give some younger talent a place to go to get to the next level.”
Though he’s content keeping his organization relatively humble and understated, he’s not ruling out bringing it to a higher level someday. He recently made a partnership with Pat Miletich, and as a result XCF opened up a Militech Fighting Systems training center in the area to help fighters develop a more complete game. “I don’t know, if I can get to the point where it’s like the UFC, there’s obviously huge rewards financially speaking,” said Waller, “But, it’s real important to me, and when we teamed up with Miletich, we sat down and talked to Pat, and we made sure to mention that we never wanna lose sight of the grass roots aspect.”
Waller once picked up six new fighters at a local amateur show, and he knows that in time he will be able to provide those fighters an incredible shot to get into KOTC, PRIDE, or UFC. He was impressed that he found such talent in a little town of about 6,000 people, and it reminded him that the best course of action for him would to be stay dedicated to elevating fighters on a local level to greater opportunities. “It’s kind of weird, because I didn’t look at it this way when I started out. I didn’t look at the aspect that, for a lot of these guys, this is the only way of making a living,” said Waller. “Unfortunately, some of them, if they don’t have structure in their lives, they’ll end up moving in the wrong direction. We opened up the school in Fort Dodge now, so we have the Miletich training, and we’re doing some after school programs to help take kids off the street and give ’em something to focus on. It’s really turned into that more than anything, but we’re always working on getting shows in bigger venues.”
Waller’s fallen behind on his own training regimen, but he always finds time to watch MMA when he can. “I’ve always been a big wrestling fan and stuff, and the first time the UFC came on, I really fell in love with it,” he said. “I loved seeing Royce Gracie taking on all those big guys, and the whole Jiu Jitsu aspect of it. I’ve been to a couple K-1 fights in Vegas, and that was incredible. I just enjoy all the different styles of MMA, and martial arts, and I like watching Pride, too. As far as me competing, not yet. I need to get going again in the gym. Right now I’m working about 80-90 hours a week.”
Tim “Hollywood” Scott: XCF Announcer
T. Scott is the colorful character who gets in front of the crowd at Extreme Contact Fighting events and gets everyone riled up before each battle. He also doubles as a PR person and puts the word on the street about all the major XCF events.
“It’s funny, I actually used to be in the bar business as a DJ and MC. I knew the owner Troy, and one thing led to another, and now I host his shows,” said T. Scott about how he became involved. “I’ve been there since the first cage match, and I haven’t left the scene since. I’ve done the pro and amateur shows. It’s amazing how it just keeps growing.”
T. Scott’s role is key in the hierarchy of the organization, and he uses his personality and marketing talent to keep everyone informed. “I write the newsletter for our Web-site. Every show that we have, I’m the ring announcer and host for the show,” said T. Scott. “I’m also involved in the everyday process. If something’s happening, I pretty much know what’s going on. I’ve been in the business of Extreme Contact Fighting for about a year, and we’re based out of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Troy Waller’s the owner. Justin Goodno’s in charge of promotions and matching up fighters. We have a new show coming up, the biggest show so far on June 30th. Title Fight Championship is promoting it, and it’s hosted by XCF.”
T. Scott understands that “the UFC is the crème de la crème out there, and the smaller groups and the other minor promoters with shows don’t get quite the UFC draw,” but he also maintains that XCF can still play a major role in the MMA scene. “We’re sort of like a farm league for mid-west fighters,” he said. “We want to be able to get them to the next level, to the IFL, UFC, KOTC, or any of those big events. We’ve been networking with other big promoters and associations to try to get new talent into their organizations. At the same time we’re definitely on the level of moving up ourselves. In June we have an event scheduled at the Wells Fargo Arena which seats 17,000 people, and we’re planning on packing the house there.”
The last XCF production at the Hilton Coiseum in Ames, Iowa featured some amazing fights wth some of the local heroes looking stellar against UFC veterans. Jens Pulver and Corey Hill from this season’s Ultimate Fighter were also in attendance while Pat Miletich did color commentary for the event. The show was also broadcast on www.fightsportglobal.com, which is a new internet pay-per-view service planning to help the smaller MMA leagues out there build partnerships and branch out across the world to generate more income for all involved.
“The sport is continually growing, and we want to be the best promotional company out there,” said T. Scott. “We wanna make sure we treat our fighters right, because without them we couldn’t have what we have, and we take care of them first. We have someone that actually went to Miletich Fighting Systems in Iowa, went through the training program, and became a certified trainer for the system. It’s part of the programming Pat is trying to set up throughout the US, and there’s over 50 active schools or affiliates. We’re part of that now, and we opened a center for that. It’s just another place for our fighters and other local fighters to learn what it takes to be mixed martial arts specialists. They can learn boxing, the ground game, jiu jitsu, wrestling, and everything else it takes to be a true athlete of the sport. We’re just trying to be another outlet for all those people who wanna take it to the next level.”
T. Scott’s constantly seeing great wrestlers out of Iowa go through high school, college, and the Olympics, only to have nowhere else to take it. He realizes now with the popularity of MMA on the rise, it is the perfect place for an organization like XCF to blossom. He and Waller also know their first duty is to make sure the fighters are happy. “We truly take care of our athletes, and without them we wouldn’t be here,” he said. “We help them promote themselves, get in touch with sponsors, handle their travel plans, gas and expenses, get them in touch with the right people, and we go beyond just getting them in the ring to fight.”
T. Scott and the XCF staff work to make each fighter marketable in addition to providing them opportunities to be well-trained and ready to fight. “We just show them what it takes, help them eventually get farther than what we can do for them,” he said. “So all they have to worry about is being dedicated to training, and we help them out with that by letting them use the facility and the opportunity we’ve given them to learn the Miletich Fighting Systems setup.”
He sees the sport’s growing fan base as a sign of great things to come. “The overall popularity of MMA, I think, has exploded, and it’s the next sport that’s just gonna be huge. It’ll surpass boxing in my opinion. Whether or not the fighters get to the same level of pay, that’s gonna take some time,” he said. “Promoters and bigger companies sometimes abuse the fighters. They take advantage of their talent, and some fighters aren’t able to use their talents as an opportunity to better themselves or to make a living. Yeah, a lot of these guys are fighting for three or four thousand a fight, and that’s a lot of money up front, but they’re coming home with a concussion and paying doctor bills. I think when you sign with the UFC they pay for bills, but some of the smaller organizations don’t have the capital to offer that. If you don’t take care of your athletes, how can you expect them to go out in the ring and get beat up? The athlete’s the one we truly care about.”
T. Scott knows that the perceived brutality of the sport will also improve as long as quality referees get the proper training and understand when to stop a fight. “Nobody wants to see that,” he said about those fights that end up with the loser beaten bloody and clearly unable to defend himself. “As long as there’s good referees and judges, the sport will continue to prosper.”
T. Scott’s happy to have a boss like Waller calling the shots. “He’s got a big vision for the sport,” said T. Scott. “He got his own material and built his own cage, and he used all his experience as an auto body mechanic to make it solid. I’d like to see any man try to destroy this cage. The way it’s constructed and hand-built, it wasn’t purchased from any site. He covered it in rubber with thick inch and a half foam underneath. Even our video setup, with the chair above the ring, it provides a great overall view of the fight, and it’s much better than peering through the chain link fence.”
In addition to catering to the needs of the fighters, Extreme Contact Fighting also puts the fan first. “We wanna make it affordable for everyone who still loves the sport and wants to come see it. We’re not here to become millionaires right now,” he said. “The ultimate goal is just to make some great working capital so we can take care of everyone without having to hesitate. We really do take care of them as far as the overall cost, keeping the fights evenly matched, finding reasonable venues, the overall seating arrangement with tables, ringside seating, chairs, and bleachers, and giving everyone a good view of the cage.”
T. Scott, like his boss, is not yet ready to take anyone on in the cage himself, but he does train as much as he can. “I like being in front of the crowd, and I love the entertainment aspect of the sport,” he said. “I’m also very interested in learning martial arts. I’m taking jiu jitsu, and I’m in my first year right now, and I got my first stripe. I love the sport now, even though I don’t plan on stepping in the octagon. I do train with Team Rage, and I’m the co-founder of a team of 16 fighters underneath Jason Steget, the other founding father, mentor, and trainer of the team. Without guys like our team owner, Jeff Kern, and those who teach or take care of us, the sport is not going to keep growing. Then there’s Miletich and the Gracie clan, and all the people who made the sport grow exponentially.”
Looking at the whole vast array of great fighters in the sport, T. Scott finds it tough to choose just one as the absolute best. “My favorite right now is George St. Pierre, and next is Diego Sanchez,” he said. “I love to see more people from other organizations get into the UFC. Cro Cop is coming in, and he’ll be a very dominant force in the UFC. Chuck Liddell’s on the top of his game now, too. Tito Ortiz I know is one of those guys you love to hate or hate to love, but the bottom line is he made himself marketable, and that’s why he’s still a big draw. You can’t just be an athlete in my opionion. You have to be an athlete, your own promoter, and your own agent in regards to getting yourself out there so people can see your talent.”
To see T. Scott’s talent, you can go to his MySpace profile at: http://www.myspace.com/thenextbarber
For more information on the fights or to purchase tickets contact Troy Waller at 515-570-4334 or visit XCF on-line at
http://www.Extremecontactfighting.com.