Promoting MMA: An Interview with Joseph Cavallaro
Building a Show
Jack Encarnacao Jun 19, 2008
Joseph Cavallaro is slowly getting used to the idea of being a
promoter. When he launched World Championship Fighting last year,
every day seemed to bring a new emergency, and he wrestled mentally
with his decision to leave a stable and lucrative sales job at Sun
Microsystems to fund his own mixed martial arts league.
Now, with his third event set for Friday evening at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, Mass., the longtime friend of UFC President Dana White is mellowing out a little. He's learning how to delegate responsibility and starting to feel confident about the future of his league, which drew a crowd of 3,700 in February for a show featuring UFC veteran Dan Lauzon (Pictures), a special appearance by White and photo-ops with fighters Cavallaro manages, like Kenny Florian (Pictures) and Marcus Davis (Pictures). In the WCF, Cavallaro hopes to create a central proving ground and launching pad for up-and-coming New England fighters.
Jack Encarnacao spoke with the well-connected "Joe Cav" about
getting into the game.
Sherdog.com: What about the third event is getting you excited?
Cavallaro: The fights are going to be great. Rich Moskowitz and Mike Campbell should be an incredible fight. Moskowitz is 10-4. He's a phenom out of this area. He's actually out of New Hampshire. He's a real, real good wrestler. Campbell's an unbelievable striker. He's 4-0. Everybody says he's the best striker in New England. So it's going to be that age-old question: Can Moskowitz get him down and ground-and-pound him, or will Mike Campbell be able to keep it standing and try to knock him out?
Sherdog.com: What's behind HDNet, ESPN and NBC coming in to film at the show?
Cavallaro: With the popularity of the sport, everybody wants a piece of it. HDNet's coming in with their "Inside MMA" program, which is covering basically the entire event. It's actually a pretty cool program. It's one of my favorite ones to watch. NBC Sports, they came out to our last show when Dana was there, and I think that's what sparked their interest. They enjoyed the show and they said they'd like to come out and maybe do some stuff, follow some of the guys. We're going to get Danny [Lauzon] some exposure on that one. EPSN is actually going to come out and do something on Danny also. They're going to incorporate it into a story that they're doing. It's just about mixed martial arts in general. I think with the Celtics winning and all that stuff, everybody is just running around in circles and this event has been tough to get anybody to take any notice as far as media from Boston. On the national stage, we're getting a ton.
Sherdog.com: Is there a promotional model that you're trying to follow?
Cavallaro: Not really. I don't see anybody else doing really what we want to do. My goal is not to compete with the UFC. I don't think we're going to get to that level, or we're not going to get to that level any time soon. But I'd like to be able to get the best fighters in the area, bring them in, have them fight in our shows, have them fight the best competition around and then have them move up to the bigger shows, move up to the UFC and the WEC.
We're looking at TV-type things now; we're starting to talk to the TV stations. Now the sponsors are starting to see us. The thing for us is to kind of create a buzz about it, a buzz around the fights. That makes it attractive to sponsors. When the sponsors come in, then you can start putting TV deals together. Because that's really what you need to get to the next level. That would be my ideal thing. Get a show where we have all the best fighters fighting all the best fighters. So you get the best fighters out of Philly fighting the best fighters out of Boston, fighting the guys out of New York and have just big, big fights.
You know who had the model was "Tuesday Night Fights." That's the model. That's what I'd like to do, is go around and showcase the best fighters in an area and have those guys work their way to the pay-per-view events. When Mike Tyson first started fighting, he started fighting on "Tuesday Night Fights." It makes it interesting. You get the guys when they're up-and-coming. You never know who the next Chuck Liddell (Pictures) is. You really don't.
Sherdog.com: One of the constants on all three of your shows has been Dan Lauzon (Pictures). Can you speak about him? He seems to be a centerpiece for you.
Cavallaro: Well Danny's a friend first and foremost. I've been friends with him and his brother forever. I think he's a tremendous fighter. You know, he's exciting, he's young. I think he's got all the tools to really make it to the next level. As a promoter, I want to bring him in and kind of showcase what he can do, and build interest in him locally. He brings in a lot of fans. A lot of people saw him fight the first time, and then they see him fight the second time. Now they can't wait to come back and see him again. People know who he is; people are interested in seeing what he's going to do next.
You start building guys that people have a local interest in. That's a big part of the business model. You can't just throw fights on for the sake of throwing fights on. People want to follow people. They want to hear the story, and Danny's got a real interesting story. Being Joe's little brother and being as good as he is, a lot of people say he's going to be better than Joey. They say he's going to be a lot better of a fighter. That's a pretty big compliment. Joe is a tremendous fighter. A lot of people will tell you he's going to be the next thing. I know the WEC and the UFC are both talking about bringing him back. I think if Danny right now were to go into the WEC, I think he'd be a force in that division [155 pounds].
Now, with his third event set for Friday evening at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, Mass., the longtime friend of UFC President Dana White is mellowing out a little. He's learning how to delegate responsibility and starting to feel confident about the future of his league, which drew a crowd of 3,700 in February for a show featuring UFC veteran Dan Lauzon (Pictures), a special appearance by White and photo-ops with fighters Cavallaro manages, like Kenny Florian (Pictures) and Marcus Davis (Pictures). In the WCF, Cavallaro hopes to create a central proving ground and launching pad for up-and-coming New England fighters.
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Sherdog.com: What about the third event is getting you excited?
Cavallaro: The fights are going to be great. Rich Moskowitz and Mike Campbell should be an incredible fight. Moskowitz is 10-4. He's a phenom out of this area. He's actually out of New Hampshire. He's a real, real good wrestler. Campbell's an unbelievable striker. He's 4-0. Everybody says he's the best striker in New England. So it's going to be that age-old question: Can Moskowitz get him down and ground-and-pound him, or will Mike Campbell be able to keep it standing and try to knock him out?
That was the one we were actually going to do for the "Tapout" show
[Campbell was to be featured on an episode of the "Tapout" show on
Versus]. I don't know if you heard, but Mask had surgery on his
back. So they called me, they wanted to postpone the event. I said,
"Guys, I'd love to have you, but I can't postpone the event." We've
already sold a ton of tickets, and everybody's planning on going.
Obviously Mask is hurting, and we're hoping he gets better right
away and maybe they can come out for the September show.
Sherdog.com: What's behind HDNet, ESPN and NBC coming in to film at the show?
Cavallaro: With the popularity of the sport, everybody wants a piece of it. HDNet's coming in with their "Inside MMA" program, which is covering basically the entire event. It's actually a pretty cool program. It's one of my favorite ones to watch. NBC Sports, they came out to our last show when Dana was there, and I think that's what sparked their interest. They enjoyed the show and they said they'd like to come out and maybe do some stuff, follow some of the guys. We're going to get Danny [Lauzon] some exposure on that one. EPSN is actually going to come out and do something on Danny also. They're going to incorporate it into a story that they're doing. It's just about mixed martial arts in general. I think with the Celtics winning and all that stuff, everybody is just running around in circles and this event has been tough to get anybody to take any notice as far as media from Boston. On the national stage, we're getting a ton.
Sherdog.com: Is there a promotional model that you're trying to follow?
Cavallaro: Not really. I don't see anybody else doing really what we want to do. My goal is not to compete with the UFC. I don't think we're going to get to that level, or we're not going to get to that level any time soon. But I'd like to be able to get the best fighters in the area, bring them in, have them fight in our shows, have them fight the best competition around and then have them move up to the bigger shows, move up to the UFC and the WEC.
We're looking at TV-type things now; we're starting to talk to the TV stations. Now the sponsors are starting to see us. The thing for us is to kind of create a buzz about it, a buzz around the fights. That makes it attractive to sponsors. When the sponsors come in, then you can start putting TV deals together. Because that's really what you need to get to the next level. That would be my ideal thing. Get a show where we have all the best fighters fighting all the best fighters. So you get the best fighters out of Philly fighting the best fighters out of Boston, fighting the guys out of New York and have just big, big fights.
You know who had the model was "Tuesday Night Fights." That's the model. That's what I'd like to do, is go around and showcase the best fighters in an area and have those guys work their way to the pay-per-view events. When Mike Tyson first started fighting, he started fighting on "Tuesday Night Fights." It makes it interesting. You get the guys when they're up-and-coming. You never know who the next Chuck Liddell (Pictures) is. You really don't.
Sherdog.com: One of the constants on all three of your shows has been Dan Lauzon (Pictures). Can you speak about him? He seems to be a centerpiece for you.
Cavallaro: Well Danny's a friend first and foremost. I've been friends with him and his brother forever. I think he's a tremendous fighter. You know, he's exciting, he's young. I think he's got all the tools to really make it to the next level. As a promoter, I want to bring him in and kind of showcase what he can do, and build interest in him locally. He brings in a lot of fans. A lot of people saw him fight the first time, and then they see him fight the second time. Now they can't wait to come back and see him again. People know who he is; people are interested in seeing what he's going to do next.
You start building guys that people have a local interest in. That's a big part of the business model. You can't just throw fights on for the sake of throwing fights on. People want to follow people. They want to hear the story, and Danny's got a real interesting story. Being Joe's little brother and being as good as he is, a lot of people say he's going to be better than Joey. They say he's going to be a lot better of a fighter. That's a pretty big compliment. Joe is a tremendous fighter. A lot of people will tell you he's going to be the next thing. I know the WEC and the UFC are both talking about bringing him back. I think if Danny right now were to go into the WEC, I think he'd be a force in that division [155 pounds].
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