The Coronavirus Chronicles: LFA VP Mark Bieri

Mark Bieri did not earn his position as vice-president and head of talent relations for Legacy Fighting Alliance by sheer luck. His eye for talent evaluation has been honed over decades involved with the sport and a fair number of miscalculations. For him, there is no set formula for finding the next mixed martial arts star. Instead, it’s more of a decision-making process that is instinct based off a wealth of knowledge in the industry.

“My partners give me a lot of freedom, which is great,” Bieri told Sherdog. “And it’s freedom to kick butt and it’s freedom also, when you make a mistake it falls on us. That helps that I do have the trial and error [experience in the past]. With anything you’re working on, it’s trial and error. There’re kids that I thought were going to be the next big thing and didn’t make it. And vice versa. Kids that quietly came up and surprised everyone. For me there’s not a direct formula. I’m a martial artist. I wasn’t a professional fighter, but I’ve trained all aspects of this for a while. When I am watching a fight, I guess I can tell. My BS detector is going to be [on alert] when someone says, ‘I’m the man, look what I can do.’ Training helps, but I think it’s just experience in the game. Kind of like with anything, you learn and grow with experience.”

In this exclusive conversation with Sherdog, Bieri spoke about his journey into MMA and the road to his current role in LFA. He went in-depth on how the promotion seeks out talent, and if there is a specific criterion they look for. Along with heading up talent relations, Bieri is also the organization’s matchmaker and talked about his process for mapping out event cards. Plus, he spoke on the promotions handling of the coronavirus pandemic, communicating with fighters about events being postponed and the possibility of the organization holding closed-door events in the near future.