Alliance MMA continues its expansion of regional promotions. This month, it announced the acquisition of Roy Englebrecht’s Southern California fight promotion. MMA Payout had the opportunity to speak with Alliance MMA’s President Robert Haydak and Roy Englebrecht.
The acquisition is the largest promotion the publicly traded company has made thus far. The New York Business Journal reported that the transaction was for the acquisition of the assets of Roy Englebrecht Promotions in a cash and stock deal. It is the 11th promotion it has acquired in its bid for strategic expansion. One of the company’s overall goals is to become a feeder league for bigger promotions such as the UFC and Bellator. It has acquired other ancillary companies such as fighter management company Suckerpunch and ticket company Cage Tix. Alliance MMA provides infrastructure support to the regional companies while allowing the existing promoters to continue to run the promotion.
“31 years as an independent promoter is enough,” stated Englebrecht of the change. He will stay on serving in the same capacity for the promotion. To date, it has 18 fight dates set for this year including boxing/MMA hybrid shows at Fight Club OC at the Hangar in Orange County, California. He also has two new events, “Rumble on the Water,” at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California and Gladiator MMA which will be held in the LA Coliseum.
Englebrecht will continue to serve as the promotion’s GM and his staff will remain. This is similar to other acquisitions made by Alliance MMA where they allow the staff to remain in place for a certain amount of time and will make a future decision on the company staffing.
He noted that he is willing to ween off of the MMA/boxing hybrid shows which have been very popular but that decision will be based on Alliance MMA. Haydak stated that it was his first experience with a hybrid show and was impressed with the event Roy had created. A decision has yet been made on the fate of Fight Club OC at The Hangar.
Englebrecht was impressed with the professional nature of Alliance MMA which was one of the reasons he decided to sell his promotion. Alliance MMA first approached Englebrecht at one of his events in December 2016 and then met CEO Paul Danner at another one of his events in 2017. The two sides exchanged information and after review of documents by the necessary people a deal was made. The fact that Alliance MMA included Haydak, a former promoter, it made Englebrecht more at ease since they spoke the same language.
“Certainly, their due diligence which made me very comfortable,” said Englebrecht. Haydak emphasized that Alliance MMA is being meticulous about its mergers and acquisitions. “Its a very tedious and long process,” explained Haydak of what the company does in looking into acquiring a promotion. “There is back and forth regarding financial and operations review.” Out of 60 companies it has reviewed, Englebrecht’s promotion was just the 11th promotion Alliance MMA has purchased. “It’s just not just jumping on any opportunity,” said Haydak.
The acquisition according to Haydak was based on Roy’s reputation as a promoter and Alliance MMA’s desire to make inroads into Southern California. “We identified California as a market to get into.” Alliance MMA also is working with longtime Alliance MMA Gym’s Eric del Fierro to promote fights in the region as well. However, Alliance MMA does not see any conflict with the two regional promotions in the Southland. “We’re not concerned about that all. We’re working on the same purpose,” explained Haydak.
Englebrecht enjoyed his time as an independent promoter but voiced the challenges of being out in the “wilderness.” “I’m a fan of regional promotions. In saying that, you still have to do a whole lot. It’s not like you’re a Golden Boy, UFC or Bellator.”
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