Future FC: Evento com proposta tecnológica promete resgatar protagonismo do Brasil no MMA https://t.co/vdlBW80H9m pic.twitter.com/ICPGPmjMWa
— Portal do Vale Tudo (@portaldovt) December 19, 2018
A new Brazilian mixed martial arts promotion is set to emerge starting in 2019, with its eyes firmly focused on the future of the sport.
The organization, titled Future Fighting Championship and helmed by former fighter and current Legacy Fighting Alliance manager Jorge Oliveira, intends on hosting over 20 events in their first year.
In their official press release, the promotion announced that it plans on being a different kind of promotion, whether it comes to above-average fighter pay, open contracts, another level of interaction between the fans and the athletes, or with additional weight classes. Future FC President Oliveira claimed “…we don’t have exclusive contracts…If [a] fighter has a better proposal, even if he has a fight scheduled in our event, he will be released with[out] any problem.”
Upon its arrival, Future FC events will be available live and free on their website and mobile app, with commentary in either English or Portuguese. Fans will be able to browse the app for more information about the promotion, and will be given one very innovative approach to matchmaking: fans can select which fighters compete.
According to the press release, each event will hold 10 bouts, and of those, six will be open to a vote from the fans. Fighting out of the red corner will be a fighter set by the organization, but fans will have the option of picking one of two athletes that can come out of the blue corner. Polls will be placed well in advance of the event to give those ample opportunity to prepare, and the polls will be open for a window of five days.
Future FC will adopt every weight class readily available, under the Unified Rules of MMA, as well as the additional classes implemented by the California State Athletic Commission. This would include super lightweight (165), super welterweight (175), super middleweight (195) and super heavyweight (266+), as well as women’s lightweight (155) and above.
Oliveira, a former professional fighter competing in organizations including World Extreme Cagefighting across his seven-year career, is well aware of the difficulties of weight cutting, stating “Weight cut is directly linked to performance and future of athlete’s career, you don’t need to be a specialist to know that. To raise the level of fighters and fights to the maximum, we’ll create alternatives categories. For example, if a fighter who is currently lightweight finds [it] hard to reach 155lbs and feels small in the 170lbs [welterweight], he can stay between them, he can weight 165lbs and fight as [super lightweight].”