UK MMA Expo - Roll on UK MMA Expo 2014

My review of the UK MMA Expo

by Ben Heather @benheather

This past weekend I went along to the UK MMA Expo in Manchester's Event City. I arrived with no expectations of what the expo would be like and was only concerned with wanting to have a good weekend watching some MMA, do a bit of training, meeting fans and fighters who we have previously interviewed and talking about the sport I love more than any in this world MMA. I certainly didn't expect it to be anything like the UFC Fan Expo held in Vegas two weeks before.

Last year I bought a ticket to go to the MMA Show Live expo in Birmingham and was left disappointed when the expo was cancelled on just five days notice. I know I was not the only person who was let down last year and unfortunately the actions of some people which led to the cancellation of this expo has led to repercussions which have been dealt with by the organisers of the UK MMA Expo. A lot of people thought at first that the UK MMA Expo was organised by the same people which was not the case. Also, due to the cancellation of the MMA Show Live a lot of people doubted that this Expo would ever take place also.

As I arrived on the Saturday morning I was greeted by both Paul and Darren who organised the whole event. I had spent a lot of time interviewing fighters before the Expo for the site and have had many conversations with both men so it was nice to meet them both in person.

When the UK MMA Expo opened I first had a look around all the stands which were selling products or services at the expo and was very impressed at the professionalism of them all and how good all the stands looked. My two year old son was particularly impressed with the Banned Fightwear stand which had a Dodge Viper (or as my son kept shouting "Racing Car") in front of it. The guys who were on the stands were all happy to talk to me and explain what the product they were selling was and why it was different from any other products, however they did not cross the line from selling to annoying me. They were happy to discuss and then let me continue looking around the expo.

The companies which came out to support the expo was very impressive. Some of these companies were the same companies I imagine which lost money last year when the MMA Show Live was cancelled 5 days before the event. Although there was a lot of companies supporting the expo this year a lot of floor space was still available. I now believe that the Expo in 2014 (if it happens) will have a lot more stands due to people realising that it is legit and will actually happen.

The fact some of the top UK fighters were walking around mingling with the fans was brilliant. You could walk up to them have a chat with them, get photo's with them and they would happily sign anything which you wanted them to. This is something which I know as a fan means a lot, we normally pay our money and go watch them fight without getting the chance to meet these guys but at the Expo you could.

The Expo consisted of many different aspects, to me the main areas were the stands where people were selling their products, you had the live events which included a full MMA event on the Saturday afternoon and the British grappling championship on the Sunday. Then you had the training seminars, photo signing sessions and knowledge base theatre which gave you a chance to meet your favourite fighters.

Training Seminars

One of the major selling points of the UK MMA Expo was the ability to be able to book to train with some of the top fighters in UK MMA including Michael Bisping, Ross Pearson, Rob Sinclair as well as a lot of others over the weekend.

For a small additional charge you would get the chance to be able to take part in the training sessions led by the fighters at set times throughout the weekend. I thought this was a brilliant idea and was a major selling point to me. It's not everyday you can train with fighters like Michael Bisping. I also felt it also gave guys who may have not trained in martial arts before the ability to not only give it a go but to try it in an atmosphere that was potentially more comfortable to them than walking in to a gym for the first time.

I actually took part in the Michael Bisping but will discuss the actual training seminar in an article later this week on the site. So look out for the "The day I trained with Michael Bisping" article in the coming days.

Knowledge Base Theatre

The Q&A sessions which were held at the Knowledge Base Theatre were fantastic, it was truly a great place to go to be able to hear some of the best UK fighters open up about any questions they were asked.

For me personally I was very proud to be given the opportunity to host the women in combat sport seminar on the Sunday afternoon and it was great to hear from the elite women athletes just what they thought about how far the sport has come. I had a great time hosting and was very impressed with how knowledgeable the crowd were who came to the seminar and asked their own questions were. All in all it made for a brilliant seminar. Rosi Sexton, Helen Currie and JoJo Calderwood let us know what opinions they had on a variety of subjects from Transgender fighters to sexism in MMA and even discussed if they thought BJJ should be an Olympic sport.

Other seminars I went to included the pioneers of UK MMA and Its a TUF Life which between them included the who's who of the top UK MMA throughout the years. Guys like Ian Freeman, Ross Pearson and Michael Bisping to name a couple.

The Photo Signing Sessions

This was another brilliant aspect of the Expo which worked really well. At set times throughout the weekend you had the chance to meet your favourite fighter, have a picture with them (for a small fee of £10) it was then printed off and framed. But the best bit was the fighters would then sign your photo.

I think for £10 this was a great experience and the photo quality was brilliant.

Conclusion

I think the UK MMA Expo was a great weekend and if and I hope they do have the Expo again next year I think the organisers will have so much experience from this weekend. They can look back at the things that went really well as well as the bits which didn't. By reflecting on this year as well as now having evidence that they can pull it off next year will be a brilliant Expo.

This year they had so many doubters keep saying that they couldn't pull it off.... well guess what people they did. They did the UK MMA scene proud and I am sure a lot of companies that did not take part this year due to the previous Expo being cancelled on such short notice will already be contacting them to say they want in next year. They have been left in a situation where they have had to prove everyone wrong through no fault of their own to pull off the expo this year but they certainly did it.

The first day seemed to be a little hectic with some things not starting when they were scheduled to start but what do you expect when this is the first time that anything like this had been done. Even by the Sunday the organisation was so much better and things ran a lot more smoothly.

I think lessons will be learnt about trying to put so much on for example the training with fighters happening at the same time as a Q&A seminar and maybe next time we may see less on at the same times. This is not a bad thing as it makes more things accessible to everyone and easier to control.

Overall, I really enjoyed my weekend at the UK MMA Expo and if this is what they managed to pull off on the first year all I can say is roll on UK MMA Expo 2014.