No Holds Barred: Mike Haskamp of Legend Fighting Championship

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with Mike Haskamp, the co-founder of the Hong Kong-based MMA promotion, the Legend Fighting Championship (http://www.legendfc.com).

Legend FC will be having their seventh show Saturday, February 11, at the City of Dreams in Macau SAR, China. Headlining the ten-fight card will be two title fights. Legend welterweight champion Bae Myung Ho of South Korea will be fighting challenger Li Jingliang from China and China Top Team. In the co-main event, Yao Honggang, also of China Top Team, will defend his Legend bantamweight title against fellow Chinese fighter Jumabieke Tuerxun, who holds a victory over Yao.

We spoke by Skype with Mike Haskamp Monday morning (which was Sunday night in the U.S.) about this card and the growth of Legend FC. He elaborated on the origins of Legend FC as well as the fascinating beginnings and development of MMA in China. He discussed their television deals, which will have Legend 7 seen in many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as on pay-per-view in North America. Legend has also just signed a distribution and syndication deal with ESPN International, with more details coming soon.

We also discussed how Legend carries out self-regulation of events, the fighter safety measures taken, the rules and use of a five-roped ring, and much more.

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ONE Fighting Championship (http://onefc.com). ONE FC is Asia's largest and most prestigious mixed martial arts event. ONE FC features the best Asian fighters and has initiated the ONE Asia Partnership Network, which includes most of the major MMA promotions and MMA gyms in Asia. For more information, go to their web site, at ONEFC.com(http://onefc.com).

DARE Championship (http://darefightsports.com). Based in Thailand, DARE is a mixed martial arts event where fighters from all over the world compete to become the DARE Champion. DARE is one of the first MMA promotions in Thailand, and has been televised in many countries and online. For more information, go to their web site, at DareFightSports.com (http://darefightsports.com).

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American Top Team (http://americantopteam.com). Whether you're a beginner or a champion, train with the champions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, boxing, wrestling, grappling, and mixed martial arts at American Top Team. Check out their web site at http://americantopteam.com.

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Thanks, Eddie Goldman http://eddiegoldman.com

Should be a good event, I want to learn more about these guys.

Nice Eddie. The most informative and truly worldwide combat sport & Global-MMA show on the planet. No Holds Barred-none!

I really think what OneFC is doing along with Vadim and M-1 will result is some type of FIFA/WAMMA 'independent' world MMA association. Ya know... like a REAL sports with regular World Cup of MMA tournaments with regional promotion/league qualifying tournaments with the top fighters from all the major world orgs.

Vadim was, and is a visionary who has been labeled a heretic by Mr. White and the western MMA media. Seems guys like Galileo, Newton & Einstein had the same problem at some point in their careers. Don't ask Dana who they where though.

Did Mike say anything about Dagwood?

No Holds Barred is the best and greatest, a truely Global MMA and very journalistic and informative and hard hitting questions.

You rock. Keep it up.

Sweet, more Asian MMA interviews. I will be listening to this one later today. I listen to all the Asian MMA interviews you do from Victor Cui to the one last week regarding all of MMA in Asia,....

Great stuff. Thanks.

Excellent interview. Questions were great.

I like the ONE FC plan much better than what Legend is spewing because ONE FC plans on working with all other organizations willing to participate (at least that is what they claim and their actions have helped to solidify that). It was pretty clear, reading between the lines, that they are not interested in that as they want to be "independent." I'm not too happy about that. These other organizations need to work together when it makes sense to make the super fights (cross-promotional fights between champions) happen. Plus, their actions have shown their intent. They scheduled a show on the same day as ONE FC on February 11th. I am pretty sure ONE FC announced that date first and it appears that Legend is date crashing the event. Also, they made their big ESPN International announcement on the same day ONE FC announced their ESPN STAR Sports broadcast distribution deal. Coincidence? I think not.

Until we have a single world sanctioning body for the sport that assures the best champions will fight the best champions from other promotions at least once every two years in a Super Bowl of MMA type event, the sport will remain flawed in a major way. At least ONE FC is showing many signs of wanting to move in this direction and, thus far, it is pretty clear that Legend FC does not.

Thanks! They both made steps forward with their TV deals. I think Legend had the date first and ONE was going to run February 12 but changed it.

Yes, we need a FIFA, but the actual FIFA is one of the most corrupt sport organizations in the world. The Play the Game web site is loaded with info on this. The fighters need to create their own organizations, but that is a long way off.

nhbnews wrote:Thanks! They both made steps forward with their TV deals. I think Legend had the date first and ONE was going to run February 12 but changed it.

Yes, we need a FIFA, but the actual FIFA is one of the most corrupt sport organizations in the world. The Play the Game web site is loaded with info on this. The fighters need to create their own organizations, but that is a long way off.

Yeah, their TV deals are great. I am glad to see they both landed those deals. Not sure about the dates. I just remember hearing about the ONE event on February 11th and then I later saw the Legend event on that date but I cannot say for certain.

I will check out the website. The last thing the sport needs is a corrupt sanctioning body. I wish the sport could actually get a legit unbiased sanctioning body, at least for Worldwide MMA outside of Zuffa.