Recent Lion Fight Promotions addition Mike Afromowitz talks with Muay Thai Authority

As Muay Thai continues to grow in America, many promoter’s have different approaches as to how they will work towards making their promotion a success. Lion Fight Promotion’s has brought us some of the most stacked Muay Thai fight cards that have hit American soil, despite only having held two fight cards to date. With a third on the way they have kicked the door down a brought fans new expectations as to what a Muay Thai fight card in America should resemble. They have also loaded up their roster behind the scenes with various influential figures in the fight industry. Their latest addition has been Mike Afromowitz, Strikeforce’s former director of communications.

Muay Thai Authority was able to speak with Afromowitz about his love for Muay Thai, his thoughts on Muay Thai in America and more.

MTA: When and how did your interest in Muay Thai begin?

Mike: I initially became interested in Muay Thai when I started training in Jeet Kune Do about 12 years ago. As part of the Jeet Kune Do curriculum, I was learning to use Muay Thai’s elbow and knee strike techniques and leg kicks. I eventually began training pure Muay Thai and was blown away by how complete a striking system it was and the conditioning regimen that it put you through. To this day, I am still convinced that there is no other athlete better conditioned than a Muay Thai fighter.

MTA: You are actually the founder of Muay Thaimes magazine, how did that come about?

Mike: Well, as time went on, I started dedicating more and more time to training and it became a central part of my life. I ate, slept and breathed Muay Thai and, at some point, began thinking that Muay Thai had huge growth potential in The United States as both a martial art and a competitive sport. It had a lot of attributes that American sports fans appreciated – it’s fast paced, high-impact, very dramatic and the fighters who compete in it are very driven and passionate about what they do.

I knew Muay Thai’s conditioning routines could also play a huge part in its growth. There’s a big constituency of health conscious people here who are always looking for new ways to push their bodies to new limits, so it was just a matter of Muay Thai gaining more visibility for it to become a big hit amongst this demographic. This was back in 1999, so Muay Thai was practically non-existent amongst the general public. It was years before the popularity of MMA would explode and bring more attention to Muay Thai and other martial arts, so the only way you could possibly find Muay Thai training is if you stumbled upon it somehow or were already looking for it.

The gym I was training at was also home to a few local fighters. I began going to their fights to support them and, at this point, I noticed that Muay Thai lacked a media platform capable of covering the sport and telling the stories of its participants, stories that would help fans identify with the fighters competing in the ring. I had minored in journalism in college and had experience reporting for print and web publications, so I decided to launch a bi-monthly newsletter, Muay Thaimes, which would bring to life the stories of its athletes, trainers, promoters and other key figures in this world.

MTA: Most people recognize you from your time with Strikeforce which you successfully built along with Scott Coker, but you have also been involved with K-1 as well. Can you give a rundown of you accomplishments with these and other promotions?

Mike: About a year after I published the first issue of Muay Thaimes, I reached out to Scott Coker, who had recently been hired by K-1, the biggest kickboxing promotion in the world at the time.

I had watched tapes of K-1 fighting and realized that, from a production standpoint, it was like the Superbowl of martial arts fighting. It embraced fighters of all different stand-up combat disciplines and pitted them against each other in a single-elimination tournament format event. The concept was brilliant and I felt strongly that this could be a vehicle to eventually bring Muay Thai and martial arts fighting to the forefront of American sports entertainment.

I reached out to Scott by email and, soon after, began working for him. From 2001-2007, we produced 14 K-1 USA shows in Las Vegas. The events aired live in Japan and some of the best fights aired on ESPN2 We also produced a few Pay Per View events as part of a partnership with ESPN. It was a great experience.

By the time 2005 rolled around, the popularity of MMA was surging and the sport was about to be legalized in the state of California. Scott, as the owner of the ESPN2 Strikeforce kickboxing series, was the longest licensed martial arts promoter in the state, and was granted the rights to promote the first MMA event there.

With the green light from the state commission, we launched the Strikeforce MMA series on March 10, 2006 with “Shamrock vs. Gracie” and hosted a capacity crowd of 18,265 at HP Pavilion, the home of the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. I remember how much work went into that first show and I remember looking up into the arena during the event and how crazy it felt to see every seat in sight filled. For a long time, I had envisioned martial arts becoming a big fan sport here, but if felt surreal when I finally saw it happening right in front of me,

From there, we promoted three more events in 2006 and, as a start-up venture with only three or four people on staff, the company needed me to wear numerous hats. I had minimal experience in areas like sponsorship negotiation and television distribution, but these were jobs that needed to get done in order for the company to grow. I was ambitious and passionate about the work, so I was willing to do whatever was necessary to successfully build these areas of our business.

For example, I found a post-graduate course at NYU specifically for sponsorship negotiations and sales. I took the semester long course and walked away with skills that I never previously had. As a result, I was able to sell over $1 million in sponsorships for Strikeforce.

The same with TV distribution. In 2007, we struck a deal to co-promote a series of events on Showtime with EliteXC. So, I went down to TV convention in Miami to meet with buyers of sports programming. I didn’t know much about this area of the business, but I soaked in as much information as I could while walking through the convention space and during meetings I took down there. I learned the basics and the language of the TV business, networked with programming executives and agents there and over the course of the next year, I was able to strike a few deals for Strikeforce programming.

As the business grew, we were able to create a position exclusively for sponsorship sales and activation and hire a TV agency to sell our programming worldwide, so I was able to step away from these roles and free up time to focus solely on communications initiatives for Strikeforce. In 2008, we signed a multi-fight agreement with HDNet and launched a weekly half hour program on NBC to showcase our library of fights and, in 2009, we signed a multi-year agreement for live event programming with Showtime. As we became a full-fledged national brand, PR and media relations for Strikeforce became a full-time job so I had no choice to dedicate all of my time and effort to this role.

MTA: You recently joined Lion Fight Promotions. What will be your role with the organization and what drew you to them?

Mike: About a month ago, Scott Coker introduced me to Scott Kent, the owner of Lion Fight Promotions. Based on my experience and Scott Kent’s goals with his Muay Thai series, Scott Coker felt Lion Fight Promotions would be a good fit for me.

I was brought on board to spearhead Lion’s PR and media relations initiatives, similar to what I did for Strikeforce. I feel Scott Kent has a strong vision and passion for Muay Thai so it’s an exciting project.

MTA: From your expert opinion do you see Muay Thai reaching national popularity in the United States?

Mike: Absolutely. Like I said before, I’ve believed since I discovered Muay Thai that it possesses all the elements needed to make it as a popular form of sport here. For years, people debated the entertainment value of MMA. The owners of the UFC believed in it, invested in its growth and look where it is now.

The growth of UFC and MMA proved just how powerful marketing can be. Muay Thai can follow in MMA’s footsteps and co-exist with it. It’s a matter of the right person or group coming along and being willing and able to take the necessary risks to take the sport of Muay Thai to the next level.

Afromowitz resume speaks for itself and it is clear why he was brought on board by Lion Fight Promotions. With figures such as Afromowitz behind the scenes it seems Lion Fight Promotions has a long and prosperous road ahead of them and Muay Thai fans will likely have plenty of great Muay Thai action to look forward to.