Travels with The Pav: Part II

Originally posted on MMAjunkie.com

by Ken Pavia on Sep 06, 2008 at 2:20 pm ET

Battles are won and lost in preparation. So much more goes into an agent's work at a fight than just grabbing the shoes ringside, throwing the sponsor shirt on the fighter after the fight, and taking pictures at the after party. This installment focuses on our team's preparation for the trip and the arrival in the first stage of the journey.

Such is Part II of The Pav’s self-indulgent piece, "Travels with The Pav."

The Team

While I recover from the last trip, book a few fights, do some fighter-relations calls, write memos to my staff until 4 or so in the a.m., react to crisis, and prepare for the next trip, my team handles all the details that MMAAgents' (www.mmaagents.com) clients have come to expect -- and rely on us to handle. Our attention to detail and utter devotion to every aspect of our clients' lives are just some of the many reasons why I say with confidence that we are the best and second best agency in the business.

I have a low tolerance for ignorance and error, so I frequently blow people out for falling short of expectations. Julian has survived the longest, almost two years. He is basically our compliance department, and he is doing a much better job than the two people who preceded him in that role.

The job entails booking flights and hotels, corresponding with the promotions to get both promotional agreements and bout agreements signed in a timely fashion after they have been reviewed by legal, coordinating all the commission medical requirements for each jurisdiction (and they are all different), doing the mock-ups for the fight shorts and shirts, supporting the sponsor department, and anything else I dump on his desk as I pass through during the day.

Julian often gets caught in damage control doing things like figuring out how to get Joe Riggs out from a snowed-in airport in Ohio, or making sure Sean Salmon provides all the necessary paper work to the California State Athletic Commission to get off suspension. Funny thing is, the only time his name comes up is when something goes wrong and I freak out. (I kind of like freaking out. Somehow it makes The Pav's day more interesting). It is really a thankless job.

With 51 clients, and 12 to 15 fighting each month, Julian is on call 24 hours a day. This trip was tough for him because of all the one-way flights -- some of which are booked by the promotion -- three different athletic commissions, and my insistence that the office furniture be changed up and rearranged to improve the feng shui before the fights.

Sponsorships

Danny heads up the sponsor department. When he started, I called him "Danny Donuts" because I couldn't pronounce his last name. I still can't. He thought it was a fat joke, so we are going back to the drawing board for a nickname.

Securing sponsors is challenging enough before the poachers move in. There is always the asshole in the fighter's ear saying, "Joe-over-here can get you $1.2 million if you use him." That being said, commissions from sponsors equal a third of our company's revenue.

Monte Cox was the only real option for representation in the early years of the UFC, and he hates doing sponsorships so much that he doesn’t do them at all. We solicit sponsors, have the shorts and shirts printed, provide pictures and sponsor thank-you packets, and invoice them because the revenue generated by them is crucial to our clients and helps them be full-time fighters.

Danny is new to MMAagents.com, but he is solid. While I went on the road, he went to a trade show this weekend to try to get new companies into the business. We have four guys fighting on this trip. I left with the clothes for Martin Kampmann. The rest will be FedEx'd to me on the road once the printing is done. Despite our efforts, at least some sponsor commitments always come at the last minute. We were able to get Martin and "Razor" Rob McCullough both more than $20,000. They are pretty stoked.

Yin, Yang and Counting Beans

Every effective Yin needs a Yang. Nate is my Yang. He graduated top of his law school class, is a licensed attorney, gets up every morning at like 5 a.m. to get his first of two daily workouts in, and is married with a kid in the oven. While I burn the midnight oil, work from the house in the morning and make my way into the office midday to throw things into a state of chaos, Nate runs the staff, cleans up my messes and helps implement all the things I promise.

In the days of preparation for the trip, I painted broad strokes for the appeal to the Nevada State Athletic Commission to have the Anthony Johnson decision overturned -- and had Nate support my arguments with legalese. I also had him write a memo on trademark and copyright law to make sure the cease-and-desist notice we got from the UFC for the pictures on our clients' websites had merit, and it seemingly did.

Nate also spent time cultivating relationships with new fight promotions for our clients that are working their way back to "The Show." Oh, and he is empowered to crack the whip. While I feel I have a strong bond with all of the guys we sign, some of them relate better to Nate. We are very different personality-wise. While I grow the beans, he counts them.

The Pros and Cons of Internship

We also have four interns. Sean is a bookworm second-year law student, and he oversees the MMAAgents.com blog. He is also the point-guy for media requests, which are plentiful.

When Mike Pyle won his Affliction fight in Anaheim, Calif., he decided to stay in town for a few extra days. He called me late on Sunday night and asked where he could take his friends. I told him it was slow, so he said they were taking a taxi to my house, where I was watching Japanese fights on HDNet with my bangin' lady friend.

Well, Mike shows up with three unbelievably hot Russian girls and a buzz. I immediately scrambled for back-up. "Razor" Rob was training for a fight and had a girl in his room already. Tiki Ghosn was an hour away in L.A., Tito Ortiz is married, and Sean was the only one to answer the call.

A bottle of vodka into the evening, I asked Mike how to apply the anaconda choke. He told Sean to get on all fours, and he applied it.

Well, Sean has never rolled before. So when he tapped, he began to tap his own leg. Mike thought it wasn't in tight enough, so he increased the pressure. Before I knew it, Pyle had choked out my intern in front of the Miss Universe Pageant in my living room. To this day I have to hear, "I will get your egg whites, but I didn't sign up for getting choked out. That was not cool dude. That was so not cool."

The other interns -- Tony, Meesh and Joe -- always have stacks of projects. In preparation for this trip, they wrote press releases, picked up sponsor clothes, pulled tape on our fighters' opponents and increased our sponsor and industry databases for news dissemination, etc. While I go out on the road and take all the bows, these guys all bleed with me in support of our fighters' efforts. It really is a well-oiled machine.

The Airport

Three out of every four weekends I end up on the road. Airport survival has become a necessary chapter in the MMAagents.com how-to book. I have come to learn that:
Most airlines now charge $15 per bag that you check in and $25 if your bag weighs more than 50 pounds. This sucks when you are transporting wardrobes of sponsor clothes, banners, fights shorts, and corner attire to every event.
You can't get healthy food in airports. Sorry, it just doesn't exist. Pack your own food, or you will end up looking like a baseball umpire in no time. (My life-preservation reflex kicked in and prevented me from telling a Ricco Rodriguez or Gina Carano joke there.)
Airport personnel are immune to negotiation or reason. I pride myself in the use of the Jedi mind trick that always works on $10-an-hour security guards or nightclub doormen, but airport employees are immune. This leads into my next story.
Some time ago every Nazi in America was hired to work security checkpoints in the airport. From personal experience I can tell you every belt I own, my business card holder, and my phone set the metal detector off. Tripping the metal detector twice gets you frisked, and it is a same-sex frisk only. Shoes must come off, so I have acquired slip-ons for all weather for travel. Also all liquids more than three ounces, including bottled water, are not allowed past security.

These new regulations often create damage-control situations. An unnamed athlete decided that he did not want to dispose of his travel supply of marijuana before boarding the plane. In all his brilliance, this guy decided to hide his weed, which is not allowed on the plane, in his bottle of water -- which of course is not allowed on the plane. Needless to say he got pinched.

The worst part was he was on his way home. All I could think as I was being informed was, "If you like pot that much, maybe you should probably have some at your house." He probably should have pled guilty to being stupid. True story.

The Westin and Randy

The fighter hotel for this event is the Westin. It has 73 floors and is one of the nicer ones we have stayed in. My room was on the 40th floor, but Mr. Jackson -- who happened to be in my pocket -- got me upgraded to the 70th floor. The view from my window makes me feel like a Colombian drug lord. This is the first time the UFC has come to Atlanta, so there is a buzz, and the lobby is packed with fans trying to get a glimpse of a fighter.

Randy Couture is in Martin's corner with Shawn Tompkins and me. I have known Randy for a few years and represent a number of the guys at his gym. I can say with no reservation that he is a genuine and quality guy. It is not an act. He hasn’t forgotten who he is or how he got where he is.

Last week he resolved his differences with the UFC and has agreed to return. As if it wasn't bad enough before, the attention on Randy is magnified now. Every time we have to venture out of the rooms, we have to consider the best route for Randy so we don't get stuck while he kisses babies and presses palms.

In preparation for his fight with Brock Lesnar, I was able to get him to invite two of my guys -- Josh Hendricks (who is fighting Gabe Gonzaga on the same card) and Jake O'Brien -- to come to camp with him. He needs big wrestlers. He also has extended feelers for two of my guys to participate on his wife's promotion in Las Vegas on Oct. 11.

I broke bread with the camp, and Dann Stupp from MMAjunkie.com joined us late. We sat across from my good friend Ed Soares -- who manages and translates for just about every Brazilian in the UFC -- and traded friendly barbs throughout. I actually knew Ed before I represented any fighters and he ran Sinister clothing. Good people.

After we ate we came back to the hotel to watch Martin break a sweat and then hung out in the lobby for a spell. While still with Dann, I bumped into agent Monte Cox -- with whom I have an on-again, off-again rivalry. I introduced him to Dann and told him they have a lot in common.

I said the torch has now been passed and MMAjunkie.com is now second in MMA traffic, while he is now competing to be the second-best agent. He made some comment about there should be a height requirement to represent fighters, and I said something about him looking like he ate Rich Clementi. We laughed -- me confidently, him uncomfortably -- and we parted ways.

Stay tuned for Part III: "The Weigh-Ins and the UFC."

(Pictured: Glamor and glitz on the road? Not so much. As client Martin Kampmann works with coach Shawn Tompkins, Pavia deals with the travel headaches from the WEC's canceled event.)

Ken Pavia is a frequent MMAjunkie.com contributor who also runs MMAAgents.com, one of MMA's biggest sports agencies and one that represents more than 50 top-level MMA fighters. "Travels with the Pav" is designed to give readers a behind-the-scenes look as a handful of fighters (and their agent) prepare for fight day. New columns will be available every few days. Pavia's views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of MMAjunkie.com and its staff.