Primetime Fighting Championships: Bloodlust
When: February 21, 2009
Saturday
Where: Copernicus Foundation Theater
5216 W. Lawrence Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
Promoter: Jacob Stahler
Tickets & Contact Info: primetimefc@aol.com
PrimetimeFC.com
Sanctioning Body: Combat Consulting
Visited 15 times, 1 visit(s) today
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I attended the March 21st event at the Copernicus center this past Saturday to watch the show. I shoulda stayed home and purchased Roy Jones Jr.’s March Badness Boxing/MMA hybrid event.
PrimetimeFC’s event was a Complete Car Crash of FAILURE.
The whole event was a total of FIVE fights from a near certain promised 20 + fights on the poster.
Basically it was 30 bux of completely disorganized garbage to watch five fights.
The promoter was wandering around with no sense of direction much like the show itself.
-Props to the fighters who DID show up. They put on a helluva fine show. All of them.
-It was difficult to establish who was an usher and who was not.
-There was no sense of pace for the event as one didn’t know when the fights would begin.
-The doors opened at 5:30. The first fight was scheduled for 6:30, but actually took place at 8:00 PM. WTF? Why?
-There were maybe 500+ people at the show. Yet, the venue was still very empty.
-The beer was Polish and so were some of the women. Very Fine!
-There was no ten second announcements prior to the end of the round for the first two fights. Wassup with that?
-The ring girls were fine, Very fine!
-There was no coordination or communication between what was going on at the front of the cage and the locker room in back.
-One fighter who’s fight didn’t take place, took five minutes to trash talk his opponent who never showed up.
-One fighter’s opponent is a Cook County Sheriff who was quelling a riot at the Cook County prison, so the entire prison was on lockdown and therefore could not make the fight.
-All in all, this was a very disorganized event and it was run very poorly. For a promoter who had put on two events before, this was not a promising display at all.
Jay K.
ps. Again, kudos to all of the fighters who did participate. They fought with a lot of heart and it showed.
The promoter was wandering around with no sense of direction much like the show itself.
-Props to the fighters who DID show up. They put on a helluva fine show. All of them. — Agreed
-It was difficult to establish who was an usher and who was not. — The ushers are staffed by the venue… this was not the first time I have had to complain about it to them.
-There was no sense of pace for the event as one didn’t know when the fights would begin. — The Commission keeps the pace. The state has implemented before and after fight physicals. FULL physicals that MUST take place prior to the next bout. This means an EMT must go to the locker room and perform the physical then return to cage side before the next bout can begin. It also didn’t help that the event doctor was rechecking blood work constantly and redoing paperwork. Again, not an excuse, but out of my hands.
-The doors opened at 5:30. The first fight was scheduled for 6:30, but actually took place at 8:00 PM. WTF? Why? — Prefight physical problems. We actually had fighters attempting to get blood work paperwork faxed to the venue because they only brought proof that their blood was in fact tested rather than an actual copy of the results.
-There were maybe 500+ people at the show. Yet, the venue was still very empty — There are two ways I can handle that. I can either not allow people with small children onto the mezzanine so they can actually see rather than standing behind a full grown adult down on the main floor. Or I can try and make it look busier than it it by not allowing people to sit anywhere but the main floor. Which usually causes more problems than I would like to deal with. This is the first time I’ve heard anyone complain about having elbow room.
-The beer was Polish and so were some of the women. Very Fine! — You have me here dude =)
-There was no ten second announcements prior to the end of the round for the first two fights. Wassup with that? — The announcer simply didn’t do it.
-The ring girls were fine, Very fine! — Would you like to meet them? =)
-There was no coordination or communication between what was going on at the front of the cage and the locker room in back. — Yes there was. In fact its all done by ear piece and walkie talkie. Again the duty of the commission.
-One fighter who’s fight didn’t take place, took five minutes to trash talk his opponent who never showed up. — They were friends who were going to fight each other. The guy talking actually lost to Fadi Rihani in the first fight of the night.
-One fighter’s opponent is a Cook County Sheriff who was quelling a riot at the Cook County prison, so the entire prison was on lockdown and therefore could not make the fight. — That was the guy the dude who was trash talking was talking about.
-All in all, this was a very disorganized event and it was run very poorly. For a promoter who had put on two events before, this was not a promising display at all. — I’ve put on more than two events. From a “Run” standpoint that is why I hire a commission. I am hands off the night of and allowed to be a host. They handle the fighters, the meeting, the cage staff, refs, judges, staging, doctor etc. I personally do not like to be in the middle of that.
Jacob thank you for posting on this subject!
I like to think by now most fans understand the road bumps suffered that night we’re not a result of any sort of error on your part but rather late issues arising from factors beyond your control.
We look forward to your next event.
L.J. Tabano
I was there and agree to the first comment. Kind of chaotic at best. I heard the state is making it hard on you guys as promoters. But as the promoter, shouldn’t you take responsibility instead of saying, “Again, not an excuse, but out of my hands”? Also, with the staff, if you have recieved complaints before about the staff, then do something about it instead of, “The ushers are staffed by the venue”. Maybe I am looking at it wrong but I think the promoter should be more involved, even though the commission does their thing, and make sure the fighters have their test results you say they ave to have.
When you contact a fighter and say “Hey do you have your medicals” and they say “yes” and then you confirm it’s the right 3 tests. There isn’t much more I can do.
In terms of me being “involved” I disagree with you 100%. It’s not my position to be mediating between fighters, the state, doctors and etc. I am the promoter as a promoter we are constantly accused of being biased. If I place a set of officials who are impartial to mediate any issues that arise, it saves me from potential controversy and further arguments. I pay my commission a good deal of money to make sure that everything is run smoothly and without flaws. I should be greeting fans, catering to those that paid for tickets and smoothing out any “operational” issues. Not arguing with fighters about hand tape and doctor’s clearances.
The venue staffs who they staff. What do you suggest I do? Should I fire their staff? Can I just can their ushers because I don’t think they are doing their job? No. That’s not up to me. They are not my employees.