Adrenaline MMA – What Does This All Mean?

From the ashes of the M-1 Global debacle, Adrenaline MMA rises like a phoenix.

Well, maybe not a phoenix. Maybe like the Midwest version of a phoenix. An Indianapolis, if you will.

Bad jokes notwithstanding, Adrenaline MMA held its inaugural show on Saturday from Hoffman Estates, Illinois. After facing a litany of lineup changes, the card moved ahead with Jason Guida filling in for injured Jeff Monson in the main event. Guida, perennial scrapper and older brother of UFC’s resident “carpenter”, stepped in to face Chicago police officer and Pride 33 veteran, Mike Russow.

As an aside, it was refreshing to see Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice call action at an event they were actually at, and not just watching on monitors, hunkered down in some secret HDNET bunker, plied with coffee and other stimulants in order to be able to call seventy-eight consecutive hours of mma action.

Well, it wasn’t quite that long, but Rutten and Rice deserve props for soldiering through the Adrenaline MMA event, only to stay up and call the action live at DREAM.4, just a few hours later that evening.

Adrenaline MMA head honcho, Monte Cox, has repeatedly stated his intents for the young organization. Looking to Scott Coker’s success with Strikeforce in the west, Cox has stated he hopes to emulate Coker, establishing Adrenaline MMA as “a Midwest Strikeforce” – a regionally based promotion which promotes local fighters and relies on live gates, rather than pay per view numbers, to support itself.

With Cox’s goals in mind, and looking at only the action from the night, Adrenaline MMA’s first show was a success. Local and mid-level fighters got to showcase their skills – on a platform with TV and internet coverage. Many of the fighters featured were also managed by Cox, who was able to use the show as both a promotional tool for his stable, and a source of revenue in the form of fight purses and any sponsorship deals secured for the event. Despite the changes to the card, the few marquee bouts of the evening proved interesting, and fans with HDNET were treated to live mixed martial arts, in glorious high definition.

IFL veteran Bart Palaszewski was able to return to winning form, scoring the knockout of the night over UFC vet Jeffrey Cox. Forrest Petz was able to score a come from behind victory over Brian Gassaway, and Daiju Takase kicked his way into disqualification (and into all of our hearts), by repeatedly kicking Terry Martin in the groin. In the main event, Mike Russow made quick work of late replacement Jason Guida, submitting his opponent with a guillotine choke early in the first.

Action aside, from a business standpoint, the first show looks like it was a categorical failure. Sherdog and MMAJunkie have varying reports on live attendance, but the numbers are disappointing, with figures running between just over 2000 to 2500. Coker’s Strikeforce promotion relies on strong attendance numbers, but Strikeforce also routinely features “names”, including the enigmatic Frank Shamrock.

To be fair, Tim Sylvia is under contract with Adrenaline MMA, and he is certainly a “name”. Enigmatic may be a stretch, however. Another quality Sylvia is lacking compared to Shamrock is charisma. Is Sylvia’s presence alone enough to draw the kind of numbers needed for Adrenaline to sustain itself? Especially in the face of his sizable price tag? Although too early to say, the first show wasn’t confidence inspiring.

On the other hand, Adrenaline MMA does have a fighter with plenty of charisma under contract. And, his fanatical following in Philadelphia (pardon the phonetic alliteration), could prove a valuable resource for fans. That is, of course, assuming Cox were amiable to holding shows closer to the fighter’s fanbase. (Even the most die-hard fans would be hard pressed to take a 12 hour car ride from Philadelphia to Chicago.)

Who is that fighter? Well, its Eddie Alvarez, of course.

With momentum gaining behind Alvarez, he could be a very valuable commodity to the upstart promotion. If Cox hope to emulate Strikeforce’s success, he will have to rely on fighters with just the attributes Alvarez possesses – talent, charisma, and most importantly – a devoted following to pad attendance figures. For his part, Alvarez continues to tear up the competition in Japan. After a brutal stoppage of Andre “Dida” Amade in the lightweight grand prix opening round at DREAM.1, the fighter is coming off an impressive win over Joachim Hansen at DREAM.3, in what is surely an early candidate for fight of the year.

If Adrenaline can weather initial setbacks to market and showcase stars like Eddie Alvarez and Ben Rothwell, they could have an opportunity to gain footing as a successful regional show. Realistically, however, the outlook is not great. With the IFL’s demise imminent, and the market otherwise saturated with big names and their bigger money, Cox will have his work cut out for him.