Elite Championship Cage Fighting promoter Marcelo Rodriguez was on Atlantic MMA's "MMA In The Morning" show with Jonathan Stamey, and provided some good insight in regards to guys wanting to have their first amateur mma fight in North Carolina. Elite Championship Cage Fighting holds most of their events in the western part of North Carolina with their next show coming up on August 22nd, in Lenior, North Carolina. The ECCF feature amateur fighters with plans to add professional fighters in the future. Below is a recap of what was discussed:
How Marcelo scouts fighters and what is the first step a fighter should take if they want to fight in MMA:
I scout for fighters in different ways, I do contact local gyms in the area. I have several gyms and individual fighters that contact me and before I put them on my show I do make sure they have some training experience. If they don't have a whole lot of training experience or fighting experience but have trained, what I do is match them up with somebody of equal talent or skill level experience
On what some of the requirements are to fight for ECCF:
As far as the number of fights everybody's got to start somewhere, so I give everybody a chance. I do require them to have some MMA experience. Some guys are just natural born fighters. I give everybody a chance that wants to fight for me. From that one fight, I'll decide that this guy has talent and put him on further shows or I'll be honest with them and tell them you need to do some more training. I'd rather do that and be honest with them than to put them back in there and get hurt.
What would be a suitable amount of experience before fighters can step inside the cage:
Anybody that wants to fight, I wouldn't suggest it unless you've had 6 months to a year of non stop training in muay-thai, jiu jitsu, and wrestling especially.
On the difference in rules between amateur/professional fights:
In amateur fights there are no kicks allowed to the head, no knees to the head, and no elbows period. But of course as a pro anything goes[meaning you can use the moves above]
How does the state of North Carolina regulate amateur and profressional status, do you have to have a certain amount of amateur bouts:
In order to turn pro, the state does require that you have had at least 5 amatuer fights. Now the other thing they look at is whether those fights are wins or losses. Obviously, if you've had 5 losses via 5 KO's they are not going to let you turn pro. But if you got a decent record and you've got at least 5 fights then you are eligible to turn pro if you choose to.
The interview then touches on specific tests that fighters must take in order to become eligible to fight as well as the cost for those test and more. So if you are a local guy here in North Carolina and you wish to take the plunge into competitive MMA, then you should check this out.
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