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Promoting 101: How to burn a town
By Zach Arnold | August 15, 2006
By Zach Arnold
For the last few days, Erin Bucknell at MMA California has been following the events surrounding a Stockton, California MMA show last Saturday that was supposed to be headlined by Nick Diaz. On Saturday morning, Erin caught a newspaper report about Diaz not having an official weigh-in. Hours later, various MMA sites confirmed the story. Of course, the paying customers who were being told one thing and being delivered another were likely the last to know about the matchmaking problems.
On Tuesday, Stockton promoter James Grunsky found himself in a quandary (from The Stockton Record):
The announcement that Nick Diaz would not be fighting came 15 minutes before the cage fighting card was scheduled to begin at Stockton Arena on Saturday.
But promoter James Grunsky knew the main event was in trouble three days beforehand, and said on Monday he erred by not calling off the fight sooner.
Fans were told that Diaz, a popular fighter from Stockton, would not be on the card and were given 15 minutes to get a refund. It also was announced that Stockton heavyweight J.C. Cearley would not appear. The announcements were met with loud boos.
Maybe in the world of boxing promoting (which is the background of 24-year old Grunsky) the idea of last-minute replacements (as often seen on ESPN2 telecasts) is acceptable, but not in this situation. To his credit, Grunsky (under the banner of James Grunsky Promotions) has promoted several boxing shows in Stockton, California that have drawn good reviews. However, that is boxing. This is MMA, a different sport. Nationwide in America, Grunsky is not the only other boxing promoter who has attempted to make the shift from boxing to MMA because they see dollar signs in their eyes.
It should come as no surprise that California’s MMA scene continues to produce a mixture of good shows along with “amateur hour” specialists who, somehow, manage to come up with enough money for a surety bond (in California, that comes at a price tag of $20,000 USD) but yet can’t book or advertise a full card if their life depended on it.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It was announced at the show that Nick Diaz would not be fighting and that people could at that time obtain a refund. Probably would have been more helpful for the out of town fans had something been said before they made the drive, but I’m just hoping that most of the fans were from Stockton.
Not good at all and comes off as really shady. Talk about killing a town. Too bad.
Rumor has it Mark Kerr was the promoter.
This was certainly a bad situation for all involved. Being an experienced promoter, Grunsky should not have taken the chances that he did. However, after reading the article it is refreshing to hear a professional promoter take responsibility for his mistakes. The typical response would have been to bash the commission for disallowing the back-up fighters, or to blame the fighters themselves for one reason or another. Kudos to Mr. Grunsky for the apologies and good luck in the future; Stockton deserves a good MMA show for their years of training and support.