It’s hard to believe that just a little over three years ago, professional mixed martial arts bouts were illegal in New York.
The state has been the breeding ground for some of the sport’s most talented athletes and respected promotions. One of which is the New York Fight Exchange (NYFE).
The local promotion celebrates its 17th event this Saturday, June 1 at Resorts World Casino in Queens for NYFE 17: Kings of New York 2.
Ahead of the event, the KH squad caught up with NYFE President and Combat Sports vet Mike Washington to get the scoop on the weekend’s matchups and how the brand came to be.
From working on the business end as a manager for one of the industry’s largest management firms to officiating in-ring action for over a decade, Washington has seen many sides of the fighting. Having this perspective, he uncovered a lot of room for improvement especially in matchmaking aka the art of arranging bouts.
“Being at events, I hated seeing one-sided fight cards or rewarding big ticket sellers easy fights, I always said I would do it differently. When we decided to produce an MMA event, I learned real quick the importance of a solid fight card.”
He decided to take a shot at filling the gaps and founded NYFE alongside Tom Sconzo, who is currently the ISKA Director for New York. The pair met while officiating and shared the same vision for producing fights with more of a professional feel before professional MMA was even legal in the state.
“We went for big venues, quality production and focused on the fighter experience. When ISKA came to New York, Tom felt it was his calling to take the position as director and give back to the sport that has given him so much. So he stepped down as NYFE Co-Owner and I took full ownership and control.”
There’s a lot that goes into executing a solid fight card. At every event, fighters, coaches, fans, and sponsors invest their time, money, health and then some. With NYFE being on the cusp of its 17th event, it’s more than just an accomplishment, it’s a true indication of how much respect the brand has built over the years.
Washington recalls NYFE’s first fight card that took place just a quick drive away from this weekend’s event at The Amazura Concert Hall in Queens, unapologetically titled, NYFE 1: Believe The Hype.
Back then, NYFE had a skeleton crew so he barely saw any fights since he had to hold down the back of the house. The event ended up being an invaluable learning experience and really put the promotion on the map, setting the stage for further fight nights down the line.
“I learned to follow my instinct and integrity.”
There’s More to Fighting…
Mike Washington @ FNT Vol. II | PC: Setor Tsikudo
There’s more to fighting than what goes on in the cage. It’s about building relationships and understanding the needs of fighters and their coaches as well as fans. Maintaining integrity for the sport while providing an entertaining platform comes with a lot of risks for promoters and matchmakers.
Fighters can get injured or back out at the last minute so building a well-rounded card is more important than ever for the fan experience. For fighters, each match-up means a lot, especially in the early stages of their careers.
A bad matchup can seriously affect the trajectory of their careers and most importantly their health, so it’s the last thing you want to slack on according to Washington.
“I’ve worked my ass off for my reputation and I’m not gonna ruin that for anybody or anything. When a coach asks you to matchup their students, it’s a huge responsibility and you should treat it as such. It’s way more than matching weights and records. It’s stylistic matchups the fans will enjoy and competitive matchups of equal skillsets so that the fighters can test their skills.”
Speaking of matchups, NYFE 17: Kings of New York 2 features a pretty stacked card hand-picked from Washington, featuring young talent from a slew of NYC’s most respected MMA gyms. The event will be headlined by four title fights:
Welterweight 170 lb Title – Eric Taylor (Supreme Submission Squad) vs Eric Finch (War Horse Avenue MMA)
Lightweight Title – David “Mike Hancho” Cabrea (Inferno MMA/Soca BJJ) vs. Donnell East (LAW MMA)
145 lb Title – Nate Salva Cruz (Andersons MMA) vs. Kelvin Sterling (LAW MMA)
125 lb Title -Phumi Nkuta (LAW MMA) vs. Orlando Ortega (Team Demolition)
Former UFC Featherweight and Ultimate Fighter (season 14) finalist, Dennis “The Menace” Bermudez will be commentating and calling the fights along with his Menace and the Man podcast co-host, Stan “The Man.”
The night will also feature a number of musical performances from local acts and the announcement of a new partnership Linacre Media and Fight Night Live for video production and coverage.
Amongst all the success, Washington remains humble and forever thankful to the fighters, gyms, fans, and sponsors for supporting NYFE through each and every showdown.
Peep tickets for NYFE 17: Kings of New York 2 here and be sure to follow the road to the action on IG.
Fighting is relatable, it connects victory, loss, and triumph in a way that everyone can understand, but the history behind these fights is what oftentimes gets clouded, just ask Jesse Katz, the CEO of Roots of Fight.
Whether it’s watching an old Bruce Lee flick, playing Mike Tyson’s punch out or smelling what “The Rock” is cookin’ at Wrestlemania, fighting in some way has always captivated us as a culture.
With support from the respected fight community, the who’s who of Hollywood, and the everyday swag star, Roots of Fight has grown into not just a popular fight brand, but a lifestyle brand for all.
Katz caught up with the Kulture Hub squad about how he helped develop the brand to get to where it is now. Additionally, we discussed Roots of Fight’s latest drop, RO x Ilaria Urbinati x Johnny Hunt, Muay Thai.
“MMA was being marketed as this vicious thing and to me, there was this beauty in it and nobody was able to capture that.”
New York-born and Vancouver-bred, Katz was a fight fan since he was a kid. Growing up he watched the likes of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Lennard, Lennox Lewis and more during the glory years of boxing.
When the sport began to decline, he got drawn to the buzzing Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC). Combined with the increased popularity of reality TV, UFC honed in on boxing’s audience and replaced it as the mainstream combat sport with shows like The Ultimate Fighter.
Believe it or not, Katz didn’t set out to be in the business of fighting,
“I wanted to be pilot or a lawyer”
Growing up in a house full of entrepreneurs, Katz bounced around jobs. He would work at his mom’s restaurant, make his way over to his dad’s U.S. tax consulting firm, and help his brother screenprint t-shirts in the garage.
After graduating from college, he chose to work for his brother’s clothing company, which quickly became the creative agency that birthed Roots of Fight.
“We started as a custom clothing company and pretty quickly realized we were offering something different, there was a value add because we were thoughtful of the brands that we were working with, who their consumers were and what the actual needs were…”
Katz continued,
“We weren’t just trying to sell a product, we weren’t a widget company.”
Hands-on-experience helped Katz learn what not to do when it came to business, leading them to reposition the t-shirt company as a creative agency, Copasetic Creative.
The agency had a client roster of most sports and beer brands that grew from being local and regional to internationally after getting acquired by bigger companies. As the agency grew, so did the value of good relationships.
“I realized that that was the key for me, that everything is based off of relationships. So I took a different approach didn’t hire salespeople, I just did it all myself and tried to grow and nurture relationships in all fields.”
At the same time, the popularity of Mixed Martial Arts and the UFC skyrocketed. Fandom behind fighters like Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz got them roles on the big screen and the Ultimate Fighter became one of the most popular shows on TV.
Combat sports awareness continued to increase, but the imagery and perceived values of the sport wasn’t properly defined in mainstream media.
Highlight reel knockouts and bloody wars put new fans in a trance and became synonymous with MMA. Additionally, the heavily branded, foiled, and bedazzled t-shirts fighters wore post-fight did too.
“I started this when I was 40 years old and I was a huge fight fan, but I wasn’t a fan of the marketing. It was really kind of backyard brawler, very low brow. I thought that the imaging and branding all around it were very much the same, I felt like the world was changing away from the big goddy bedazzling, skulls and crossbones, all the foiling. That really was just an awful period in sports and fashion…”
Katz laughed and continued,
“I thought the sport needed to market to a bigger audience.”
Floyd Mayweather talking trash about Muhammad Ali in an interview was the catalyst that inspired Katz to shut the doors down on the agency in 2012.
That moment would allow Katz to create something that would help tell the history of fighting to today’s audience in a way they could easily digest it.
The brutality of fighting can easily overshadow the humanism of it and scare people away. Those new to the sport shouldn’t think that MMA is just brawling and bloodsport. There is truly so much more to it.
“Fighting is something that just appeals to us, it taps into something in our brains and people who can capture that eloquently and explain it I think that’s what was missing from today. I thought you need to anchor this to the history of the fight, you need to anchor MMA as the pinnacle of thousands of years of combat sport from around the world…”
He continued,
“Every region has its own martial art, every region has its own form of combat. Whether they use weapons or not its always a hand to hand component to it. In Israel is Krav Maga, in China is Kung Fu, in Japan its Judo, Brazil Jiu-Jitsu, France-Savate. For me, that’s what was captivating and interesting and to be able to bring out that history and tap into those meaningful stories.”
Roots of Fight soft-launched in 2012 with t-shirt collections built around some of the most popular names in combat like Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, and the Gracie Family. Through relationships old and new, Katz crossed paths with families members who trusted and believed in his vision.
These relationships represent trust and they are what give him the go-ahead to use fighters’ likeness on the shirts. Additionally, these combatant companionships allow him to tell the stories behind the world’s most loved fighters.
Roots of Fight emerged as an anti-brand, using no branding and heavily researched real-life inspired imagery to help recreate moments through apparel.
The brand started to catch the eye of major combat sports figures, like Dwayne Johnson in 2013, who Katz cites as an important part of their growth as a company.
Aesthetically, Roots of Fight appeals to everyone and it is hard to categorize it as “fight gear” alone. Instead of fists and cages, Roots shows the origins of arts, the fighters, and the communities that helped them grow.
Expanding the colorways and imagery helped expand the concept of lifestyle gear for the industry, peeling back the curtains for casual fans to learn what fighting was really all about.
“The previous incarnations of all of the fight brands that were out there was always focusing on the toughness and you could almost see someone put on one of those shirts to try and look “tough” or give off a certain vibe. What we were trying to do is take a different approach and make this stuff softer and actually just make stuff that looks pretty.”
Katz continued,
“First and foremost we just want it to look good, for you to feel happy in it and for it to fit well. Stuff that in particular everyone would want to wear. Something that crosses over and is acceptable by a greater audience and then, people who are really into combat sports, now theres gonna be layers of detail they can dive into and understand the meaning behind why we’re doing them.”
Famed fashionista Ilaria Urbinati who styles celebs like “The Rock” and Childish Gambino became a Roots of Fight fan after scooping up a Bruce Lee jacket at a shop in L.A.
Weeks after, she kept bumping into clients who swore by the brand. Hell, Bradley Cooper even said he keeps a jacket in the trunk of his car, “just in case.” Urbinati is also a lover of the arts and partakes in Muay Thai training daily.
So, it was no surprise that her team and Katz’s team hit it off and decided to collab. Along with the expertise of Muay Thai Champion and Fortune Gym trainer, Johnny Hunt, they decided to create a capsule to tell the special story of “Boxing Day” in Muay Thai’s history.
The limited edition collection, RO x Ilaria Urbinati x Johnny Hunt, Muay Thai includes a stadium jacket, tee, sweatpants, and hoody all showcasing regalia of Thailand.
Each color, pattern, and image throughout the collection is intentional and speaks to the greater culture that birthed this particular art of fighting.
Boxing Day is celebrated every March 17 in Thailand and originated in 1774 after Burmese fighter, Nai Khanom Tom defeated nine other prisoned fighters earning a pardon from then King Mangra as well as the release of thousands of other prisoners who were being held away from their home of Siam.
What then was known as Siamese-style boxing became what we now know as Muay Thai, a history that the collection tells through each piece.
“This has been quite a success, we got a lot of energy and enthusiasm for it right off the bat. I actually just hand delivered one to Wiz Khalifa. I’m hoping we can do something maybe even something new with these guys because Ilaria just has ideas forever and nobody knows fashion like her.”
The drop connects modern combat sports and fashion lovers alike with the community that started Muay Thai, a connection that Katz feels can be replicated between any passion and group of people that shares a love for it.
“You gotta be doing something that’s authentic and meaningful. It can’t just be meaningful to you, you have to channel your passion into something that’s accessible and translatable to other people.”
Roots of Fight redefined lifestyle gear for combat sports and continues to bridge the gap between communities past and present.
While women in combat sports are finally starting to get their well-deserved props, the industry still has ladies fucked up in many aspects. One of which being their swag-but Juliana Cardona is putting an end to that.
“There’s all of these misconceptions and stereotypes on what you have to be as a woman in combat sports and I just wanted to erase all of that.”
From an early age, Cardona was inspired by her mom’s passion for fashion. The Colombiana moved to Miami with dreams of taking over the legal game and got her associate’s degree in criminal law. When working as a legal assistant wasn’t fulfilling Cardona’s creative steez, she started her own fashion blog highlighting her style posted up on the streets of Wynwood.
After getting married to a martial artist, Cardona found herself spending more and more time at the Muay Thai gym her husband opened, sparking an itch that led her to collab a love of fighting and fashion.
“I’ve been with my husband since 2001 and he’s always been into Muay Thai and opened up a Muay Thai gym a couple of years ago. Once he opened it up, I had to be involved as a supportive wife, so I would go and help him out and do all of the billing, etc. I had a little health problem, but once I got out of that I was able to start training.”
After a bad car accident and several jaw surgeries, Cardona has to be careful while training but it hasn’t stopped her from training day in and out while working a 9-5. Becoming a student of the sport felt less like work and more like fate.
“Honestly, I just fell in love with Muay Thai. I fell in love with the whole gym feel, it’s not like your regular gym, it’s a family. You build this bond and I guess punching and kicking each other makes you love each other more.”
Let’s face it, feeling comfortable and stylish in your workout clothes is important, especially when you’re spending two plus hours training a day. When Cardona noticed that more and more women were signing up for classes and the lack of gear for women in combat sports, she knew it was time.
“Once I started to go more, I started to kinda feel like ‘man there’s really not a lot for girls in Muay Thai?’ In Muay-Thai there are so many cool shorts but I didn’t want to wear skulls or have everything in black and red or have a cage in the middle of my shirt. I kept complaining to my husband that there was nothing cool for girls and one day he told me to do something about it.”
Cardona spent over eight months doing her homework on various brands and learning more about the industry. While the representation of women fighters in major combat sports promotions has increased, industry-dominating brands like Tapout and Affliction still cater to the male market.
“I kept researching other apparel and fight gear companies and thought they all had the same feel. I kept thinking in my head that there had to be girls out there like me that love combat sports but probably can’t fight, are girly, wear heels and weren’t willing to dress like boys at the gym. Fashion is such a huge expression everywhere, why not bring it to the gym? Not all girls want to wear the same shirts as the guys or black hand wraps.”
Similar to other industries, women in combat sports are often placed into patriarchal categories and not given the same elasticity as their male peers.
In MMA for example, the light shined solely on Ronda Rousey for years, insinuating that every other woman was inferior and that there wasn’t room for other successful female athletes to stand next to her.
“At the time, I had a lot of girls at our gym and we’re all really close. A lot of combat sports gyms have girls but they’re not close and I even had a girl tell me ‘This is this first time I’ve come to a gym and didn’t feel like I had to compete against other girls straight off the bat’. I’ve always wanted that feel in the gym.
She continued,
I wanted girls to get here and feel like we can all help each other, not that they had to strive to be the top queen of the gym. That’s how we got the ‘Girl Gang’ concept. When a new girl would come in, I would introduce them to everyone, so everyone felt like it was a family. I really wanted that girl gang feel, it’s all of us together. If one of us makes it, all of us make it.”
A girly-girl at heart, Cardona took inspiration from the eclectic walls of Wynwood and her girl gang at her dojo to cook up dope pieces inspiring a brand that went live online in May of 2017.
Hand-wraps used to protect tender hand muscles are at the core of the online shop alongside tees, tanks, sweaters, patches, and buttons. Girl Gang Wraps drip with neon colors and images of rainbows, cookies, unicorns, or the good ol’ finger telling you to “fuck bad vibes.”
”I just thought that it needs to be colorful, it needs to be girly, and unapologetically feminine but with a twist of I’m still a fucking badass.
Building a brand while having a 9-5 and helping run a Muay Thai gym ain’t easy, and with the help and empowerment of her girl gang, putting in the extra hours just seems right.
“My brand is so new, I need to grind. I have to be up at 2:00/3:00 in the morning writing down ideas.”
As the sports industry and society continue to make strives for equal representation, us ladies will always have to grind. In just little over a year, Cardona has established a slick brand motivating girls inside and outside the gym, teaching femmes all over the world to love, support, and empower each other. It’s imperative that we know how to curve the sexist standards society may throw our way.
Whether it’s in a cage or an office, women don’t have to stay in any boxes made for them. We can be smart, sexy and still knock a busta out.
“As cute as I wanna be, at the end of the day, I still wanna kick ass!”
