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Why A Relaunch Has The XFC Poised To Gain Massive MMA Market Share In 2021

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When the Xtreme Fighting Championships relaunched the brand on November 11 with XFC 43 in Atlanta, it was clear that the only publicly traded mixed martial arts organization in the world (OTC: DKMR) had put a lot of thought into how it was going to carve out its own market share in the MMA space moving forward.

Historically, the XFC has had over 185 exclusively signed fighters, representing over 35 plus countries worldwide during its lifespan, and signed a distribution deal with NBC Sports to air its programming. XFC 44 will take place in February and is already garnering a lot of interest from fighters, fans and investors that want to be a part of XFC’s future.

Before talking about XFC’s future, it’s important to know the past. Originally a regional event in Florida, it primarily operated in the southeast region from 2006 to 2011. With new management taking the reigns in 2012, XFC entered the global scene and launched in Sao Paolo, Brazil with a strong infrastructure established due to a landmark distribution deal with Rede TV and ran consistently until 2016 when the country suffered an economic collapse on the heels of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. The ownership felt the prudent move at the time was to take a hiatus and figure out their next steps.

While offers were made during the hiatus to purchase XFC, including strong interest from WME/IMG, that included a couple of high-level meetings with their mergers and acquisitions team who eventually went on to purchase the UFC for a record $4.2 billion dollars. While a sale never took place for XFC, it did establish XFC as a valued brand in the industry, which inspired the ownership to double down on itself and seek additional investment versus selling the company.

THE RELAUNCH

Toward the end of 2019, XFC president and COO Myron Molotky was approached by what ultimately became the financial arm and lead investment group that took XFC to what is now a public offering. It was then that XFC started to map out its original relaunch in 2020 that was supposed to take place in July, but due to Covid was pushed back to November.

Molotky said, “In July, we were in conversations with many distribution partners. When we decided on the relaunch, ultimately, we felt that NBC Sports would be the crown jewel for our US broadcast.” Molotky continued, “Our distribution team continued to work with different partners so that by the time we launched in November, XFC’s reach was 550 million households worldwide.”

XFC offers three competition categories. Young Guns featuring up-and-coming fighters, Tournament, which are bracket-format fights leading to a weight class champion, and Super Fights which are the highest-profile and most-established fighters. Ultimately XFC is creating its own farm system allowing its fighters to earn their way to Super Fight status from the ground up. One of XFC’s biggest goals is to make sure as the fighters grow within the framework of the XFC system, they are educated along the way with the tools to not only earn money and equity but to learn how to manage it and be the CEO of their brand. Ultimately providing them with something to show for their career.

One of the main elements that separate XFC from its competitors is that it truly provides its fighters to have the ability to create wealth with their contribution to the sport of MMA, XFC specifically. The day before XFC 43, the fighters on the card were informed during the fighter meetings that in addition to their purse, every fighter that entered the Hexagon would receive shares in the company. Like many MMA companies, XFC provides fight bonuses for wins, fight of the night, knockout of the night and performance of the night. What makes XFC unique is they have the ability to create ownership among the fighters so that when they enter the Hexagon they perform like they own the XFC.

Even after a four year hiatus, social media data indicates there's been a positive reaction to the relaunch that can be built upon going forward. 

There were 504 tweets mentioning the XFC between November 1 and December 19 including 162 tweets on November 11 around XFC 43. Twitter sentiment around those XFC tweets between November 1 and December 19 were positive. 

There were more than 11 times more tweets mentioning the XFC between November 1 and December 19, 2020 compared to November 1 to December 19, 2019, as there were only 45 XFC related tweets in that early time period. 

The top performing tweet between November 1 and December 19, 2020 that mentioned XFC generated 7,258 responses was a TiiCKER tweet about becoming a XFC shareholder. 

DISCOVER THE PERKS OF OWNERSHIP

In November, just before the event in Atlanta, XFC created a strategic partnership with TiiCKER, a consumer shareholder loyalty platform that provides unique access to shareholder perks, commission-free trading, and insights to empower individual investors to engage with the brands they love. For its public company brand partners, TiiCKER enables companies to engage, verify and reward consumer shareholders to better serve and understand their investors and maximize the lifetime value of their consumer shareholders.

"We know of no other group more loyal or more passionate than MMA fans and we are thrilled to be the official sponsor of XFC 43," said Jeff Lambert, founder of TiiCKER, in advance of the November 11 event. "Between the millions of MMA fans and the more than 57 million individual investors here in the United States, XFC is a perfect fit for TiiCKER as we seek to reward XFC fans and shareholders for their brand loyalty."

"As we approached our NBC Sports Network debut on November 11, XFC had teamed up with TiiCKER to reward our fans for not only for tuning into to watch XFC 43, but also for choosing to invest in XFC," said Molotky, "As the world's only publicly traded MMA organization, we want our fans to know how much we appreciate their loyalty and support. For a limited time, fans and shareholders alike can visit our XFC brand page on TiiCKER to discover exclusive perks – from XFC branded swag, to discounts on XFC tickets to live and pay per view events."

While the XFC moves into 2021 and XFC 44, it’s also looking to move the stock from the OTC to the Nasdaq, however, the core interest and heartbeat of XFC according to Molotky, "Is to provide the most entertaining and exciting MMA fights for the fans while building the roster of world-class athletes to put on the most violent display of MMA that the world has ever seen."