Pound ’em trying to find success

• Pound Em Productions

Press Photo by Dustin Monke Pound ’em Productions owners, left to right, Mike Wilkinson, Greg Wilkinson, Rob Wilkinson, Mike Fischer and Jens Braaten, stand in their ring Thursday at the Dickinson Recreation Center, where they’ll be hosting their second MMA event on Saturday.

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Ever since mixed martial arts began emerging as a popular sport, promotion companies started springing up with the hopes of using it for financial gain.

Some have prospered. Others have failed.

When the Wilkinson brothers first decided to dip their toes into the crowded promotional pool, the three Dickinson men quickly discovered the tricks to successfully promoting MMA are much the same as developing any prosperous business. The Wilkinsons learned they had to spend money to make money and improve upon the precedents set by their predecessors if they wanted to be successful.

So in early 2008, Greg, Mike and Rob Wilkinson, best known for their comical local television commercials, started Pound ’em Productions with two partners, Jens Braaten and Mike Fischer. All of the men used their own money to finance the limited liability corporation and achieved success with their first fight card last September. The inaugural Badlands Beatdown MMA event packed the Dickinson Recreation Center.

“The first fight, we didn’t make a ton of money but we also had a ton of expense,” Mike Wilkinson said.

“The whole experience was a lot more than we thought it would be,” Greg Wilkinson said. “As far as financially, not really, but that wasn’t the point. It was a building block for us. We wanted to do this more than once.”

So, with the hopes of growing their company and catering to the growing MMA fan base in western North Dakota, Pound ’em is holding its second Badlands Beatdown fight night — one the Wilkinsons adamantly believe will be superior to the first in quality — at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Rec Center.

This time, the brothers believe not only will the fight card be better, but so will the overall fan experience.

“We learned our lessons from last time,” Rob Wilkinson said.

They also know that one bad move could spoil those hopes.

Fight promotion companies are a dime a dozen. The International Sport Combat Federation lists more than 250 major MMA promotion companies on its Web site. Outside of that, countless small companies like Pound ’em operate only in small markets.

“I think a lot of times people see dollar signs. You watch it on television and you see them sell out the MGM Grand,” said Chad Kurle, the North Dakota Athletic Commission’s lead commissioner for MMA. “… They’re seeing dollar signs so they take a run at it. It is a business and it’s very easy for you to overspend and not get that money back. You can’t bounce back from that.”

The Wilkinsons admit they too saw the dollar signs.

But after a bit of research, they quickly realized holding an MMA event wasn’t a quick and easy way to make a buck.

Mike Wilkinson said the rules and regulations set by the state athletic commission, which is part of Secretary of State Al Jaeger’s office, almost made them back out of promoting fights before they even started.

“We’re almost like, ‘Well let’s scratch this idea,’ ” Mike Wilkinson said. “We own a ring, let’s sell it on Ebay.”

When the state athletic commission created its rules for professional MMA and boxing, it borrowed heavily from states such as Nevada and New Jersey and made sure only professional, sanctioned events would be allowed in the state. They also outlawed amateur MMA fighting, which is prevalent in Montana.

“Instead of creating the wheel, we just went in there and tweaked their rules for our purpose,” Kurle said.

Kurle said regulations are in place to protect the athletes before, during and after their fight — and that is where costs begin building.

The Wilkinsons say one of their main objectives is to treat fighters with respect, something they quickly learned was of the utmost importance.

“As a promoter, you call a fighter and they automatically have their guard up because there’s a bad name with these sleezeball promoters,” Mike Wilkinson said. “They don’t pay travel fare. They inject little things in the contract that aren’t right.

“We have a straight-up contract. We pay our fighters a show fee, plus a travel fee. We’re fair to all of them. We do the best job we can. We’re not just trying to be pigs here.”

After all, the fighters are the most important part of the event, and the most expensive.

“We have to pay to the tune of close to $20,000,” Mike Wilkinson said. “That’s just (the fighters). That doesn’t count ring girls, staff, security, table rentals, licenses for everything.”

“Basically it’s about a $50,000 production in one night,” Rob Wilkinson said.

It’s quite a budget for an event bound to have a few flaws.

The brothers found that out with their first event. They had fighters back out the day before the event and were stuck scrambling.

The hope is that things go better this time, although they’re not expecting perfection.

“We’re going to run into a hiccup,” Greg Wilkinson said. “Every promoter that has ever done this will tell you the same story. You think you’ve got it ready and the next morning you get a phone call and everything is in a tailspin again.”

But, that’s something the Wilkinsons and their Pound ’em partners are willing to deal with as they try and build their company. They even have plans for the future that include concert promotion.

“We’re looking at bringing in a concert, like something you’d see at Roughrider Days,” Rob Wilkinson said.

“We’re not limited to just (MMA),” Mike Wilkinson said.

Still, those future plans are contingent on the success of Saturday’s fights, which Mike Wilkinson says won’t be the last MMA event Pound ’em holds in Dickinson. They already have another sanctioned fight night scheduled for Sept. 12.

Even if Saturday’s fights are successful, Mike Wilkinson said the hope is to continue improving their shows with each event.

“Every fight that somebody comes to is going to be better than the last,” Mike Wilkinson said.

Tags: pound, em, productions, mma, dickinson