Legend Fighting Championship

Legend Fighting Championship (Legend) (Official Site) is a Hong Kong-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization which invites national champion fighters from throughout the Asia-Pacific to compete for regional supremacy. Legend is unique among MMA tournaments in that it focuses exclusively on native Asia-Pacific fighters.

About Legend

Founded in 2009, Legend is an MMA organization committed to showcasing the best of Asia-Pacific MMA by inviting national champion fighters from throughout the region to compete in regular tournaments in Asia. Legend is headquartered in Hong Kong, and has held all of its tournaments to date in Hong Kong and Macau.

Legend held its first event in January 2010 at Star Hall in Hong Kong in front of an audience of just over 1,000 fans. From this modest start, Legend has grown into one of the most well-known elite-level MMA competitions in the Asia-Pacific, with an international broadcast and some of the top fighters in the region on its roster.

In spring 2011, Legend signed an agreement with Macau mega-resort and casino City of Dreams to produce an ongoing series of MMA tournaments, under the title “City of Dreams exclusively presents Legend Fighting Championship.” The first event of this partnership took place on July 16, 2011.

TV Broadcast

On the heels of their successful first event, Legend signed a broadcast agreement with KIX (an Asian action TV channel and subsidiary of Tiger Gate Entertainment) to broadcast its MMA competitions in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Since then, Legend has signed agreements with broadcasters in China, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. In China, Legend is available to more than 300 million viewers nationwide. And Legend also holds the distinction of being the first sports organization in China to be featured on North American Pay-Per-View.

Company Background

Legend was co-founded by Mike Haskamp and Chris Pollak, former classmates and Rugby teammates at Columbia Business School. Pollak spent eight years at management consultancy McKinsey & Company, primarily in their media group. Haskamp was formerly an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. The partners started running the company out of a shared apartment in Hong Kong in late 2009.

In July 2011, Legend closed a venture capital investment from CA Media and Diamond Ridge Ventures. CA Media is a fund focused on media and entertainment businesses throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It was founded by Peter Chernin (former President and COO of News Corporation) and Paul Aiello (former CEO of STAR TV and head of media investment banking at Morgan Stanley Asia). Diamond Ridge is a sports and media investment fund.

Rules

Legend tournaments take place in a five-rope MMA ring, which is eight by eight meters in overall size, and seven by seven meters inside the ropes.

Legend contest rules are a hybrid of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts and Pride-style MMA rules. Some of the rules unique to Legend are:

• Knees to the head of a grounded opponent are legal, but soccer kicks and head stomps are not.

• All contests (including championship fights) are three rounds of five minutes duration.

• There are no draws at Legend. If two fighters are tied on points on a judge’s scorecard at the end of three rounds, the judge must make a determination as to which fighter he believes won the overall fight.

Weight Divisions

▪ Bantamweight: Under 61 kilograms

▪ Featherweight: 61 to 66 kilograms

▪ Lightweight: 66 to 70 kilograms

▪ Welterweight: 70 to 77 kilograms

▪ Middleweight: 77 to 84 kilograms

▪ Light heavyweight: 84 to 93 kilograms

▪ Heavyweight: 93 to 120 kilograms

Current Legend Champions

▪ Welterweight South Korea Champion: Bae Myung Ho

▪ Lightweight Australia Champion: Adrian Pang

▪ Bantamweight People's Republic of China Champion: Yao Honggang

List of Events

Legend Fighting Championship 1 – 11 January 2010

Legend Fighting Championship 2 – 24 June 2010

Legend Fighting Championship 3 – 24 September 2010

Legend Fighting Championship 4 – 27 January 2011

Legend Fighting Championship 5 – 16 July 2011

Legend Fighting Championship 6 – 30 October 2011