MMA promoter takes unique path to success
In the mid-1990s, Adam Silver was climbing the ladder as an NBA executive. Roger Goodell was going from NFL director of international development to executive vice president and COO. Rob Manfred was Major League Baseball’s VP for labor and human relations.
Ed Soares was spending most of his time on the grit.
“I was a big nightclub promoter and managed bands here in Hollywood,” Soares said from Los Angeles.
He was in his 20s. His father wasn’t around. His mother had died shortly after he came of age. Then he found out he had a baby on the way.
“Se deus quiser,” Soares said, remembering his mom’s advice in Portuguese for “if God wants you to.”
“She would tell me that. If God wants you to, my son, it will happen.”
He got out of the nightclub business and started a clothing company.
Earlier this month, Adam Silver received a five-year contract extension as NBA commissioner. Roger Goodell signed a five-year deal six months earlier. Rob Manfred put his name on a five-year agreement in late 2014.
Soares, meanwhile, was about a year into a five-year deal worth more than $20 million with AXS TV for his growing mixed martial arts promotion, Legacy
‘This is gonna be a knockout’
Fighting Alliance.
His company is getting ready for “LFA 44: Frincu vs. Aguilera” on Friday at the Comerica Theatre in downtown Phoenix.
“The main event is gonna be Christian Aguilera vs. Matt Frincu,” Soares said.
“These are two of the best strikers that we have on our LFA roster. … I don’t see it being a grappling match. I think this is gonna be a knockout. I highly, highly doubt this is gonna go to decision or go to the ground. Someone’s gonna get knocked out.”
‘A great fight town’
Traditional American sports often involve traditional paths.
Adam Silver was a judicial clerk after law school and worked his way up after joining the NBA in 1992. Roger Goodell’s father was a U.S. senator, and he became the face of the NFL after starting as an intern in 1982. Rob Manfred joined MLB as an executive after a career as a labor lawyer that began with degrees from Cornell and Harvard.
All three are from New York. Soares, 46, lived most of his life in L.A.’s South Bay. He took a high school proficiency exam at 16 and did a few semesters of junior college. He went from working in clubs to managing bands. From managing bands to running a clothing line. From running a clothing line to sponsoring fighters. From sponsoring fighters to starting an MMA TV show in 2004.
“By the end of the first 13 weeks of being aired here in the L.A. market, L.A./ Orange County, we hit about 5.5 million homes, I had the second-highest rated show in that market,” he said. “The only thing that beat us was ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ”
Then he started managing fighters. “Managing a hip-hop artist or managing a band or managing a fighter is pretty much the same formula with just slightly different variables,” he said. “They both gotta put asses in seats. One’s gotta sell records, and the other’s gotta sell pay-per-views. But it’s pretty much the same formula.”
He hit the easy button to find clients. “Me being Brazilian, I started signing Brazilians,” he said.
He can tick off a who’s who of fighters he’s been involved with. Anderson Silva. Lyoto Machida. The Nogueira brothers. Jose Aldo. Junior Dos Santos.
Soares took charge of Resurrection Fighting Alliance in 2012 and became the first boss of LFA when RFA merged with Legacy Fighting Championship in 2017.
He used his experiences to mold it into a developmental league that emerging fighters praise for its organization and professionalism.
“A lot of these guys,” Soares said, “were going from fighting in a ballroom in front of 500 people to stepping into an arena fighting in the UFC. You get shocked. In our show, you’re fighting on national television, you’re fighting on international television. It’s not 10,000 people in an arena, but it’s 2,5003,000.”
He’s made a career of spotting opportunities, and he sees Phoenix as “a great fight town. There’s so much talent in the Phoenix area.”
The show Friday will be the fourth time LFA has come to the Valley.
Soares recognizes that his path is unique and credits his mother, Sonia Freitas, for helping him develop courage.