The Coalition Of Combat Aims To Change The Arizona MMA Landscape

The Coalition of Combat is not your typical regional mixed martial arts promotion, and all you have to do is look the organization's Twitter to find that out. The Twitter information reads, "Created by a Fighter for the Fighters". It is a concept that CoC President Asher Lutz prides himself on.

"First and formost I was a fighter," said Lutz. "We want to take care of people, that is the biggest thing. We are not out to hose other people to make money, we are not going to cut corners to get our money back,."

Lutz came to Arizona from Ohio in 2011, where he attended numerous MMA shows. When he arrived in the Valley, he was not impressed with the local MMA promotions.

"They sucked," said Lutz. "They were poorly run, poorly set up and poorly managed. They were penny pinching and not putting enough money into the shows themselves to make them worthwhile."

A lot goes into starting an MMA promotion. From acquiring an Arizona promoters license, to finding someone to design your the website and of course, finding the financial backing to support the endeavor. Lutz estimates that it takes anywhere from $10,000-30,000 to start up an MMA company. However, he says that the hardest part of starting The Coalition of Combat was proving to people that they were legit.

"Everybody was so used to how the other leagues run their shows, they thought we were going to screw them over and that is not what we are about. We are about putting on quality fights and we are about having quality matchups," said Lutz.

Lutz recounts horror stories of fighters leaving fights injured without insurance and having to pay hospital bills on their own dime.

"I was a victim of that," said Lutz. "I've been pretty battered before and gone to the promoter and say, 'Hey I need to go to the hospital,' and he says, 'On your dime,' that's not the way people should treat these guys (the fighters) and that's something that we built our league on."

According to Lutz, a professional making his debut can earn a few hundred dollars per fight and a longtime professional can make into the thousands per fight. Fighters also receive a percentage of ticket revenue depending on how many tickets they sell and have a chance to earn bonuses such as "Fight of the Night" and "Knockout of the Night."

The Coalition of Combat will feature their third event entitled "Pound for Pound" this Saturday night at Comerica Theater in Phoenix. Four title bouts will be featured on Saturday night as the 125, 135, 145 and 155-pound titles will all be on the line at Comerica Theater.

Tickets start at $33 and can be purchased here. Fans can also watch the live online stream of the fights for $15, UFC welterweight and former Arizona State wrester Aaron Simpson will be apart of the call. Fans can head over to www.thecoalitionofcombat.com to order the pay-per-view.

Lutz says that fans can expect quality entertainment when they attend or watch a Coalition of Combat event.

"We pay them well (the fighters), we make sure they are taken care of, we make sure they have insurance so they don't have anything to worry about but going in there and fighting to the best of their ability, and we put on quality fights."