NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman spoke with Mark Pavelich, the owner and president of the Maximum Fighting Championship.

Their next card, MFC 41, takes place Friday, October 3, at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and will be shown live on AXS TV Fights.

The original lineup planned for MFC 41 had to be scrapped due to a series of injuries. Now, Marcus Edwards will meet Shane Campbell in a superfight at a catchweight of 161 pounds. If Edwards wins, he will be named the MFC interim lightweight champion and directly placed into a title fight with lightweight champion Tom Gallicchio, who is recovering from an elbow injury, or, if Gallicchio cannot fight, a new challenger. Should Campbell win, he will get an immediate shot at the vacant MFC welterweight title. Also on this card, Andrew McInnes will face Ryan Healy.

We spoke with Mark Pavelich by phone Friday.

"The reason why it's so interesting is because I had seven injuries in 12 days on the main card. And that's never happened in the history of my organization in 15 years," he said.

At one point, all these injuries actually jeopardized the card taking place October 3. While considering if he should cancel the show like other promotions have done, he relayed that his wife reminded him, "Mark, you're not like other people, right? You can fix this problem." And, he said, "You know what, she's right. I can, and I did." Thus a revamped lineup was set.

"But I guarantee you, every show in the world, including the UFC, would have cancelled their show. No question in my mind."

We also discussed many of the problems in MMA which are causing major sponsors either to cancel sponsorships or avoid MMA altogether, the constant use of profanity in MMA, how MFC is one of the few MMA promotions in the world making a profit, that MMA needs to get to the "next level", and much more.

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Labels: Eddie Goldman, Mark Pavelich, Maximum Fighting Championship, MFC, MMA, No Holds Barred