Having just concluded their tenth event with Cage Combat 10 happening last Friday night, their attention has now turned to the next step in their evolution – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Grappling tournaments.
According to Eric, his goal is expanding to MMA’s sister market is two-fold, to bring even more affordable grappling to the city’s grapplers, and also to provide an avenue for aspiring young fighters to get their first taste of competition on the mats before stepping into the cage – just like he did.
Now on the eve of the first Garcia-Pitre Grappling Association (GPGA) tournament in the Houston area, we spoke to Eric about why the city’s grapplers should be paying attention, why they should compete this Saturday, and what else they can expect at the tournament (namely the superfight culmination of the Facebook beef between local fighter Levi West and Conor Hogan.) Without getting into the dramatics behind that one, let’s just say it’s about to get real.
Interview – Eric Garcia (Garcia Promotions)
Eric, you and your Garcia Promotions brand have had some consistent success since starting the Cage Combat Series in December 2010. What is the thought behind moving into the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament scene as you will this Saturday?
I want to be involved in every aspect of Houston MMA. I started with Garcia Promotions to try and give more amateur fighters a chance to showcase their skills and get cage experience in front of a crowd before hitting the pro circuit. Mick (Maynard) and Legacy have done a terrific job with the amateur events in Houston and I wanted to try and do the same to add to it also. Now that we have a solid foundation in the MMA scene, Jace (Pitre) and I would like to build the same foundation within the Houston BJJ community. We believe more tournaments in Houston give grapplers and fighters both more opportunity to showcase their skills and compete.
What type of value will you be bringing to grapplers? What can they expect when they compete at your events?
Affordable tournaments… smoothly ran. That’s the main goal. We want to make sure that our tournaments stay affordable, that’s why we will stay with 30.00 for first division and 20.00 for each additional division. This Saturday will be our first tournament and I’m sure there may be a few hiccups but we will do our best to make things run smooth.
I also believe that BJJ and wrestling tournaments are the beginning stage into the MMA competition scene also. Lots of guys start in BJJ and then decide that they want to fight afterwards as the next step. Me for example, this is where I started. It was only after competing in a few tournaments that I decided to step into the cage.
How regularly do you plan on holding tournaments?
We are going to see how this first tournament goes and then we will decide from there. We are thinking 3 to 4 per year, most likely all in Houston.
In a nutshell, what can competitors look forward to this Saturday?
Competitors can look forward to a great competition, smoothly run, and also a grudge match “superfight” between Levi 2fly West and Connor Hogan. Those two have had some words and we are going to allow them to have a six-minute No-GI match at their request.
Give us some registration info for anyone that wants to compete this weekend.
This is the last week to register and probably the most affordable tourney in the area. Registration ends Thursday Aug 2 at 11:59pm. Competitors can register this week at www.garciapromotions.com.