About

The TXMMA Story:

TXMMA was founded early 2001, by Paul Erickson and Sounthaly “Tune” Outhavong.  In January 2001, Las Vegas businessmen Lorenzo and Frank Ferttita had just announced their purchase of the UFC from Semaphore Entertainment Group.

Both fans of the sport and professionals with master’s degrees in marketing and public relations respectively, Erickson and Outhavong decided to try to get hired on to the Fertittas’ newly-formed company to run the UFC – Zuffa, LLC. Despite traveling to Las Vegas, securing an appointment, and presenting a marketing pitch to newly-minted UFC president Dana White, it was not to be, as the new UFC used existing internal and external resources from the Fertittas’ Station Casinos to handle PR and marketing.

Undaunted, and energized by their experience in Las Vegas, the pair were still determined to make an impact in the sport. After attending a number of Texas events as fans, they decided to create a site that would serve as a community and communications hub for the Texas scene. Given the history of the sport surviving thanks to Internet-based communication and discussion, it seemed the appropriate move to help move the Texas scene forward. As years passed, TXMMA became the main site for the Texas scene and a free resource for the local scene to utilize for information, communication, and community.

TXMMA holds the distinction of being the first state-focused MMA site in the United States, and founder Paul Erickson is also responsible for taking the initiative to procure the Nevada and New Jersey athletic commissions’ versions of what is today the “Unified Rules” of MMA, and bringing them to Texas.

Erickson discussed and presented the United Rules to Dickie Cole , head of the Texas boxing commission (Combative Sports Division, Texas Dept. of Licensing and Regulation) in a downtown Austin Starbucks in 2001. Thanks to the efforts of MMA pioneer Steve Armstrong in cooperation with an initially-resistant Cole, and testing within early fight promotions such as Saul Soliz’s Renegades Extreme Fighting, these rules were finally ratified as Texas’ first official closed-fist MMA rule set that finally went into effect in 2004 and remain today.

Today, through the efforts of Erickson, Mike and Cara Valentine, Mike Calimbas, and others who contribute to the site, TXMMA continues to support the Texas MMA scene, and is fueled purely by people passionate about the sport, and not through any commercial interest, outside investment, or for-profit business models. TXMMA welcomes any and all contributors who have a passion for the sport and who wish to give coverage, opinion, photography, or other content to the site, that helps bring exposure to the scene.

Thanks for visiting the site, and for continuing to support it and the Texas scene as both continue to evolve.

Best regards,
Paul Erickson

PS – For more background, feel free to read the unedited Tapout Magazine interview conducted by Jerry MacReady.