“The Tachi Shuffle”

I guess that this is one of those roller-coaster rides where right when you think that it is over… BOOM, you hit that huge downhill or some crazy loopy thing.

After last week’s blog, I assumed the worst was over and was I was wrong.

Three more changes will be made to the Tachi Palace Fights 11 fight card… the most difficult will be replacing headliner Ian McCall, who has easily become one of the great characters in MMA today.

McCall had to withdraw this week with a rib injury, which sent me scrambling.

I got the call from his manager Jason House, but as if the news of McCall pulling off wasn’t enough I get “I’ve been dreading this phone call all morning”.

So, there’s more Jason?

“Yeah, [Rob] Emerson is out too with an injury,” he explains.

House follows up like most good managers with doctor’s notes, not that I ever really thought either was lying about their injury. But it is a great gesture.

He offers up a few ideas and replacements as well.

And right now as I pound away at these keys at 8:45 a.m. on Friday morning, most of the world is either battling it out in department stores on Black Friday or still sleeping their Thanksgiving turkey off.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting… and waiting and waiting some more. Stressed out and wondering how things will come together.

The situation looks a little something like this. Richard Goodman (TPF matchmaker) and I had three different options we were looking at with the loss of McCall.

First, we could have scrapped the fight completely and saved some money on budget. I hate doing that type of thing and leave fighters that have been training and working hard without a payday, but sometimes it is a necessary evil in this business.

Second (and my favorite choice), replace McCall with Darrell Montague. Seems easy enough, except Montague wasn’t preparing for a fight and while Montague is in shape, he is nowhere near fight weight. His camp asked for the fight at 135 and they’d take it.

Of course I knew that wouldn’t go over so well with the Rave camp. It’s difficult to ask them to come up 10 pounds when they’re ready for 125. In fact, [Josh] Rave was under 130 when we discussed these options. Not to mention he’s a guy that’s always had to fight out of his natural weight class.

After much debate with the Rave camp we finally settled on 132 pounds…. And here is where the waiting game comes into play.

I inform Montague, his coaches and management that we can do the fight at 132. Basically asking them to come down three more pounds and I know those will be three tough pounds to shed.

I immediately get the text from Montague “I’m in”.

But then there’s a follow up text from his manager and trainer saying they don’t want the fight unless it is at 135.

Of course this is all taking place through text message and throughout the course of Thanksgiving.

Montague’s manager Steve Lara asks me to hold off ‘til after practice today and see where his weight will be at and at that time they’ll let me know if they’ll accept the fight or not.

This brings us to option No. 3 which would be to cut the fight and instead of save on budget we would add a totally different fight on one week’s notice. Another difficult task.

Filling Emerson’s spot was a bit easier, as House had a lightweight that was ready and had his medicals done – Robert Washington.

Savant Young is eager to fight and I think he would accept Frankie Edgar at this point, so he wasn’t opposed the matching with the 11-4 Washington.

Earlier in the week I was struggling again with a Bubba Jenkins’ opponent as Jason Williams pulled out because he had some unexpected work obligations, but his brother Josh was eager to fill in… why not? Seems like an interesting story still, as now the brother fills in against the NCAA wrestling champ.

Dealing with all these issues while finishing up medicals, working on production issues, collecting tickets and ticket money, etc. etc. etc.

Like I’ve said before, if I had hair I would be pulling it out.

I still feel like this is a great fight card and we will pull through in the end.

And I haven’t even started to stress about the Sherdog.com Live Stream as of yet.

********************

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeremy.luchau
Twitter: @TheProject23
Email: [email protected]

Special Thanks: Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino (www.tachipalace.com), Fairtex (www.fairtex.com) and Hostility Clothing (www.hostilityclothing.com).

The Project Files” by Jeremy Luchau is a weekly blog series here at ProMMAnow.com which gives readers an inside look into the life of an MMA promoter. It is part of our ongoing series of exclusive content written by individuals involved in the mixed martial arts industry.

Leave a Reply