Today we’d like to introduce you to David Oblas.
Thanks for sharing your story with us David. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was raised in Atlanta by a father that had always been a big sports fan – with the biggest sport being boxing. The first fight I ever attended live was Evander Holyfield vs. Dwight Muhammad Qawi in 1986 at the old Omni in Atlanta at the age of 11.
Through watching boxing with my father and later on my own, I obviously also fell in love with the sport. While a student at Auburn University (graduated 1998), I would be the one collecting $5 from buddies so I could order us the Holyfield or Tyson fights on PPV and get us some beer and pizza. Who knew only years later I’d become friends with Holyfield and visit his mansion several times!
Fast forward to 2000 and I joined the Georgia Athletic Commission as a boxing inspector. I’d go backstage to watch fighters wrap their hands, make sure nothing illegal was going on and escort the fighters to the ring and back. From 2000 – 2002 I got to watch many fights up close and personal and saw everything wrong with the sport. I knew I could do better.
In June of 2002, I promoted my first fight. It was a sellout…but lost more than $7,500. Waiting tables and broke, I had no choice but to promote a second fight. This time I only lost about $4,000. Now over $11,000 in the hole it was time to give up the hobby. But I didn’t. The third event only lost about $1,500. Despite going further in the hole, I kept moving forward. After a few shows, I turned the corner, broke even, then profited.
Over the courses of a few years, I became the best fight promoter in Georgia and became friendly with Holyfield and his marketing director. It was during these years that I got to tour his home on several occasions.
I eventually saw boxing fading while this new sport Mixed Martial Arts was becoming much more popular – mostly thanks to the UFC.
About 2006 I turned my attention to promoting MMA fights and haven’t turned back. Over the course of the past 16 years, I’ve now successfully promoted more than 118 fight nights which has turned me into the #1 most active fight promoter in the Southeast!
Below are some stats on my company:
Youngest fight promoter in Georgia at age 26.
Youngest fight promoter in Georgia to host espn2 boxing show at age 28.
Only promotion to bring national tv to atlanta for boxing (espn2) and mma (axs tv).
Only promotion in the southeast to actively promote pro mma/thai events as well as pro bjj events.
Nine-time Georgia fighters promoter of the year.
Member of Georgia fighters hall of fame.
Hosted pilot episode of Dana white’s “lookin’ for a fight.”.
More shows than any promotion in Georgia (currently more than 116 shows).
More shows than any promotion in the southeast (currently more than 116 shows).
Only promotion in Georgia to promote a fight with an amputee fighter (Shea Taylor).
Only promotion in the country to promote a fight with a quad-amputee (Kyle Maynard).
More fighters have gone from nfc to ufc and bellator than any other promotion in the southeast.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha! No promoting fights is NEVER a smooth road!
The sport of promoting fights is an extremely cutthroat business. Fighters keep trying to jump to bigger promotions. Venues trying to get the best events. Fans trying to sneak in. Other promotions trying to steal your venues and sponsors. The shadiness never ends!
Then factor in that each event is recreating the economic wheel every six weeks. McDonald’s knows on average how many customers they’ll have each Monday. A gym knows about how many paying customers they’ll have each month.
But for a live sporting event, I’m having to completely recreate the wheel each show starting off with zero ticket sales and moving towards a hopeful sellout event!
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about NFC Fighting, LLC – what should we know?
I’m probably known for a lot of things. But the thing I’m most proud of is my consistency in putting on fights and my level of customer service with my team.
Just because our company is based on paying people to get in a cage and fight doesn’t mean that we can’t give great customer service day in and out. My team is very attentive to the needs of fighters, trainers and fans at all of our venues and it’s almost never that we have a situation that we can’t remedy very quickly and correctly. Try dealing with 1,000 drunk fans on a Saturday night that have come to a venue to see violence! Things can get out of hand pretty quickly, but I believe we handle the situations better than anyone.
There’s also been in this business many fly by night promotions that are here today and gone tomorrow. They’ll put on one event never to be heard of again. Since June of 2002, I’ve promoted over 118 fight nights and not once have ever canceled or postponed a fight night. That’s an incredible stat that almost no other fight promoters across the country can touch!
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Unfortunately, in my business there haven’t been many people to turn to for advice. If you open a restaurant in your town, you can probably get advice from 300 other restaurant owners that aren’t your competition. But unfortunately, there’s probably less than 50 fight promoters across the country and less than 20 that are actually worth receiving advice from.
Luckily in the Southeast, there’s a group of about five of us fight promoters that have stuck together and helped each other out along the way sharing advice and tips.
But I think most of my success comes from my team around me. I’ve been lucky enough to keep the same 4-5 people on staff for more than five years which has allowed the NFC to branch out and expand while keeping the same quality level on each event!
Pricing:
- $25 general admission ticket
- $50 cageside seats
- $1,000 VIP table of 8
Contact Info:
- Website: www.NFCFighting.com
- Phone: 404-579-9404
- Email: mrdavidoblas@gmail.com
- Instagram: nationalfightingchampionship
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nfcfighting/
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