Ahead of this Saturday’s “Rebels of MMA” event, Coconuts sat down with Jussi Saloranta, the 31-year-old CEO and founder of DARE, Thailand’s premier MMA organization.
Saloranta has a long history with the MMA community. When he was 15 he was part of a group that helped establish MMA events in Scandinavia and northern Europe and growing up around the sport he expected it to be as big in Thailand as it was back home.
“When I moved to Thailand in 2006 I was amazed that there was nothing happening in terms of mixed martial arts, especially coming from Finland where it was booming. I was expecting someone would do a promotion in the country as I wanted to go and watch the events. When that didn’t happen for several years, myself and my partner decided in 2011 that we would do this thing ourselves, and that is how DARE started,” said Saloranta.
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DARE’s first event was held in June 2011 at Club Insanity (then called Club Insomnia) and three more events followed. Spectators loved the rock show atmosphere and intimate venue that allowed spectators to get so close to the fighters that being hit by blood spatter was a possibility. Sakol Wannapong, the Deputy Governor of the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) was not so keen, and in March 2012 after DARE’S fourth show he was quoted as saying:
“It is brutal and it is not boxing. It is against the 1999 boxing law. Organizing a MMA event here would hurt the image of Muay Thai. If you want to do this kind of business, you should do it in another country, organizing MMA here could mislead the public into believing that Muay Thai is brutal.”
Many thought that was the end of DARE and MMA in Thailand, but Saloranta interpreted Sakol’s comments in a different way.
“What we know is that there was a statement from a single person from the SAT, but the fact is, and this is a fact, the SAT never banned MMA in Thailand. There was never an official ban or restriction made for MMA and that was the reason why after the ban announcement came we did another show a few months later which we said was an ‘underground’ event… but it wasn’t.”
DARE was never forced underground by the SAT, according to Jussi. Their first underground fight was held in September 2012, only six months after Sakol’s comments. The location of the bout was not revealed until fight night, and only a select group of fans could attend. The events were filmed as if they were a TV show entitled “The Most Dangerous Game Show” and each episode of the show was uploaded to DARE’S YouTube channel. These events helped DARE seal major TV deals with China’s CCTV and TrueVision in Thailand, said to Saloranta.
The never-give-up attitude of Saloranta and the obvious popularity of MMA allowed them to open up discussions with the SAT. DARE establishing the MMA Association of Thailand, which advocates safety, rules, and medical treatments inline with the same model used by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and MMA in America, and the TV deal with a major Chinese broadcaster also helped.
“SAT wants to support all sports in the country, and MMA being a totally new sport they didn’t have any knowledge about it. For the last year and a half I have personally worked to find the right people to operate the sport in this country and to educate the decision makers to understand what we are doing is good for their country.”
The negotiations paid off as DARE can now use the SAT logo in all their marketing and their events have been approved until the end of 2014. Another masterstroke was getting the approval of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) who have allowed DARE to use the TAT logo in their marketing campaigns until the end of 2014. The approval from the SAT, Jussi points out, is only for DARE events and not for the sport of MMA.
The Rebels of MMA event this Saturday at Club Insanity, which will be the first DARE event to use a ring instead of a cage, will bring a much-needed taste of MMA action to the many hungry fans in the Big Mango. Fighters ranging in weight from 58 to 130 kilograms from more than 10 countries will compete in full-contact MMA.
Here’s the lineup:
IRON FIST (Ole Baguio Laursen, 6-3) VS THE JOE RAY (Joe Ray, 10-3)
Opening Round / Welterweight Division
SWAMP (Moise Rimbon, 19-9) VS LOKOMOTIV (Alexander Gladkov, 4-0)
Opening Round / Heavyweight Division
STRANGLER (Murad Machaev, 12-1) VS TURK (Gokhan Turkyilmaz, 9-8)
Opening Round / Lightweight Division
NOSTROVIA! (Rasul Mirzaev, 6-0) VS SCRAPS (James Saville, 11-6)
Opening Round / Featherweight Division
RONIN (Shane Wiggand, 6-8) VS KREEPY KRIS (Kristoffer Persson, 1-3)
Quarterfinals / Lightweight Division
BIG BAD (Brad Terrey, 2-3) VS BABBIE (Rachanon Ngaongam, 4-0)
Opening Round / Lightweight Division
SNIPER (Stephen Loman, 3-0) VS THE ASKER (Asker Baragunov, 1-4)
Opening Round / Flyweight Division
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October 12, 2013 – Club Insanity, Sukhumvit Soi 12, Bangkok, Thailand.
Warm-up party starts at 4PM, Doors Open at 5PM – Fights start at 6PM.
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