Ralek Gracie recent talk with www.mmafighting.com
Metamoris, a Brazilian jiu–jitsu promotion, will hold their next live event on May 9. Once they announced this highly–anticipated event, some controversy arose about the lack of female participants in the event. In fact, only one female bout, a match between Michelle Nicolini and Mackenzie Dern at Metamoris 2, has ever taken place under its banner.
“Ralek Gracie, the founder and president of Metamoris, said that they are currently planning to stage some prelims on their sixth event, like more gi prelims before the main card match. He said this when he was asked by MMA Fighting why his promotion has not employed more female fighters either prior to, or since the Metamoris 2 match between Michelle and Mackenzie.”
“According to Ralek Gracie, more gi fights, fights with unique rule–sets and bouts between female fighters will be part of Metamoris All Access, their internet subscription network. He also added that those who do well in those matches could graduate to more premium events. However, in so far as the senior events are concerned, it comes down to financial realities. He claims that harsh financial realities make it difficult to enact direct efforts at diversification.”
Metamoris only has six fights on the card, and of those six bouts, they are under extreme pressure to sell as many pay–per–view subscriptions as possible. Contrary to what many people think, promoters cannot just pick any two fighters and still sell millions of pay–per–views. With every bout, there has to be an element and a story that will attract people from all walks of life. Even though Metamoris know what their core audience wants, they have to constantly push the boundaries of what viewership is, in order to survive.
Metamoris Interested in Ronda Rousey
In terms of match complexion and box office drawings, the bout between Nicolini and Dern was successful enough; however, the dynamics between the two is not replicable at scale. If it wasn’t for Ronda Rousey, for example, the UFC wouldn’t even have a female division. Diversification is, therefore, a very tricky thing. However, Gracie says that Metamoris are interested in having Ronda, and are even willing to invest in that opportunity and potentially take a loss because of how big she is, but claims financial realities preclude signing more women.
