Legacy merges with RFA to form Legacy Fighting Alliance
Two of MMA's most prominent regional-level promotions have joined forces.
Resurrection Fighting Alliance has merged with Legacy Fighting Championship to form Legacy Fighting Alliance, Ed Soares, president of RFA and manager to several UFC fighters, announced on Ariel Helwani's The MMA Hour on Monday.
"We merged into one organization, and we just signed a five-year deal with AXS TV. Starting in 2017, we're going to be doing 30 shows a year on AXS TV, and it'll be called the Legacy Fighting Alliance. LFA is the name of the new company."
As two of the foremost "feeder" leagues in the sport, Soares deemed it only natural they unite to create "the NCAA of mixed martial arts." The newly formed hybrid promotion issued a press release on Monday, stating its mission to prepare developing fighters for MMA's bigger stages.
"Our athletes will have an unrivaled platform to compete in front of a nationally televised audience — not to mention in more than 40 countries around the world — and prove they are worthy of a spot at the sport's highest level. Our existing companies have placed more than 100 fighters in just the UFC and Bellator, alone. Quite simply, for the fighters on our roster, the future is now."
RFA and Legacy have held a combined 27 shows in 2016, hence the easily attainable 30-card quota with the AXS TV deal. The venture presumably won't include Legacy president Mick Maynard, who's reportedly been tapped by the UFC to fill the shoes of soon-to-be retired matchmaker Joe Silva in 2017.
- With h/t to MMAFighting