Marco (scheids)
29-05-2009, 22:23
Patrick de Witte is Manager of Event Operations at M-1 Global and is responsible for much of the live production elements associated with M-1 Challenge events. He's the man in charge of making sure everything is shipped and transported to each and every M-1 event, which is no easy task for an International touring company that promotes MMA events in a new country each month.
De Witte, a former professional fighter who competed in the early days of M-1, first started his journey into the corporate side of MMA by chance during a routine workout at a fight gym in Holland. It was there he met Apy Echteld, the head of M-1's Talent Relations Department and also the manager of Gegard Mousasi, who happened to be the owner of the gym in question.
The friendship between Echteld and de Witte grew ever during the course of their fighting careers during the early days of M-1 promoting shows in Russia (while the M-1 Challenge has only been in existence for a year and a half, M-1 has been promoting shows for over 10 years).
When Echteld began promoting shows in Holland under the "2h2h" banner, he turned to his friend de Witte for help. According to de Witte, he started helping out for free as a friend and the two have been a team ever since. Echteld's promotion started doing bigger shows in Rotterdam that were drawing in excess of 5,000 people.
Despite his work with 2h2h, de Witte maintained his full-time job working for the airlines. After accepting a transfer to work in Spain, de Witte left 2h2h but remained in close contact with Echteld and other members of the promotion.While living in Spain, de Witte began to miss Holland. Soon after, 2h2h and M-1 Russia were working together and required additional personnel. Without hesitation, Echteld reached out to de Witte and gave him an opportunity to come back to Holland and work on a new project now known as the M-1 Challenge.
M-1Global.com contributing writer Fabrice Deters recently caught up with de Witte for a one-on-one conversation.
Fabrice Deters: How can you describe the M-1 global company and culture?
Patrick de Witte: It’s truly one big family. We started out as friends and now we have a great team -- even my wife is working and doing a very important job for the company. New people were hired and we expanded because we are getting bigger now. You can see we are a very international company, as we have people working all over the world. Everybody has the same interest and that’s MMA. We love the sport and we do it not just to try to make money but to try to help MMA grow worldwide. The sport hasn’t reach its full potential and with our concept we are trying to give athletes the chance to make some money and get their experience level up.
Fabrice Deters: How did everything start and what’s your role in the company?
Patrick de Witte: Doing an International show is much more difficult than people realize. There are a lot of things behind the scenes that people don’t notice or see. My job is to make sure every requirement is met and everything is on time. To give you a good example, every country is different and has different regulations so it’s very difficult to manage that. A recent example is that we shipped the ring to Brazil and when it arrived on time the customs told us that we didn’t have the right papers to clear the ring. We were surprised about that but later on you realize it’s a way to get extra money from us. We were forced to pay it so that’s something that isn’t funny at all. Those are big issues but even small details are things I have to worry about. In Japan we had corner pads and somebody had to bring them. The person forgot so one day before the event we had to arrange them. You think it’s a minor detail but for me it was not. I couldn't go to sleep because I had to get the thing printed on time in a foreign country. Without the corner pads there is no show so even small things like that have a great impact on the organization.
Fabrice Deters: Are there other difficulties with the job?
Patrick de Witte: In Holland there is a mentality that if somebody asks you to do something we get on it right away, so you expect that type of work ethic with other countries but the reality is different. In some countries the communication is difficult, even with phone and e-mail it is still something that doesn’t go easy. There is a language barrier of course and some things are lost in translation.
Fabrice Deters: Is it all bad then?
Patrick de Wiite: Ye,s of course there are things that aren’t very pleasant but I think that will always be when you have that kind of responsibility. But overall I’m very blessed to have a job like this. I have seen the world and been to many places and that’s something a lot of people can’t say. Every show is a new challenge and brings a lot of good and bad memories -- that’s why I cherish them.
Fabrice Deters: Tell something about your good memories.
Patrick de Wiite: There are plenty of good memories to share but there are a few moments that I will never forget. It was more a emotional moment for me. To give you the whole story I have to start with the beginning. When I lived in Spain I got the opportunity to work for M-1. We went with my friends Apy, Joost, and Erwin to America where Fedor had to fight against Mark Coleman in the first U.S. PRIDE show.
It was a great experience and we were just in the beginning of creating the M-1 Challenge. We had a helicopter ride above the Grand Canyon and it was great of course. Then I realized it was a new beginning. That moment you have to keep in mind because four year later I was in America again, this time for the Fedor vs Arlovski fight.
We had our first year of the M-1 challenge with hard work and a lot of ups and downs and the Affliction show was the end of season one. The fight between Arlovski and Fedor was similar with my situation. I knew we are doing a good job but it wasn’t easy and then all of a sudden Fedor hit Arlovski with a punch and it was all over. We all entered the ring to celebrate and at that moment I felt all the hard work finally paid off. It was great emotion. Fighting in the ring is the same way of living your life. It won’t be easy but if you train hard and do your best you will succeed, just like in life. So those four years were in my thoughts when I stood there in the ring celebrating. It was a great feeling.
Fabrice Deters: Now we are very curious about the bad memories.
Patrick de Witte: Bad memories, I don’t really have. There were some situations where I thought things didn’t work out but all the time we could find a solution. The first show we did was in Holland and we set everything up and when the fighters were warming up in the ring, the ring couldn’t hold the weight so that was a big stress a couple of hours before the start of the event. Luckily we were able to resolve the issue but you can imagine the stress.
Another funny story was the time we were in Tanzania. You will never believe it but we were asked to organize a small event there in our 2h2h period. We had to go on a small plane and we were with five people and the pilot. I was sitting in the front next to the pilot. Then, right after liftoff the pilot gave me instructions to fly the plane because he had to read his map. So in five minutes he explained to me how to fly. You can guess that everybody in the plane -- including me -- were pissing their pants but the pilot had confidence in me (laughs).
bron: www.m-1global.com (http://www.m-1global.com)
De Witte, a former professional fighter who competed in the early days of M-1, first started his journey into the corporate side of MMA by chance during a routine workout at a fight gym in Holland. It was there he met Apy Echteld, the head of M-1's Talent Relations Department and also the manager of Gegard Mousasi, who happened to be the owner of the gym in question.
The friendship between Echteld and de Witte grew ever during the course of their fighting careers during the early days of M-1 promoting shows in Russia (while the M-1 Challenge has only been in existence for a year and a half, M-1 has been promoting shows for over 10 years).
When Echteld began promoting shows in Holland under the "2h2h" banner, he turned to his friend de Witte for help. According to de Witte, he started helping out for free as a friend and the two have been a team ever since. Echteld's promotion started doing bigger shows in Rotterdam that were drawing in excess of 5,000 people.
Despite his work with 2h2h, de Witte maintained his full-time job working for the airlines. After accepting a transfer to work in Spain, de Witte left 2h2h but remained in close contact with Echteld and other members of the promotion.While living in Spain, de Witte began to miss Holland. Soon after, 2h2h and M-1 Russia were working together and required additional personnel. Without hesitation, Echteld reached out to de Witte and gave him an opportunity to come back to Holland and work on a new project now known as the M-1 Challenge.
M-1Global.com contributing writer Fabrice Deters recently caught up with de Witte for a one-on-one conversation.
Fabrice Deters: How can you describe the M-1 global company and culture?
Patrick de Witte: It’s truly one big family. We started out as friends and now we have a great team -- even my wife is working and doing a very important job for the company. New people were hired and we expanded because we are getting bigger now. You can see we are a very international company, as we have people working all over the world. Everybody has the same interest and that’s MMA. We love the sport and we do it not just to try to make money but to try to help MMA grow worldwide. The sport hasn’t reach its full potential and with our concept we are trying to give athletes the chance to make some money and get their experience level up.
Fabrice Deters: How did everything start and what’s your role in the company?
Patrick de Witte: Doing an International show is much more difficult than people realize. There are a lot of things behind the scenes that people don’t notice or see. My job is to make sure every requirement is met and everything is on time. To give you a good example, every country is different and has different regulations so it’s very difficult to manage that. A recent example is that we shipped the ring to Brazil and when it arrived on time the customs told us that we didn’t have the right papers to clear the ring. We were surprised about that but later on you realize it’s a way to get extra money from us. We were forced to pay it so that’s something that isn’t funny at all. Those are big issues but even small details are things I have to worry about. In Japan we had corner pads and somebody had to bring them. The person forgot so one day before the event we had to arrange them. You think it’s a minor detail but for me it was not. I couldn't go to sleep because I had to get the thing printed on time in a foreign country. Without the corner pads there is no show so even small things like that have a great impact on the organization.
Fabrice Deters: Are there other difficulties with the job?
Patrick de Witte: In Holland there is a mentality that if somebody asks you to do something we get on it right away, so you expect that type of work ethic with other countries but the reality is different. In some countries the communication is difficult, even with phone and e-mail it is still something that doesn’t go easy. There is a language barrier of course and some things are lost in translation.
Fabrice Deters: Is it all bad then?
Patrick de Wiite: Ye,s of course there are things that aren’t very pleasant but I think that will always be when you have that kind of responsibility. But overall I’m very blessed to have a job like this. I have seen the world and been to many places and that’s something a lot of people can’t say. Every show is a new challenge and brings a lot of good and bad memories -- that’s why I cherish them.
Fabrice Deters: Tell something about your good memories.
Patrick de Wiite: There are plenty of good memories to share but there are a few moments that I will never forget. It was more a emotional moment for me. To give you the whole story I have to start with the beginning. When I lived in Spain I got the opportunity to work for M-1. We went with my friends Apy, Joost, and Erwin to America where Fedor had to fight against Mark Coleman in the first U.S. PRIDE show.
It was a great experience and we were just in the beginning of creating the M-1 Challenge. We had a helicopter ride above the Grand Canyon and it was great of course. Then I realized it was a new beginning. That moment you have to keep in mind because four year later I was in America again, this time for the Fedor vs Arlovski fight.
We had our first year of the M-1 challenge with hard work and a lot of ups and downs and the Affliction show was the end of season one. The fight between Arlovski and Fedor was similar with my situation. I knew we are doing a good job but it wasn’t easy and then all of a sudden Fedor hit Arlovski with a punch and it was all over. We all entered the ring to celebrate and at that moment I felt all the hard work finally paid off. It was great emotion. Fighting in the ring is the same way of living your life. It won’t be easy but if you train hard and do your best you will succeed, just like in life. So those four years were in my thoughts when I stood there in the ring celebrating. It was a great feeling.
Fabrice Deters: Now we are very curious about the bad memories.
Patrick de Witte: Bad memories, I don’t really have. There were some situations where I thought things didn’t work out but all the time we could find a solution. The first show we did was in Holland and we set everything up and when the fighters were warming up in the ring, the ring couldn’t hold the weight so that was a big stress a couple of hours before the start of the event. Luckily we were able to resolve the issue but you can imagine the stress.
Another funny story was the time we were in Tanzania. You will never believe it but we were asked to organize a small event there in our 2h2h period. We had to go on a small plane and we were with five people and the pilot. I was sitting in the front next to the pilot. Then, right after liftoff the pilot gave me instructions to fly the plane because he had to read his map. So in five minutes he explained to me how to fly. You can guess that everybody in the plane -- including me -- were pissing their pants but the pilot had confidence in me (laughs).
bron: www.m-1global.com (http://www.m-1global.com)