TAMARA SUGUITAN: "I THINK I HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW."
By
Nick Sanchez | July 16, 2008
http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content3049.html"The best part about it is bringing the industry together and putting on a show that caters to the fans, the fighters and the industry. We have all of this together. We have everyone under one roof so you see all your friends that you normally see at fights, but here, it's at an event to help promote the sport and to show the public how big the sport is and will become," stated Tamara "Miss RaRa" Suguitan, founder of IMMAE (International Mixed Martial Arts Expo), as she talked about their upcoming expo at the Long Beach Convention Center August 1st-3rd. Check out what she had to say about the event as she talks about some of the special guests and sponsors for this year's show.
NS: Miss RaRa, thank you for giving FightHype.com a couple minutes of your time.TS: No problem. No problem at all. Any time for you guys; you guys are awesome!
NS: Well thank you. Miss RaRa, August 2nd and 3rd is right around the corner. How exciting is it for you and how busy have you yourself been getting everything ready for IMMAE?TS: Oh my gosh, I'm actually really excited. I'm actually getting butterflies. I go to sleep really late and I wake up really early. I go to sleep like at 2 o'clock, wake up at 7 in the morning, 6 in the morning, and I'm like, "shit, I've got a bunch of stuff I've gotta do," and you know I'm starting to get a bunch of butterflies in my stomach. We just started selling tickets on
immaetickets.com yesterday and we already got a lot of ticket sales so I was like, "YAY! Get the phone calls, we sold our first tickets! Woohoo!"
NS: Besides the name and venue change, what else is going to be different about this year's show?TS: Everything! A lot of things are going to be different. I think our energy is going to be different too. You know, we actually…obviously we're not a part of NAMMAE anymore. I don't know if you're familiar with what happened with IMMAE and NAMMAE,
NS: I'd heard some things about it on TAGG.TS: From our first show to IMMAE now, just our advertising budget that we have, it's ridiculous. Last year, we just basically marketed and did a lot of marketing amongst all our distributors and we did radio advertisements. This time around, we have television commercials, radio advertisements, including the 2 biggest radio stations here in Southern California, KROQ and Power 106; we have magazine ads in Skinnie Magazine, Fight Magazine; we have advertisements on mixedmartialarts.com and also Sherdog as well. We basically have a big budget, hopefully to bring more people, but not only that, the people that we have behind us are really good people and their positive energy along with my team stoked to stay, because we really fought hard to pursue this show, I think because of our background and the passion that we have behind this show, it's going to be really successful
NS: No shit! I see you guys EVERYWHERE. I was like, "Damn! They're doing it right this year!"TS: Yeah. Oh, yeah. We also have billboards too up in Southern California as well.
NS: Yeah, I saw one the other day.TS: Yeah, we got one right off the 22 Freeway, the 55 Freeway and right off the 405. That's really gonna help us as well.
NS: I know you really can't talk much about the differences between you guys and the old NAMMAE people, but can you tell us a little bit about where your differences were and where the fallout stemmed from?TS: I can talk about NAMMAE and IMMAE. Basically, we left NAMMAE and joined IMMAE because we felt our talents would be better used in IMMAE. We left because the original investors of NAMMAE didn't keep their promises to us and we're under no contractual obligations to NAMMAE that would prevent us from working with IMMAE as well. Obviously, NAMMAE then filed a lawsuit against us saying that were breaking a fiduciary duty to them by engaging in competition with them, that we were also infringing on the NAMMAE trademark and that we were engaging in unfair competition by contacting industry vendors; plus all this other stuff. But we proved them wrong and the court overruled it. Basically, we won! We knocked them out! We KO'd them!
NS: NiceTS: We had all the proof. They even had all this stuff online with all these allegations, trying to put a temporary restraining order on us and stuff like that. A lot of it was false. To me, it was defamation of character because my name was being used in there and a lot of the thing they said were false, which really upset me, but in a court of law, what really matters is the proof. Basically, the court overruled them. They were like, "NAMMAE, you don't have enough proof. IMMAE, you're good to go."
NS: Nice. RaRa, who are some the guests and sponsors for this year's IMMAE show?TS: We got TapouT Crew, Tito Ortiz, Tim Sylvia, Sean Sherk, Jens Pulver, Nate Diaz, Dan Henderson, Josh Koshchek, Pat Miletich, Spencer Fisher, Mike Swick, BJ Penn, Mark Coleman, Urijah Faber…I just talked to Urijah yesterday; he's gonna come. I also just talked to Miguel Torres. He's gonna come down too and I know, as time goes on, more fighters are going to want to attend too. But those are a lot of big name fighters.
NS: I'll say.TS: It's gonna be really good. They're going to be signing autographs. Shonie Carter is also going to be there doing a seminar.
NS: Is FightHype invited? (Laughing)TS: Of course you guys are invited. Come any time. Not only that, OTM (OntheMat), they are hosting our grappling tournament
NS: That's right. You guys have a grappling and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament going on.TS: Yes, uh huh! Yeah, OTM, I love the guys at OTM. They are really good. They've been involved for many years and they are really good people. Working with people in the industry, you want to work with people that have the same passion as you do and that help support the sport and things like that and definitely the guys at OTM, working with them, they give me that positive energy, that vibe. They're really good. I love those guys.
NS: Speaking of positive energy, what is your favorite part of being a part of IMMAE and being involved in the fastest growing sport in the world.TS: The best part about it is bringing the industry together and putting on a show that caters to the fans, the fighters and the industry. We have all of this together. We have everyone under one roof so you see all your friends that you normally see at fights, but here, it's at an event to help promote the sport and to show the public how big the sport is and will become. I think that right there, along with my positive energy and my passion for the sport, that's what I hope to bring to IMMAE and to everyone that attends
NS: How has your life changed since getting involved in MMA? First NAMMAE, now IMMAE? What did you do before as opposed to what you are doing now?MR (Laughing) My life changed dramatically. I no longer work 9 to 5, waking up at 7 in the morning, making sure I'm at the office by 8, and I'm not driving in traffic and wasting gas or carpooling. Now, I'm working from home. I get to travel, go to the fights, and I get to meet a lot of great people in the industry. One that I can name is Tracy Lee from combatlifestyle.com; she is an amazing person. Meeting her and other people in the industry, you get to be friends with them, then you get to party with them, then you get to meet the fighters, then you get to meet the fighters' sponsors, then you get to meet the owners of these companies. You know, I get to know them on a personal level. I think I have the best job in the world right now.
NS: I'll say. I'm jealous. You've got a good gig.TS: I've got a really good gig. You know, I used to do sponsorship marketing for Red Carpet Events and celebrity product placement and I also did business development for a technology integrator in West LA so switching from that to this…you know I take everything that I learned from my previous jobs and bring it to what I'm doing now. It's great.
NS: Okay, here at FightHype, we cover both boxing and MMA so I have to change sports for a minute. You and I have talked a little about this before, but Manny Pacquiao. How do you feel about Manny being crowned the new pound-for-pound king in boxing? I mean, he's like a god in the Philippines. It's crazy. How do you feel about him taking over the boxing world like that?TS: When I think of Manny Pacquiao and how he's taken over boxing, I think about how proud I am to be Filipino because he completely represents our culture. The way he carries himself, how he's dedicated to his family and how he's dedicated to the sport, it makes me a proud Pinay every time I see Manny Pacquiao. Even when I see fighters in MMA like Brandon Vera and Mark Munoz, who are Filipino and come out with there Philippine flags and they are representing all Filipinos, you know we are very prideful and we are proud of our heritage and when I see fighters like that as far as their careers, I am proud to be Filipino!
NS: Very cool. Back to IMMAE for a minute, where do you see IMMAE in 5, 10 or even 20 years from now and what immediate goals do you have for IMMAE in the near future?TS: Our goal is always to create networking, commerce and synergy within the MMA industry and the way that we are going to continue to do that is to continue to put on good shows. Obviously, we will travel. Hopefully, we'll be able to start licensing out the name IMMAE to other expos, you know. We want to be able to help promote the sport as well. We don't really have competitors. We're neutral in the MMA industry. A lot of people want to come to us and we want to help them. We want to help promote them and help sell their apparel or help sell their nutrition or help advertise their magazine. My long term goal is definitely to be the top dog in mixed martial arts and have IMMAE known as one of the biggest events in MMA. I mean, UFC fights, those are events that you've just got to go to and I'm hoping that, once a year, when IMMAE comes, it's like, "That's an event I've just got to go to as well." Those are my goals.
NS: Nice! Hey, on August 17th, my FightHype.com partner Albert Rosales is fighting in an event called Long Beach Fight Night and on August 14th, Mike "Joker" Guymon is fighting at King of the Cage at San Manuel Casino in San Bernardino. Are you going to come out to those events?TS: Heck yeah! I love Joker! He's a really great, funny guy. I actually haven't seen him in a while, but of course, I love to support all of our talent here in SoCal. Actually, I think that I am spoiled by going to the events here in SoCal, like King of the Cage, TFA, Total Combat and Battle in the Ballroom, because I get to see a lot of really great talented fighters that train under really big name fighters that are in the UFC, EliteXC, Strikeforce and sfuff like that. I remember going to an event in Northern California and thinking, "gosh!" I'm seeing these fighters fight there that are not the caliber of fighters as the ones in Southern California and I'm thinking, "Damn, I'm spoiled." (Laughing)
NS: You are. Believe me. (Laughing)TS: (Laughing)
NS: One last thing from me about IMMAE. Are you guys stoked that your date is pretty close to the Affliction show? You guys are what, 2 weeks apart from them? Would you guys have liked to have had IMMAE in Anaheim the same weekend as them or was the IMMAE date already planned out long beforehand?TS: It was already planned out long beforehand. I know next year, we will be back in Anaheim. We just don't know the exact date, but yeah, it just happened ironically after us having a mindset that we were going to put on NAMMAE and we had a date set for NAMMAE. After we opted out from NAMMAE, we were like, "Oh shoot! We have to find another venue and another date." It just so happened it was Aug 2nd and 3rd…aaaand my birthday is on Aug 3rd. (Laughing)
NS: Hey, that's my mom's birthday too.TS: For real?
NS: Yeah, for real.TS: Nice. Your mom must be an amazing woman.
NS: She is, she is. You Leos are all pretty cool I gotta admit.TS: Leos are freakin' awesome.
NS: Well, thank you RaRa. Is there anything else you'd like to say in closing?TS: I would like to add a little more about IMMAE. Not only do we also want to help support the sport, we also partnered with Soldier Fight Gear, Toys for Tots and The Wounded Warrior project. What we're gonna do is give a part of our proceeds to Toys for Tots and the Wounded Warrior project to help support our troops and people that are in need too. That's something that I really wanted to do because it's something that I come from. My father retired from the Air Force after 20 years. I'm a military brat so supporting our troops and stuff like that, I am gung ho for it
NS: Nice. I also wanted to ask you, I know that IMMAE is obviously a mixed martial arts expo, but would you guys ever want to venture into some boxing stuff or are you guys just going to concentrate on MMA?TS: I think so far, since we are a mixed martial arts expo, we're going to plan on just sticking to MMA, but if there are boxers that would want to come out to support, come to IMMAE and sign autographs. Let's do it! If Manny Pacquiao wanted to come to IMMAE, I'd be like, "Heck yeah! Let's go!"
NS: Right on. That's awesome. RaRa, do you have any sponsors or anyone else you want to thank?TS: I have to thank TapouT, Ekko, MMA Warehouse, Hardcor Fightwear & Apparel, Toe 2 Toe, Fight Magazine, Punishment Athletics, Miletich Fighting Systems, WAMMA, Hayabusa, Warrior Wear…gosh, there's so many other ones that I want to name too. Obviously The Underground -
MixedMartialArts.com,
TAGG Radio,
OTM,
combatlifestyle.com,
Fight Chix…umm, what else…who else…oh,
FrontRowTicketing.com. I wanna name some more…Ringleader Fight News, they are actually going to be distributing a full on newspaper about IMMAE shortly so we are pretty excited about that.
NS: As always, thank you very much and good, good luck with the IMMAE show. We hope that it is a success. With you involved, we know it's going to be a success,TS: Awwww. Thank you!
NS: And thank you for giving FightHype.com a couple minutes of your time.TS: Any time! FightHype can have any minutes of my time whenever they want.