Super Brawl 13: The Heavyweights is coming up on September 13 and has an incredible card. The main event is the 8-man heavyweight tournament featuring seemingly every top "unknown" heavyweight presently fighting. The undercard is packed with fighters from Japan to the Midwest US, and everywhere in between. I asked T. Jay about how a male dancer became one of the major NHB promoters, about his alliances with Extreme Challenge promoter, Monte Cox and the Shooto organization, how he comes up with Super Brawl's great fight cards, and the future of NHB, through the eyes of a promoter, well, sort of. I caught up with T. Jay by telephone at the Extreme Sports Promotions Corporate Offices in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 19, 1999, right before he caught a plane to be the guest announcer at Extreme Challenge 23: Battle of the Champions in Indiana.

FCF: A lot of people would think that NHB promoters started out as boxing or kickboxing promoters that made the shift to NHB. However, you started out in a very different venue. What was that?
T. Jay Thompson: [laughs] Only because Joel [Gold, "The Mouth of NHB" and FCF's El Presidente] is going to make me bring it up anyway, I spent 8 years as a male dancer touring the United States and the world. For a group called California Centerfolds affiliated with Playgirl Magazine. And no, I wasn't ever in the magazine. That's the end of that question. [laughs]

FCF: Well, we haven't discussed your uniform yet.
TJT: [laughs] I was lucky enough that they made them small enough for me. So, it was OK. I ordered the extra small size and we got along just fine.

FCF: Your into that bulging look?
TJT: Plenty of stuffing. I'll tell you, it was a kick when I was a kid to have the opportunity to do that. I have stories that I don't even tell because most people wouldn't believe them. [laughs] It was a lot of fun and when I was through with it, I was ready to move on to other things in my life and I was fortunate enough to fall into the business that I am in now.

FCF: How did you get from dancing to NHB promoting? Did you move into announcing then into promoting the dancing or what?
TJT: I actually want to touch base first, I went to Northeastern University in Boston. I was working at IBM as a marketing assistant for almost 2 years. And upon graduation, IBM offered me a position, but this Playgirl affiliate offered me to go on tour for 30 days. So I thought I'd take some time off and go do that. And the 30 days turned into 8 years. So, I actually did have a real job once in my life. [laughs] What happened was I was also doing some small promotions at a night club called Gussie L'Amours in Hawaii. The owner was a good friend of mine. It was about the time UFC 5 through 7 was out. I started watching [UFC] 3 or 4 and was immediately a huge fan. A huge, uneducated fan. I feel fortunate that I can come from a background with no martial arts experience. I never wrestled in high school. I knew nothing about the sport. I came in completely uneducated. I thought, these guys are nuts. They're going to kill each other, I love it! So, I understand where the uneducated politicians come from. In the past 5 years, I got an unbelievable education. And I think that I'm as knowledgeable on the sport as anybody in the business right now. I'll argue, till I'm blue in the face as to how safe it is. I came into the business, not knowing anything about it, thinking it was exciting. I approached the club owner and said "I think we can do something like this here in Hawaii. I know there is a real big "warrior" mentality here." We built a ring and put a small ad in the newspaper and in the first week, we had, I think, over 140 phone calls into the voicemail from fighters. That's how Future Brawl I began, as a true no-holds barred fight. It was actually won by Kawika Paalui, who had some limited Jiu-Jitsu experience and wrestling experience, and really showcased against some weaker talent. He then won the next event, a month later and the club owner, at that time decided that submissions made the sport boring. And asked us to change the rules to not allow submissions. [chuckles] For the next four events, we held non-submission no-holds barred fighting.

FCF: The first two Future Brawl was no biting, no eye gouging?
TJT: Yes, definitely no biting, no eye gouging, no time limit.

FCF: Everything else was legal?
TJT: Everything else was legal.

FCF: So Future Brawl was your first promotional event?
TJT: It was my first promotional effort in any kind of sporting event. I had done some small concerts and other things. But for the most part, I still don't consider myself a promoter. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. [laughs] I was just lucky to get as far as I have.

FCF: Now the question everybody wants to know. How do you pick-up those exotic dancers that are always at your shows? Lend us some of our vast experience.
TJT: [laughs] Chris, I'll tell you what. I put in a lot of hours. I take my job very seriously. It's not a joking matter. I put my time in and I think the results show for themselves. [laughs]

FCF: We'll go over your Win-Loss record later in the interview.
TJT: [laughs] I take my beatings out there. The beautiful thing is that it's not like baseball. It's not three strikes and your out. They don't ask you to sit back down, you can keep swinging. You know what I mean? Life is wonderful, man, they don't say your out go sit on the bench. They let you stay up there as long as you want and keep swinging. And I tell you what, I don't get discouraged. [laughs]

FCF: What did you hope to accomplish with Future Brawl? Did you think it would grow into something as successful as Super Brawl?
TJT: I'm not the brightest bulb on the block. I try not to have any expectations in any venture that I do. That doesn't mean having low expectations, that doesn't mean having high expectations. I just try and do the best job at what I'm doing and sort of let the results take their own direction. I like to ride the horse in the direction it's going, you know what I mean? I work hard on it. Certainly, when Future Brawl started, I never dreamed of it turning into something the size that it is now or the seriousness that it is. I spend most of my days thinking about the sport in one way or another. Whether it's on the business end or on the competing end that I actually do a little bit now [T. Jay recently entered a small amateur shootfighting event put on by Burton Richardson]. But certainly Future Brawl was something I did for a kick, to make a few extra bucks and, by mistake, it turned into Super Brawl.

FCF: I understand that you were having a lot of problems with the bar that hosted Future Brawl. This eventually led to the creation of Super Brawl. What happened?
TJT: That wasn't why Super Brawl started. I was having a disagreement with the rules. As I became more educated, I realized it wasn't as safe as it needed to be. At the same time, we were certainly getting a lot of pressure from the state. What I saw was a viable sport that needed to be taken to another level. It was at one of these Future Brawls that I approached my partner Ode Haugan, who is a very respected businessman in Hawaii, to partner up with me to take it to a bigger level. He was an excited fan of the sport and was the initial financial backing to get the show going. The first three Super Brawls, although they looked like were tremendous successes in Hawaii, we had some great fights. We had Vitor Belfort [vs. John Hess (SAFTA)], [Frank] Shamrock-[John] Lober, the Danny Steele-Melchor Menor muay Thai fight, all three of those fights lost a considerable amount of money and if it wasn't for my financial partner who kept pumping money in, Super Brawl wouldn't be here. It would have been a one event gig. Since then, we have been able to turn it around and we now, at this point, are running at a profit and are excited about it. It came from, possibly some problems at the bar, but more from some sort of vision, and not necessarily a clear vision, but it needed to be taken to another level.

FCF: Super Brawl has evolved from showcasing local Hawaii fighters into hosting some of the biggest, baddest names in the sport. Tell us how this came about, leading up to joining forces with other NHB promoters such as Extreme Challenge's Monte Cox and Neutral Ground's Ryan Chenoweth.
TJT: I read some stuff on the Internet that we [Chenoweth] had teamed up also, but I was not aware of it.

FCF: They didn't let you in on it?[laughs] They haven't informed you yet.
TJT: Maybe we have. I'm not sure, I'd have to talk to our corporate offices, if there's something going on that I don't know anything about.

FCF: Well, go ahead and lean over and check and do that then.
TJT: [Pauses] Ummm, well it looks like we haven't actually teamed up yet. Although I respect what Neutral Grounds is doing. Ryan's a great guy, but we haven't done anything together. Maybe we will in the future, I don't know. Monte Cox and I did an event called Gladiators in Cedar Rapids, Iowa a couple of years ago. It was a fun success. The reason that we did it was to have fun and to work together because we get along real well. We also teamed up on the US Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Championship, that he is still going forward with, and we may still hold an event here in Hawaii.

FCF: You guys are just trading fighters? Is that the deal?
TJT: Yeah, I'll tell you what, it amazes me because Monte and I speak, probably 3 days a week. Some people would consider us to be competitors, but we think far from that. I have learned a lot from Monte. As I have said before, I am not a promoter and don't claim to be. It's just what I happen to be doing for a living now. A lot of our financial demise early on was from my mistakes and Monte was able to help me out with that. And I give him a lot of credit for that. We're both big fans of the sport. It was after the last UFC that something donned on me. It was 11PM here and I think 4AM in the morning in Iowa and Monte and I were discussing each and every fight that the UFC had. And I asked Monte, "Do you think that Bob Meyrowitz [SEG's and UFC's Head Honcho] is talking to someone right now about the fights on his own card? Or do you think we're more interested in his card than he is?" And it just donned on me that Monte and I, and I think a lot of the other promoters, are really into this because we love the sport so much. And I think that is what is going to drive this sport to the next level. I don't necessarily see the UFC as the future of no-holds barred. If you had asked me six months or, certainly, a year ago, I would have said yes, it's up to the UFC to take the lead. And move us into the future. Now, I don't believe the success or demise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship is going to have anything to do with the success of no-holds barred fighting sport as it is in the United States.

FCF: It was reported earlier that you have been recently approved to hold officially sanctioned Shooto bouts. How did this come about?
TJT: Like most great things that happen in my life, by mistake. [laughs] I have been a long time fan of Shooto. I consider Shooto to be the number one fighting organization in the world. I think they have the best fighters in the world, from Enson Inoue to Noburo Asahi to Rumina Sato to Kaoru Uno to Sakurai, Kato, Nagao, Uematsu, Gomi. There's just so many unbelievably talented fighters that come out of Shooto. As I have said, I have been a long time fan. I have even brought a couple of our Hawaii boys over there to get beat up in the past. [jokingly said] That's sort of how I became such a big fan of their organization. They also know how to treat outside fighters very well. The relationship we had in the past has been one of just staying in touch, trading fighters, and when they asked me, about six months ago if I was interested in having officially sanctioned Shooto bouts on our card. I jumped at the opportunity. And initially they wanted 3-5 bouts on the card and we had, I believe, eight on the last card and we'll have seven on this card. We get to use their matchmaking skills, the Shooto commission, some of the best referees in the business [Suzuki-san, Ogata-san] and some of the best rules in the business. We are in a real lucky position, being here in the middle of the Pacific [Ocean], that we kind of get the best of both worlds. I'm considered a US organization, yet, as you and I know, the Hawaiian economy really runs on an Asian curve, so we get to be part of that. We're excited to have Super Brawl on TV now, I think it's two weeks after the event. It's aired on Samurai TV [a pay-per view channel in Japan that airs events from K-1 to Pancrase], and it's getting good ratings. So we're at least as popular in Japan as the mainland United States. Although our major concern, and it will be for a while, is to make sure that the fans in Hawaii are happy. We are first and foremost a live event and that's what we focus on.

FCF: You personally brought NHB back from the brink of extinction after the Hawaii legislature passed a ban on "Extreme Fighting." A lot of states, specifically California and presently Nevada NHB fans and promoters, should be extremely interested in how you did it. Give us a little background and what you did?
TJT: [laughs] Again, I'm going to take very little credit for it, other than the fact that we kept on pushing. It was clear Senator Roslyn Baker wrote a bill and then passed it into law with the intent to ban Super Brawl. It was real clear and she had said that. What they did was, they wrote a law that effectively didn't ban anything. I have great attorneys, John Bain, who is the lead attorney on my team, was able to position us in a spot where we were holding a legitimate martial arts contest, which we were from the very beginning. We had used Pancration rules, since the beginning of Super Brawl, and now we use a combination of Pancration rules and Shooto rules. The law starts off by banning "no-rules combat, Ultimate Fighting, and Extreme Fighting" and it goes on by defining that relatively good, talking about a combination of techniques. Then it goes on by saying with extreme danger and possible death and serious injury. But the very next sentence, it states that "this ban in no way will effect on boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, or a legitimate martial arts contest." Well, as soon as we read that, we were sure that we had been running a legitimate martial arts contest. So what happen was Super Brawl: The Hawaiian International Extreme Fighting Contest then became Super Brawl. We decided to keep on doing it. The funny thing is, many times as we testified in front of Senate committees and met with politicians and invited them to the fight, we could never get them to come see a live event. Once we put on Super Brawl VIII, of course the Attorneys General and various politicians were there to shut us down. And all the quotes in the papers were stating that we changed the event to fall within the law. Where we hadn't changed anything. But our stance was, "Good, let them think we changed the event." And I can take a great amount of credit for it, it was promoted as such a violent event early on, that they were just seeing clips and sound bites of what seemed like a very violent event. I can sit and talk with you for an hour about how safe my event is, but just yesterday, I've produced a 30 second TV commercial that looks like the end of the fucking world is coming. You know what I mean? So, it's a fine line between selling tickets to the crowd and keeping the politicians happy. We're really lucky in Hawaii, what is happening now in the evolution of this sport, and you have been able to see this, not only has our crowds been getting larger, with almost 7,000 people in the arena last time, but they're also becoming educated. Early on the Hawaiians were famous for booing any fight that went to the ground, unless there was some serious beatings taking place. Now we're hearing crowds cheering for someone moving from guard to half-guard, or passing someone's guard to side mount, or getting someone's back. Your hearing a lot more cheers and much less boos. So it's getting exciting, as my education was maybe a little faster than the normal crowd because I was so immersed in it, I'm watching them [the audience] follow the same type of [learning] curve that I had. Early on all they wanted to see was guys beat each other up. I'm just as happy seeing a technical ground fight as I am seeing a Donny Brook [Irish term, meaning a knock down, drag out, slug-fest. Being born and raised in Hawaii, I had to ask what it meant.]. Although I still enjoy a great standup fight as well, I'm just as happy to see a real strong, technical ground fight happening. And I believe the fans are starting to come around too.

FCF: Our female readers have asked, how do you achieve that brilliant synergy of purity, depth, and translucency? Being that your hair is always perfect.
TJT: An interesting thing happened…Joel [Joel said to have some fun with T. Jay], [laughs].

FCF: I had to research the wording off some hair care products.
TJT: Very nice wording. As I sit hear feeling my head, it's about an eight of an inch tall. I will be making my first public appearance in Extreme Challenge 23 as the ring announcer with my short hair. I have cut my long, translucent…whatever you called it hair. I'm giving the regular guys a chance.

FCF: Where do you see the alliance of U.S. and Shooto promoters heading?
TJT: I'll tell you what, I am obviously, very happy to be aligned with them. Shooto has a goal to go worldwide and I think anyone who doesn't jump on the Shooto bandwagon, and help with this, will fall by the waist side. I just think they're such a strong organization, with such strong fighters, that people that ignore Shooto are going to run into problems as this sport grows and the fan's education grows. I think a lot of the mainland US fans don't know a whole lot about the Shooto fighters, not only are they the best in the business, I think they're some of the most exciting and charismatic in the business. If fighting organizations are not bringing them in, they are doing a great disservice to their fans. It's unbelievable the level that they take, not only their fighters, but tey, are elevating the [mindset of the] fighters that they're fighting against to do that much better. Local fighters like Ray Cooper go over and get beat rather handily, and a year and a half later, Ray looks like a completely different animal out there because of that. He sees the level of commitment it takes now and the Japanese fighters have that level of commitment. They bring an exciting style of aggressive striking, submission fighting and some incredible charisma and ring sauvy. They have electrified crowds at the Blaisdell [arena], here in Hawaii. And their going to be doing it all over the world soon.

FCF: Do you admit or deny the rumor…
TJT: [interrupting] I deny it! Absolutely not! Never! It was made up, I was young, and she wanted it!

FCF: Okay…do you admit or deny the rumor that in order to close the deal with the Shooto organization, you had to get a hair cut exactly like Mr. Ogata [the young, energetic Shooto referee]?
TJT: [laughs] Oh, that rumor. That one's the truth. They came to me and said "we would love to have you onboard, but we cannot have your perverted western ways infiltrate our system." So Suzuki and Ogata [Shooto referees] held me down and Takashima and Mr. Sakamoto [Shooto promoters] cut my hair.

FCF: Super Brawl has a strong following in Guam and has produced three successful shows there. You also held one at El Paso, Texas. Do you plan to host Super Brawls in places outside of Hawaii? If so, where?
TJT: I'll tell you what, I have a show in Guam slated for November 6th of this year. The El Paso show, although it was sort of a financial disaster, was a great show and we really enjoyed promoting it. I would love to take Super Brawl to other places, but I'm a lazy guy by nature and five or six shows a year is plenty for me. I am fortunate enough to do, what looks like, four shows here in Hawaii. And for me to do a show at this level, really takes about 30 days of work to put a show on. So it I put a show or two a year in Guam, it may leave us room to do one show somewhere else in the world. And we are certainly looking at those opportunities, but we're focusing on providing Hawaii with, what I think is some of the best no-holds barred fighting in the world. The mix with Shooto makes it exciting. I think there are some really great events out there, Extreme Challenge is an unbelievable event, with great fighters, Neutral Grounds puts on some great fights. There's HookNShoot that's putting on fights. I think there's an organization on pay-per view that putting on fights, so there's a lot of different places you can see it.

FCF: This Super Brawl promises a great show, can you tell us your ideas while putting together this card?
TJT: Well, it had been a while since we had a really good heavyweight fight in Hawaii. And I thought, why not have seven really great heavyweight fights if we're going to do it. I think, we have the best, relatively unknown, heavyweight fighters in the world coming to fight in this tournament. If I had to pick a winner, I would be splitting my money eight ways. I think anybody in this tournament has the potential to win it. Travis Fulton obviously people are going to talk about because he has experience. He surely has the experience to fight three fights in one night. There are a number of very talented athletes, who could knock Travis or anybody else out in that lineup. I can't wait to see the outcome of this tournament.

FCF: How do you feel about the way the card turned out?
TJT: I thought the last card was very good, but I think this is by far the best card that we have ever had. I say we put together, but it has so little to do with me. I talk to Monte, I talk to the Shooto people. And although I make the final decisions in this company, I'm not making all the decisions. I'm letting others influence the card. I give credit to a lot of people for making this card great and most of all give credit to the fighters for coming out and fighting tough opponents. There isn't a fight on this card, including the Shooto matches, that isn't going to be a highly contested match. Starting off with Ray Cooper and Danny-Boy Bennett. Bennett is of course famous for probably the most spectacular K.O. in fighting history against Jay R. Palmer in Super Brawl III. He is preparing with Matt Hume for this fight with Ray Cooper and is taking this fight very seriously. Ray Cooper has been a stand out. I kind of equate him to a Vitor Belfort style, where he's just coming out and dominating and winning all his fights in under a minute. The only fight he had in his career that has gone over a minute and a half, went four minutes and he lost. So people must be questioning Ray Cooper's stamina. He's going to get that tested this time, I think. I don't think he's going to beat Danny-Boy Bennett inside a minute and a half. Danny-Boy will be as prepared as he will ever be for this fight. Ray Cooper's ultimate goal in his life, and he's never been more focused right now, is to win the Shooto middleweight belt at the 167lbs. division. He considers this a stepping stone. He's certainly not looking past this fight, but he's got to win this fight if he wants to continue on the track of becoming a champion. Very exciting. Another exciting fight is Jutaro Nakao, who came over here and beat UFC champion Pat Miletich. It's funny, you look at a Shooto guy, Enson Inoue, beats Randy Couture, a UFC champion, a Shooto guy, Jutaro Nakao, beat Pat Miletich, a UFC champion. [T. Jay's briefly interrupted by a "big-wig's" phone call and pushes FCF on the side as big time promoters often do, at least to me. But he apologizes by saying it was Matt Hume, and that he's a bigger name than me, "sorry," he says while laughing] Okay, now where were we? Nakao is a great fighter and [Dave] Menne is really going to be standing up for the Midwest US. I believe another exciting match is going to be Akihira Gono against Lance Gibson. Many people remember Lance when he fought Dan Severn in Guam for 26 minutes, before finally submitting and almost knocking Dan out twice. It was one of the best fights that I have seen at Super Brawl. He fought at 215 or 220lbs., he's walking around now at 191, and will be fighting at 187.5lbs in the light heavyweight division of Shooto. He's going to be a force to be reckoned with. If he can beat Gono, he's going to have a good shot at fighting Eric Paulson for the Shooto Light Heavyweight title here in Hawaii in December. And Gibson might have a shot at that. It will be interesting to see him at this lighter weight, it's his natural weight. He always had to bulk up to fight. I look forward to seeing him fighting at his natural weight.

FCF: Is it true that the biggest obstacle in negotiations for the 8-man tournament was who is going to pick up the bar and room service tab?
TJT: [laughs] Absolutely, Yes.

FCF: Was that settled without any bloodshed or don't they know that the phone will be cut off from their hotel rooms?
TJT: [laughs] I can run REAL fast. It's going to be something else. There's a lot of big guys coming. Our radio sponsor, Extreme, is going to have all eight of the heavyweights that Tuesday for their morning show. I'm not sure if they know what their in for. It will be very interesting.

FCF: You previously told me that some of the matches are to develop Hawaii fighters. Tell us about that?
TJT: Hawaii has the potential of turning out the best fighters in the world. In the past, I think the Hawaiian fighters are as tough as anyone in the world. But I don't think they have been as fairly skilled, as dedicated or had the opportunity to train like the other fighters. I think that's quickly changing. A couple matches at the last Super Brawl sort of separated some of the elite athletes from some of the great athletes. There is some talent here that has the potential of moving forward. Until we start running smaller shows here in Hawaii, we are going to have to pick and choose who is fighting on the Super Brawl card, as hard as that is. There are so many talented fighters that want to fight out here. Some of the names that come to mind, off the top of my head, are Ray Cooper and Rhonald Jhun from the Jesus is Lord gym. Egan Inoue, of course, from Grappling Unlimited is talking about coming in at a light heavyweight division, 187lbs for Shooto. Wayne Fisher, a very tough guy from Egan's, is making his debut. Baret Yoshida is talking about fighting. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with. He's working real hard on his stand-up. Teddy Limos, Jr. who just won a big kickboxing match out here. He's a high school wrestler, he's training real hard on his grappling. He may fight at a lighter weight class. There are a number of top fighters and we're going to be real careful who we pair them up with. Some of the guys, we can bring anybody in the world in and other ones, we want to make sure they get seasoned. I think it's important that local fighters get ring experience. And if that means holding some small local tournaments, then we'll do that. That's one thing the local fighters are missing right now is the opportunity to fight every month or every other month. Or some of the nuts like Travis Fulton [who will be in the heavyweight tournament], every other day.

FCF: Which matches or fighters are you hoping to put together for future Super Brawls?
TJT: Again I want to do what gets put in front of me. We want to concentrate on the next couple of shows. I have this show in Hawaii and the show in Guam. If Ray Cooper can get by Danny-Boy Bennett, he may get to fight Tetsugi Kato, who is the number 1 ranked Shooto fighter in his weight class. We will certainly have a number of Guam fighters on that card. Other Japanese fighters and maybe some fighters from Hawaii. But after that, our next event is December 2, Eric Paulson will defend his light heavyweight title. The rest of the card is wide open. We take that as it comes. Egan Inoue will more than likely make a Shooto debut in the light heavyweight division, in March of next year. Other than that, I have plenty to do to get ready for December 7th, which includes heading out to Iowa to support Monte and his show, Saturday night and watching the fighters that are also going to be fighting out here.

FCF: What is your future plans and the future of Super Brawl?
TJT: Not to be redundant, I just want to do what gets put in front of me. I think we are in a position in the sport where we are growing on a grassroots level and to be one of the leaders in the industry. I would love to keep a good relationship with Shooto, keep a great relationship with Extreme Challenge. Don't be surprised if me and Monte do something bigger in the near future. We have been having some talks. We really can't announce anything now, but we are out for the success of the sport. And if other companies aren't ready to take it to the next level, then we're going to do our best to make sure that it grows. And to get the support of the major public that it deserves I can't image it not being, and I'm talking about the sport itself, huge in the future. There's nothing more exciting that I'd rather watch. There are a lot of other people like me out there. If I have the opportunity to see a heavyweight championship boxing or kickboxing match, football game, volleyball, hockey, baseball…I would go ahead and pick the NHB, because it's far more exciting than anything else. All we need to do is position ourselves to stay ahead, when competition comes along. Just concentrate on what we're doing, putting on quality events, with quality matches and treating the athletes as people and to continue going the direction we're going.

FCF: Anything else you want to say?
TJT: [laughs] I want to thank Joel Gold for putting out a classy publication that treats the sport as a sport. I think Full Contact Fighter does a tremendous service to the fans of this sport. I think without Full Contact Fighter, the events that I have mentioned in this interview would not be where their at today. People need to remember that there are other people in this business that are working very hard. There are guys like Joel Gold, running magazines, there are guys like you spending your time. I'm sure you could be spending your time doing something else other than interviews. There are guys like you who are training people who want to fight. There are guys training hard themselves. There are guys fighting in amateur contest all over the country, fighting for nothing. There are guys that are driving 16, 18, 20 hours to fight for nothing. These are the true heroes of the sport today. It's not the promoters holding successful show who deserve the credit. It's the guys that are getting in their cars that are driving to the show. It's the fans that are driving 6 hours and paying $40, to sit in a smoky bar somewhere, with 300 other people to watch 4 or 5 fights. That's what's keeping this alive. I'm proud of what we do with Super Brawl. I hope it continues to grow, we are just going to make ourselves available to whatever comes along.

FCF: I think we've heard what we wanted to hear, a shameless plug for FCF, so we will print this interview. [laughs] Thanks and good luck.
TJT: No problem. Thank you.