Interview with Ken Pavia

Owner of MMAagents

By Christian Gregertsen

• He is a head agent.

• He has his own firm.

• He has a lot of clients.

• 55 Elite level fighters including

• Dan Christiansen

• James Thompson

• Josh Hendricks

• Justin McCully

• Mark Kerr

• Ricco Rodriguez

• I went to law school to better prepare to conquer the worlds as a sports agent. While I often had side deals to help supplement my income and build the practice, I began the agency the first day out of law school in January 2002.

• It was my calling from an early age. Try as I did to be a pro athlete I was always restricted by my natural ability. Hard work can only take you so far. With more brains than brawn, a knack for stats and the gift of gab it was my calling.

• The first few clients were football players that were fringed guys at the best. They were a lot of work. I think my very first was a Tight End out of Miami that never really made it. My first real clients were hockey players.

• I represented primarily baseball and hockey players for 12 years. I also had football players, basketball players and golfers. No really big names even though they made quite a bit of money: Jerry Spradlin, Terry Yake, Rick Burleson, Brian Warren, etc. Now I own the biggest agency in MMA, MMAagents. We represent 55 elite level fighters. Our roster is available at www.MMAagents.com. We are the best AND second best MMA agency in the business.

• The lessons are too numerous to describe. The most important lessons in my 18 years of management are: teach the client that it is not going to last forever so enjoy it and save, be humble and always listen. Most importantly don’t ever lie. The repercussions of being caught in a lie are much worse than the short term benefits realized from that lie.

• The mistakes are too numerous to list. The ones that come to mind are don’t get too close to your employees because they will get complacent and comfortable, get everything in writing and don’t lie. I made the mistakes that led to these conclusions.

• The most important is interpersonal skills. You have to be a people person, an actor, educated so as to be able to adapt to all situations, and you have to have a marketing gene in your body.

• Every day I make a TODO and phone call list.

• I spend my time reacting to problems and opportunities.

• This requires organization and the ability to adapt on the fly.

• We as agents are more mediators then advocates. Part of the skill set necessary to succeed in this business is the ability to solve problems on the fly.

• Probably Alex Rodriguez [A-Rod]. He makes 250 million over 10 years so the commission on his contract alone would be 12.5 million. But the ancillary opportunities associated with him would probably double that.

• Experience. I have created departments in my firm that model some of the bigger firms in other sports. We have a legal department, a sponsor department, a compliance department (commission compliance, contract and travel), and a PR department. We are staffed to handle any issue and we are efficient.

• Running the biggest firm in my chosen sport.

• Focus on your goals.

• Don’t lie. Even though it may benefit you short term it will always end up hurting you long term.

• If establishing a new business look at how the industry leaders are structured and structure accordingly.

• Don’t procrastinate.

• Don’t count on people to do what they say they are going to do.

– My original interviewee decided it was more important to go to an award ceremony with Akonthan to take the time to answer my questions.

• He got a chance to self reflect on how he got to where he is today.

• Prepare the questions ahead of time.

• Decide on a focus for the interview.

• It is very important to prepare otherwise both yours and interviewee’s time is wasted.

Questions?