WSOF VP Ali Abdel-Aziz Talks Growing the Business and Reality of Cross-Promotional Fights- Exclusive

The World Series of Fighting has its seventeenth event coming up on Jan. 17 and the Vice President himself, Ali Abdel-Aziz, made time to talk about growing the business and other interesting topics on our very own BJPENN.COM Radio.

Abdel-Aziz talked about WSOF’s beginning and how they have made it to seventeen shows. He also spoke a little about the idea of cross-promotional super fights, something that he has talked about in the past. Check out some of the highlights below, but be sure to listen to the full interview HERE.

Here’s some of what he had to say about getting from WSOF 1 to WSOF 17.

“It’s hard work and dedication and here we go, we have 17 shows and it’s a dream to come true. It’s like a little baby growing in front of your eyes.”

“Seventeen is going to be a great show and a very, very special show.”

“Show number one was crazy. We were running circles around each other and now it’s getting easier, shows are getting easier.”

Then the VP talked about the importance of having new talent and how they develop those fighters into stars.

“If you don’t have new talent man, then you don’t have a foundation. It’s like a building with no foundation. If you don’t have a good foundation of a building, the building is never going to stay up.”

“We brought them on board and they become big names. They beat some big names and become big names. We understand the formula, how to build stars, and I think Marlon Moraes is the best 135 pounder in the world hands down and guys like Justin Gaethje, he’s a beast, I think he can fight anybody in the world. He’s just a beast.”

Towards the end of the interview Abdel-Aziz talked about something that he’s been vocal about in the past, that being cross-promotional super fights. A while back he even laid down a challenge to Bellator to compete in a cross-promotional fight event. It never came to fruition and Abdel-Aziz understands why.

“We want to compete with the big leagues. We don’t want to compete with the smaller leagues; we want to see, you know, some of our guys I think will beat anybody in the world. The whole thing is I think everybody has their business model, they want to protect it. Somebody higher than me? I want to fight them. I don’t want to fight someone below me. I don’t want to fight any promotion on AXS Television or any of those promotions.”

“I don’t think anybody’s going to do it, to be realistic. Everybody has their business, I wish everybody do well, but I don’t think any body’s going to risk their champion to fight our champion. I’m just being realistic.”

“If our champion beat their champion, then their champion has no value anymore.”

Do you guys think anything like that will ever happen? Make sure to listen to the full interview to hear the rest of Ali Abdel-Aziz’s thoughts.

By: Ryan C. Miller | Twitter