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Mixed martial arts has dramatically increased in popularity over the past two years, but while many UFC and Strikeforce superstars have earned their rights to larger fight purses and checks from sponsors, there are thousands of younger, less experienced MMA fighters who have to battle a steep road to fame.
Filmmaker James Feng launched a project (http://www.fightlife.tv) to give MMA fans a closer insight into the challenges fighters have to overcome before making it to stardom.
"Fight Life is a documentary film that dives into the real lives of professional MMA fighters in the course of one year. I spent most of my time traveling and following around a few fighters getting the insight into both the good and bad sides of the fight life," Feng recently told CONCEDE.
The reasoning behind launching an MMA documentary was a no-brainer, even though Feng understood it'd be extremely difficult.
"There isn’t a film out there that sheds the light on the sport of MMA in a truthful manner. I made this film because this is a film I wanted to see as a MMA fan myself. I wanted to see a raw documentary that shows the reality of the fight life. Most people only get to see fighters on fight night and don’t understand what happens before and after fights. Most people don’t know Jake Shields, Gilbert Melendez, Nick Diaz all train 2-3 times a day, 6 days a week, most people don’t know they all drive to different gyms all over the bay area to train and spar with different fighters from various gyms; most people don’t understand MMA is a real professional sport and a full time job."
The cost of putting together a feature film, especially as an independent filmmaker with a small crew, is extremely expensive. Feng had a very good reason as to why he hasn't accepted money.
"This project is 100% self-funded out of my own pocket. I worked 3 jobs to support this project financially because I didn’t want my vision to be compromised. In the entertainment industry, there's a lot of shady and greedy cats out there, and I didn’t want that pressure from lunatic investors breathing down my neck. I’ve put most of my savings in this project (I’ve spent $30,000 so far), and there’s much more needed to finish the film in post-production. A lot of my crew worked on this project for deferred payment (no pay until film makes money) because they are good people and they believe in Fight Life."
To end our chat, Feng wanted to thank those involved with the project:
"Thanks to Seher Basak, James Y. Shih, Lanser Boint, Michael Solidum, Barbara Grandvoinet, thank you all for putting your life and soul into Fight Life, we all know I couldn’t have done any of this without you guys. Also a big congrats to our guys Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, Miesha Tate, Lyle Beerbohm, and Bryan Caraway on their victories this year. Hi mom!"
Take a look at the official Fight Life web site http://www.fightlife.tv
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