Blackeye Promotions: bringing WMMA to centre stage

Janet Martin had a vision and she is taking that vision and opening up the world of women's mixed martial arts. Janet recently partnered with Blackeye Promotions, an MMA promotion company based out of North Carolina. She approached Blackeye with the idea specifically to book, organize and promote women's MMA.

"Blackeye Promotions is creating a full women's division which is new, innovative and no one else has done, or even tried before and its about time," says Janet. MMA has received great exposure, it's coming to the forefront as a sport and Janet wants to showcase the female talent. "There is depth in all the weight classes, they're expanding and they're growing. Females are coming into MMA gyms everyday training to become MMA fighters. That's happening across the United States, even across the globe. Therefore, giving women's MMA a home, an organization, a community in a way to consolidate and showcase the talent, is the mission and vision of the Blackeye WMMA division. This will create a platform for the fans to come and see female talent. Here's a chance to see anywhere from 8 to 12 fights on a card and really get to know the female fighters as athletes and personalities; follow their career's, their talent and get excited about the atmosphere and entertainment of female fighters."

2012 is going to be a big year for women's MMA with the recently signed Marloes Coenan to Blackeye Promotions. According to Janet, "Marloes is the first fighter to establish the women's division. So, 2012 will be the inaugural season of a full women's division. We will be working with fighters in the weight classes 105Ibs, 115Ibs, 125Ibs, 135Ibs, 145Ibs and 155Ibs. We're going to have fighters competing for title contention in those weight classes through the event season. We are currently evaluating the talent out there in each weight class and we will be signing more fighters. Our big announcement to kind of kick in and say we are a women's division was the signing of Marloes."


October will see Blackeye Promotions taking center stage with their charity event Blackeye Beatdown on October 1st. "Blackeye 5 is our breast cancer beatdown. It is a charity event with proceeds from ticket sales, internet pay per view  and even some merchandise sales going to benefit an organization called It Ain't Chemo, a grassroots organization who do hands on care for men and women who are fighting the fight against any type of cancer. We took on the theme of breast cancer because of the great fighter Mia Hayes. She has been an inspiration to us all and she is battling breast cancer. Mia is putting up a great fight and even in the hardest times, the toughest battles, she has the most inspirational personality and spirit that she shares with the MMA world, her fans and the women's MMA community. We are acknowledging her as an ambassador, not only of the sport but of those fighting the fight against breast cancer".

For more information about this event, please visit http://blackeyepromotions.com/events.html

Blackeye 5 Breast Cancer Beatdown

Featuring Pro WMMA

Roxanne Modaferri v. Barb Honchack 125 lbs.
Charmaine Tweet v. Anna Barone 155 lbs.
Leslie Smith v. Ediane Gomes 145 lbs.
Chelsea Colarelli v. Patricia Vidonic 120 lbs.
Ashley Cummins v. Angelica Brotherton 115 lbs.
Sarah Schneider v. Ivana Coleman 120 lbs.
Amy Davis v. Meghan Wright 105 lbs.

Amateur WMMA

Ashley Greenway v. Danaea Makemson 115 lbs.

Pro MMA

Johnny Buck v. Joe Heink
Matt Tran v. Jason Cortez
Vincent Alberico v. Sky Rudloe
Allen Greenway v. Tommy Jones

Amateur MMA

William Bratz v. Dudley Spence
Kodey Gulley v. Nate McCall
Leonardo Perez v. Daniel Duge
Ryan Conn v. Jason Faglier
Doug Bishop v. Dustin Messer
Malford Jeter v. Alex Ellis