By Priscilla Marie Delgado
As we all know, Las Vegas is known as the Fight Capital of the world. Thousands of fight fans come to watch the most anticipated fights and also come to attend the epic signings at the shops. But what better shop can you think of that has the hottest apparel, an amazing setting and always has fan’s favorite fighters? Las Vegas Fight Shop of course! I did my first interview with the manager of the shop, Scott Kaufman.
PD: How’s the business going for you?
SK: It’s very going good. 1st month is pretty strong, even though a lot of locals don’t know our location.
PD: How long have you been in the MMA and retail business?
SK: I’ve only been in the mma business about 2 months but I’ve been in retail for 17 years
PD: What were you doing before?
SK: I was a manager at H&M, Victorias Secret and I was also a District Manager for Big Dogs Sports wear for 6 years. A lot of clothing in my background.
PD: Would you give your lady friends discounts on Victorias Secret?
SK: Yeah, without going outside the company’s guidelines. Absolutely, whoever I could’ve helped.
PD: What landed you the manager of the fight shop?
SK: I have known Scott (the owner) for about 6 years while I was the District Manager at the Big Dogs store inside the Premium Outlets. He had his first fight shop there and I was a good costumer. We built a friendship and he told me that once the company grows he’ll have a position available for me. The opportunity finally arose and I’ve been pretty much running the things, like the Fashion Show Mall and also the Miracle Mile Shops. Eventually, I’m going to be running all the other stores as well.
PD: What’s the best and worst things about your job?
SK: The best thing about my job is that I get to come to work everyday and be in an environment that i love and am passionate about. I’m probably one of the biggest fans in MMA and I get to come in and talk to costumers about the thing i love and I get to watch fights all day.
The worst thing is the hours. I work 7 days a week and even if I take a day off I still have to come in and do paperwork and get the deposits ready and stuff like that.
PD: Do you guys plan on opening up some shops outside Nevada?
SK: We are talking about it but nothing is going to happen overnight. First we want to build a strong foundation in Las Vegas. We’ve talked about possibly franchising it out (getting someone to buy the name and we would get a percentage of the sales. They would also have to design the store to our likings.). I think it will ultimately be us running the stores but we are definitely talking about possibly stores in Hawaii, California, Laughlin and maybe in Florida but nothing is official yet. Right now it’s just Vegas.
PD: Besides the signings you guys have done at the shop, has there been any fighters that would normally walk into the shop?
SK: We recently had Cris Cyborg in on Saturday with her husband while on their way to do the Sky Jump. They came in but didn’t buy anything. She was wearing her sponsor TapouT shirt and we took a picture of them outside the shop and put it on our Facebook. We chatted with them for about 10 minutes. I believe they were in town for the TapouT Training Center seminar. Dana White has been to our Fashion Show Mall store about 3 times but hasn’t bought anything yet, although he has said that he likes the store.
PD: Would you ever go sky jumping?
SK: Absolutely!
PD: Have you ever sky jumped before?
SK: Not yet but the Stratosphere said it’s on them when i go up!
PD: How long has the Fight Company been in business?
SK: The Company has been in business for 4 years. We started out with just a kiosk at the Premium Outlets and our first real store was inside Planet Hollywood. We then opened Fashion Show Mall this past April and Stratosphere in July. We’re going back into the Premium Outlets with our grand opening this Sunday (August 1st). The Sahara location is opening September 1st and then sometime in mid September to beginning of October we are opening a free standing store on Charleston and Decatur. This store is going to be fight gear (Thai pads, matts, fighting shorts, etc.), as opposed to apparel because we want to start catering to local gyms.
PD: How did you get to where your at now?
SK: Hard work. I started managing my 1st store when i was 15 at Oak Tree (which is now out of business). I was a part time sales person for Christmas and I turned out to be the top sales person in the country. They promoted me to Assistant Manager when i moved out to Vegas or California and from there i moved up the ladder to bigger companies and bigger corporations.
PD: Who is your favorite fighter in each division?
SK: Heavyweight-Cain Velasquez
Light Heavyweight-Forrest Griffin
Middleweight- Anderson Silva because the way he is outside the cage. We did a signing last month and the way he was interacting with his fans just won my heart over.
Welterweight-That’s a tough one! Lets go to lightweight.
Lightweight-Kenny Florian, unless I can include the WEC, then Urijah Faber.
PD: Didn’t Faber pull out of his fight because of injury?
SK: Yeah he did. Since he pulled out it actually might benefit us because we may get a signing with him and Chan Jung Sung, The Korean Zombie, in mid August at the Stratosphere. The Fashion Show mall might get UFC fighter Frank Mir but I heard he’s doing a signing at the Punishment Store, so i don’t know what they have decided yet. We will see.
PD: Speaking of Jon Jones who do you have for this Sundays fight?
SK: Jon Jones by KO!
PD: Will you have a signing with GSP?
SK: Affliction came to us asking to do a signing but since he’s busy with shooting The Ultimate Fighter, training for his fight in December/January against Koscheck, he’s just too busy. He is definitely someone we would do a singing with. It would be huge.
PD: How is managing an MMA related store different from other stores?
SK: To me its not that different, just different product. The costumers are a little different because it’s a different demographic. As far as managing stores. it is the same because a lot of associates followed me here from H&M, Victorias Secret and Big Dogs. I’m used to rotating products out constantly but hereeach section is set, like TapouT is going stay in this section and Silver Star is going to stay in that section. I only rotate when there is a fight coming up. I’ll put the fighter’s shirts in the front so people will know what the walkout shirts are. The main difference I find though is I don’t get up saying, “ Ah, I gotta work today,” I actually enjoy coming to work and I get to wake up saying, “Yes! I cant wait to go to work!”
PD: What inspired you and Scott to open up the Fight Shop?
SK: It was obviously Scott’s idea. I believe he started out with a chain of WWE stores and when WWE wasn’t as big as it was with Stone Cold, The Rock, etc. that’s when he started selling MMA clothes at the Swap Meet. It was so good that he was the top selling booth there and then he got a kiosk at Premium Outlets. I’m more of a forefront guy. I like watching and being at the fights. Scott is more of the behinds the scenes guy. He’s the business aspect of it.
PD: Have you ever been to a UFC/WEC fight?
SK: As big of a fan as I am, I’ve never been to a headlining major organization but I will go eventually! I’ve Only been to MMA Xplosion and Tuff N Uff.
PD: Are you good friends with any of the fighters?
SK: Not particularly but some fighters do know me, like Clay Guida. We’re not friends, only acquaintances. I met Dan Hardy before at the UFC Expo for UFC 100 and no one knew about him. There wasn’t a line at all and I’m a huge fan of his, so I went up to his booth and we talked for about 20 minutes. At this years Expo he had one of the biggest lines there. No matter where he went there was always a long line. When he did a signing at the Palms Casino I saw him and he actually recognized me but he didn’t know my name. It was pretty cool!
PD: Have you ever met any of the Octagon Girls?
SK: I met Arianny Celeste at last years MMA Awards. I’ve seen Rachelle Leah but never met her. Arianny’s a pretty down earth person. You think she would be stuck up by the way she looks but no she’s a pretty cool girl.
I want to thank Scott for taking time out of his busy schedule to sit down and give me the inside scoop on The Fight Shop. You can visit them at the Fashion Show Mall, Planet Hollywood, and Stratosphere
or online at LVFightshop.com.
John was also kind enough to send over some really awesome TapouT shirts, one for myself and one for a lucky winner!
