The Triangle Choke: Damon Lau Interview
Scott Dryden talks to Damon Lau, the President & Co-Founder of Round 5 MMA
I spent some time speaking with Damon Lau, President and Co-Founder of Round 5 MMA figurines. This company has risen quickly with a high quality, collectible product. Damon and his brother Barron had the forethought to negotiate exclusive contracts with the fighters. Fighters have even sold space on their figurines shorts! That is capitalism at its best! I hope you enjoy the pictures and my interview with Damon. Be sure to check back as we plan to sell the figurines in the near future.
TTC- Speak about your love of MMA.
DL- I think I’m like a lot of fans. I saw UFC 1 with the likes of Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. Then kind of got away from the sport until the late 90s. I think the best way to describe me is this; I was one of those hardcore fans who would be up late at night on sherdog forums getting play by play of Pride Fighting fights when I couldn’t find them on satellite. That is really when my love of the sport really began in the late 90s. I’ve been a diehard fan since. I don’t really watch too much hockey, not much football and no baseball. MMA, I love it.
TTC- You now use your creative talent and business savvy in the world of MMA. How did that process start?
DL- My brother and I own/operate a mid size marketing/advertising business in Toronto Canada. The MMA portion really began when we started doing work for The Fight Network here in Canada. In 2006-2007 Randy Couture was brought on as a spokesman for the channel. Randy and I became really good friends. We were talking about ideas for MMA. I mentioned it would be neat to have MMA action figures. Randy told me if I ever decided to do anything like that to let him know. I really started it on a whim. I put all of my marketing energy into the product to promote it, create a brand and have a really cool product. We were able to create it and really have no competitors in the market place.
TTC- What was your approach in terms of differentiating your product from other action figures in the sports world such as WWE, etc.?
DL- I think what makes us different is a style that really hasn’t been done even in the general toy market. The original inspiration was taken from the Pride Fighting figurines I saw in the Japan market. The company was called Hao. The figurines were almost cartoonish but very detailed. They are a collector’s item even today. I thought the style was really cool as they were geared to adults. We wanted to capture that style in North America. I wanted to capture a style in the essence of comic books but highly detailed. We have created a product that is geared for adults as display and collector items where items such as the WWE figures were for playing with etc. I think that is the key difference between us and them.
TTC- Your business model is to negotiate with the fighter instead of a specific organization. Speak about that strategy.
DL- I’m a big fan of UFC but I’m also a big fan of other organizations out there. From a fan’s perspective I’ve had many favorite fighters who competed in various organizations. When we started this business we took a fan’s point of view which is to see talent from all organizations and not be focused on just one. That is how we decided we would run our program to hit all organizations. We didn’t want to limit ourselves. Most of our fighters are from UFC but in series 4 we have Gina Carano, Cung Le & Fedor which shows we are able to get some of the best fighters outside of the UFC.
TTC- We have had Fedor ranked the #1 fighter in the world for some time and Gina clearly is one of the most popular athletes in all of MMA. Speak about how these deals came to be.
DL- When we go out looking for licenses we search for fighters who are fan favorites. We have our next series launching in May which will be Antonio Nogueira, Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski and Big John McCarthy. In series 4 we have Dan Henderson, Mauricio Shogun Rua, Gina Carano, Fedor and Cung Le. Everyone has been really great to work with. I know Fedor’s group is really excited about the product. He has a hard core fan base and is ranked #1 on most people’s lists.
Thanks Damon and good luck with upcoming releases.
For more information visit www.round5mma.com.
By Scott Dryden
ProFighting-fans.com Staff Writer & Director of MMA Content