Hexagone MMA is eyeing European expansion after success inFrance. | 📷: Edward Berthelot/Getty
HexagoneMMA has set its ambitions high for the coming years.
Founded in 2021 by brothers Jerome and Laurent Pourrut, HexagoneMMA has quickly established itself as one of the main mixed martialarts promotions in France. To date, the France-based organizationhas held 49 events and overseen roughly 326 bouts. While speakingwith Sherdog.com, Hexagone co-founder Jerome Pourrut discussed theorigins of the successful French promotion, its plans for thecoming years, the challenges facing MMA in France, the news of asingle investment fund taking over two rival organizations,Ares Fighting Championship and Hexagone, the up-and-comingfaces of the local scene, and more.
How Hexagone MMA became one of France’s fastest-growingpromotions
Pourrut’s passion for MMA long predates Hexagone. He previously rana company that distributed TV rights not only for MMA, but also forother combat sports and professional wrestling. That’s when heapproached CageRage, the British promotion that featured many MMA pioneers,including future Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholders AndersonSilva, VitorBelfort and MichaelBisping, among many others who competed under the Britishbanner. At its peak, Cage Rage was England’s top league, fillingWembley. The passion it sparked lit the flame that would eventuallybecome Hexagone.
“I’ve been working around MMA for an extremely long time, since2005, with my brother,” Pourrut told Sherdog. “We told ourselvesthat as soon as MMA got legalized, we’d set up a league here inFrance. There were attempts to legalize MMA in 2010, then in 2016,before finally reaching legalization in 2020. But in 2020, therewas Covid-19, so we waited until 2021 to launch Hexagone. The nameisn’t a reference to the fighting surface, but rather to France.They say France is a hexagonal country. Our idea was to bring MMAto the six corners of the Hexagon. You can see it clearly today: wewent to Lille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Aix, Lyon, Strasbourg, and ofcourse Paris, and we’re going to Toulouse. So if you look at theshape of France, we went absolutely everywhere. It’s true that MMA,or combat sports in general, have always been centered on Paris.And our will, precisely, was to bring this magnificent sporteverywhere in France.”
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Hexagone MMA sets sights on European expansion after Frenchsuccess
It’s clear Hexagone’s ambition goes beyond national borders. Since2021, the French promotion has also hosted events in the UnitedArab Emirates, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and Belgium. Thestrategy, apparently, is to expand across Europe over the next fewyears. While Pourrut prefers to keep most of the names of the newcountries under wraps, the list looks set to grow in 2027, addingcountries like Switzerland and Spain.
“We’re very strong in France, but we also have a fullyinternational broadcast across 150 countries, with partners,broadcasters, and very strong TV networks in certain countries. Andin those countries where we’re extremely strong, we’ll choose to gothere in 2027. I won’t name them all, because I prefer to announcethem officially. But right now, for example, what I can tell you isthat in Germany we have very strong broadcasters, Bild and Dazn.We’ve already been to Hungary, so our wish is, of course, to goback with Arena 4, our broadcaster there. In Serbia, we also haveTV Arena, which is extremely strong, extremely powerful. We want togo to Switzerland. We’d also like to take a little tour over toSpain. So our vision is that by 2028, we’ll be a predominant playeron the European MMA scale. We operate with a logic of bothidentification and a will always to aim higher. We were a bit ofthe underdog of MMA in France. Today, I reckon we’re number one bythe number of shows we produce per year and by the number ofspectators we draw into our arenas. That’s to say we fill an arenato the tune of 12,000 people in a single venue. We’re on figurescomparable to the biggest international and European leagues. Sowe’re working to go in that direction. Our latest event, HexagoneMMA 45, had 137 million views across our Instagram, Facebook, andTikTok alone. We have all the metrics indicating this push ofHexagone across French territory, which we want to replicate on aEuropean scale.”
Hexagone MMA and Ares FC share ownership but remain rivals
Investment fund Slam now controls the two major MMA promotions in France, Ares andHexagone. For the moment, the two will continue operating asseparate entities. Pourrut confirmed there is no intention for themto merge, at least not on his end. At the same time, Ares andHexagone are competing for the same market.
“It’s not a merger at all; it has nothing to do with that,” Pourrutstated. “Ares stays Ares, Hexagone stays Hexagone. The differenceis the investment fund Slam, which took a 51% stake in HexagoneMMA. The leadership, the people, remain the same inside HexagoneMMA. Our will remains the same. Ares remains Hexagone MMA’scompetitor. We have no interest in playing it as a group. I have nointerest, and I’m one of the shareholders of Hexagone MMA. We justshare the investment fund Slam, but each company and each leaguehas its own vision. Ares is much more centered on Paris. We goeverywhere in France; we go abroad. So it’s two completelydifferent identities, totally different teams. Think of a football,rugby, or basketball club. Yes, there are common investors, but theleagues follow two quite distinct trajectories.”
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How UFC France and MMA legalization changed the sport’slandscape
The local MMA scene has changed since Jan. 1, 2020, the day of MMA’s legalization in France, but mostimportantly since the UFC held its first event on French soil in2022. Since then, the Nevada-based promotion has run three moreevents, with another coming this year on Sept. 5, when highlytouted French prospect SalahdineParnasse makes his promotional debut against Dan Hooker.Of course, the fact that Ciryl Ganehas captured the interim UFC heavyweight championship on twoseparate occasions has also helped the movement significantly.
“MMA has been legalized since 2020, so we’re only in the sixth yearof our sport’s legalization. Because it’s true we won’t count 2020,with the coronavirus. And today, when you look at the figures forMMA, they’re exceptional. Here I’m not talking about Hexagone MMA,I’m talking about the sport. We’re talking about a sport that’sable to hold events thanks to the UFC. It is a very fine thing tosee the UFC in France, because it validates France as, let’s say, astronghold of MMA. But above all, it’s since the UFC came to Francethat the topic shifted from a sport for the curious asking ‘why isthere a cage, can you do anything in a cage, are there no rules?’,to a sport that has been legitimized. Now, where France needs tomake an effort, I think, is to keep structuring our sport, to keepmaking sure more and more young people sign up at MMA clubs, andthat there are more and more clubs available everywhere in France.And there you go: it’s difficult, long work.”
French MMA prepares for a new era with an independentfederation
Today, the French boxing commission oversees MMA. Pourrut is alsopart of the MMA commission, and he sounded pleased that next yearit will detach from the boxing administration. While it’s too earlyto say what will change at the local level, or whether the splitwill bring more funding for MMA, some things will surely change in2027.
“The French federation will become independent at the end of theyear. So that too is extremely important. Things are going tochange, and I hope this will allow MMA’s development to continue inthe right direction, to structure the amateurs and the clubs, andalso allow the French leagues to develop and stand side by sidewith the federation. So that’s work that has to be accomplished.Our federation needs more financial and human resources. Becauseit’s true we belong to another federation, but we also needindependence to be able to make certain decisions. So that, Ithink, is an extremely important point in the development of oursport.”
Hexagone was supposed to return on Aug. 7, but the card wascanceled due to the heatwave currently afflicting Europe. The showwas to be headlined by a 155-pound title fight between WilsonVarela and DamienLapilus. The event was set to be held outdoors at the historicRoman Theatre of Orange, but with conditions like these, itwouldn’t have been safe for the spectators or the athletes.
“I’m extremely disappointed to have canceled the event at the RomanTheatre of Orange because we’d already used the location fourtimes. Last year, we were under an orange heatwave alert, and wewere forced to buy water bottles for every spectator. We learnedthat three hours before the show. If we didn’t have the famous3,000 or 4,000 bottles, we couldn’t let people in. We can’t producean event, tell the fighters to prepare, work for months and monthsof preparation, only to be told on the day itself that it’s too hotand we can’t do the show. We were supposed to produce only atelevised show in September, so instead of one, we’re producingtwo, to rebalance the number of shows we have to put on. Theheatwave in France today forced us to make adjustments. As wespeak, it’s funny you ask, because I was looking at the weatherforecast. On the day we were supposed to do the show, 38 degrees(100°F) is already forecast, knowing that the federation requiresthe maximum temperature inside the cage to be below 30 degrees(86°F).”
At the moment, there’s no official news on whether the card will berescheduled, but the promoter intends to make the Varela-Lapilusclash happen. At the same time, Pourrut is already looking for thenext face of French MMA. The movement has produced plenty oftalent, and more are in the pipeline, especially those alreadycompeting in the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation.
“It’s in our DNA to spot the French gems of MMA. You see, werecruited the likes of OualyTandia, PaulDenis Navero a.k.a. Paul Dena, Samba Sima,MathildeAschenbrenner, or OceaneSamson. It’s in our DNA to have a league that can create thefuture stars of MMA in France, who might be stars a few years fromnow in the UFC; I hope for them. So yes, of course, we work hard onrecruitment, on scouting. We’re going to announce, before long,quite a few nice signings of young French fighters who notablyperformed at the IMMAF.”
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Hexagone MMA’s goal: become a European MMA success story
The English-speaking public can catch Hexagone events on Dazn.Pourrut ended by stating his hope to ensure MMA continues to growin France and is viewed as a legitimate sport.
“Beyond Hexagone MMA, I want to present MMA first and foremost as asport. We’re not a business as such, in fact. When we presentfights, we present the discipline. I’m a lover of the discipline.And what I want to say is that, beyond the number of leagues beingcreated here and there, the idea is to be the finest ambassador ofour sport. In just six years, we’ve produced 45 events. HexagoneMMA is one of the finest current success stories, for me, inEuropean MMA. Just look at the number of shows: we’ve produced morethan 10 this year already. We’re in territory few leagues canclaim, being able to say we’ve done more than 10 events in a singleyear. So we’re driven by this will to build ourselves up little bylittle. As you said, you came for the second event, and you’ve seenthe whole path we’ve traveled, all the growth we’ve had. We wantedto build our success in France step by step. And in the long run,we’re going to build a real European success.”
This interview was conducted in French and translated intoEnglish by the author.
