International Fight League’s Kick Ass PR

(Jamal Patterson, salesman by day, mixed martial art ass-kicker by night, via NYTimes)

If you enjoy witnessing thorough beat-downs, this is your lucky week.

This Friday night at the Meadowlands scary dudes with nicknames like The Janitor and The Silencer will be punching and kicking the daylights out of each other at a “mixed martial arts” event held by the International Fight League (IFL).

What do these fighty dudes have in common with the NBA or the U.S. Tennis Association? The same person has done PR for all of them. Joe Favorito is currently the head of communications for the IFL. To him, successful sports PR is all about the personal stories, so shifting jobs in tennis to basketball, to mixed martial arts wasn’t that much of punch in the gut.

Here’s a sampling of the placements leading up to the brawl:

New York Times: “The Businessman Who Finds Time to Fight”

NYPost.com video feature on the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy

CBS Sports feature on Mark Miller (Chicago, Ill.):

IFL preview in the lower Hudson Journal News

Canadian Press feature on Chris Horodecki (London, Ont.):

SI.com Q-and-A with featherweight titleholder Waggney “The Silencer” Fabiano

ESPN.com feature on trainer Martin Rooney

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