Stephane Patry, CEO of TKO Championship Fighting has announced he will be stepping down and resigning his duties as of the 15th of November.
TKO is the largest and most well-known MMA organization in Canada and has launched the careers of many successful fighters including Georges St. Pierre, David Loiseau, Mark Hominick, Patrick Cote, Sam Stout, Krzysztof Soszynski, and Crafton Wallace.
Patry was CEO and President of the promotion for the past eight years and promoted nearly 50 MMA events during that time under the TKO and Ultimate Combat Challenge banners.
“After eight years as president of the organization, I am ready to undertake new challenges,” Patry said in a press release sent out yesterday. “I will continue to manage the athletes that I am currently involved with and I have received a few interesting offers which I need to follow and develop.”
The past eight years weren’t all chocolate and roses for Patry however as he has also gone through some difficult times with several fighters under his management, most notably David Loiseau. Patry and Loiseau had a well-documented falling out right before “The Crow’s” UFC middleweight title fight against Rich Franklin in 2006. Loiseau contends that Patry blackballed him for not signing a new management contract with him and things escalated from there; Patry has his own side of the story as well.
The sudden news has brought an uncertain future to the TKO promotion. TKO 36 was scheduled to take place on December 5 in Montreal, Quebec but has been cancelled. TKO’s official website has also been temporarily taken offline.
bvrasp
JStein
richard
MAD
MMAKansas
whao…
yeah, very suprising, big news that probably doesn’t mean anything to most US mma fans but has huge implications for Canadian MMA.
I hope TKO doesn’t have to close up shop
If they do, others will fill the void. If there is a true market for MMA in Quebec, there will be supply.
i really do hope they find a replacement for Stephane and quick, i would hate to see things get messed up to bad because TKO and UCC have been a very big part of Canadian MMA for a long time.
Not surprising….