MMA Page

MMA is by far my favorite sport. From a young age, I watched the UFC and MMA grow from a backyard brawling sport, to a legitimately sanctioned sporting event. With the rapid growth in the sport, I have seen all styles of promotion.

Fight promotion has been the core to the success of the sport. With several different events, from all over the world, promoting the sport, I have seen many styles in Fight Posters. The poster is the face of the story and that is what I focus most on in this series.

Each poster, is a story of the event in

1, how the event was promoted.
2, what occured in the lead up to the event.
3, what was going on in the MMA community at that time.

I combine those 3 ideas into all of my work. I hope you enjoy.

UFC 208

for UFC 208 in Brooklyn NYC, I combined the Brooklyn Bridge background with celebratory moments of the Main Event Fighters to show the magnitude of the fight. They were the first women to fight for the UFC Women's Featherweight Title.

UFC 209

for UFC 209 in Las Vegas Nevada, I created the "Good vs Evil" concept to represent how the event was being covered by the MMA media. Tyron Woodley, the UFC Welterweight Champion, was being portrayed by media as a Cry Baby and martyr. Woodley was trying to protest for injustices in the black community, like many NFL players at the time, and was brushed off by media for doing so. Wonderboy on the other hand, is portrayed as the "perfect guy." With a smile and manners, he won the hearts of the press and has yet to be portrayed in any negative way.

UFC 210

UFC 210 was an odd card in Albany, NY. There were weight cutting issues for Daniel Cormier, the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, and sketchy behavior by him on the scale. The fight was also sketchy as Anthony Johnson appeared to give up as soon as the fight went to the ground. The poster was designed to show the battle that the last fight.

UFC 217

Bisping vs GSP has been the talk of MMA in 2017, minus McGregor vs Mayweather. GSP is arguably the greatest fighter to ever fight at Welterweight, 170lbs, and was going to challenge the Middleweight Champ Michael Bisping, at 185lbs. The fight was originally anticipated to happen at UFC 211, but GSP kept having issues and the fight was delayed to UFC 217 in NYC.

Penn vs Rodriguez

BJ Penn is a living legend in the MMA World. He was a fighter that fought at any weight class in the early 2000's. Weighing on average only 160lbs, he fought anyone, any size, anytime. He was extremely successful too. He had a tremendous BJJ game with a developing boxing style, that at the time was very dominant. That time has since passed and now at the final stages of his career, BJ was fed to a young and vicious striker named Yair Rodriguez. This fight was quick and dominant. It showed how time wins all fights and the UFC's need to use old stars to push over young, new talent. I tried to show the shameless promotion the ufc had with BJ's stardom.

MacPPV

Conor McGregor is the biggest thing in MMA period. Last winter, as the Newest Star Wars Movie was being released, I took inspiration from the name "the last jedi" to make this poster. He is truly the last ppv draw for the UFC currently. Ronda Rousey had fallen from grace, GSP was retired at the time, Brock Lesnar had been suspended for steroids, and Jon Jones tested postive as well. McGregor was all they had left. It shows when about 10 months later they allowed the McGregor vs Mayweather Boxing Match.

Anderson Silva Double Exposure

This poster was exploring options available in double exposure. I blended anderson's face, mapped on the Brazilian flag to read the depth of his face, then used a double exposure technique on Photoshop to add the City of Rio as well.

Korean Zombie

Chan Sung Jung is a UFC Featherweight Fighter, who recently returned from a 2 year absence serving his time in the South Korean Army. His exciting fighting style and ability to walk through almost any strike, earned him the name "Korean Zombie." His return sparked my interest in how to learn how to turn someone's face into a zombie on photoshop. After hours of work, this poster was formed.

Arlovski vs Ngannou

This poster was exploring mimicing the style of the UFC posters, while adding my own flare. It was also a fun poster to make due to the hype for Francis Ngannou. The man is a 260lb monster and destroying the competition in the UFC's Heavyweight Division.

El Cucuy

Tony Ferguson is the UFC Interim Lightweight Champion and an absolute monster in the cage. His nickname also comes from his relentless style of moving forward and walking through any shot. The poster was a photoshop edit I created as "fan art" for Tony Ferguson.

Coded and Designed by Eamonn Keenan