MMA and Music - CFM Look to Change the Record

It's been quite the year for those fight loving beatsters Coalition Fight Music and their recent release of "The Album" surely is a suitable apex for 2010.

CFM have been making waves on both sides of the pond and I was lucky enough to get chance to chat with Tony Savo about their hopes for next year and the sum of their accomplishments in 2010.



Thanks for taking the time. It's been a truly hectic time for you guys, how are things going at the minute?

Things are going great. We have been very fortunate to link up with some extremely talented/like minded people, doing what we love to do. Everyday its like waking up to Christmas :)

What inspires you to make music?

In our opinion, the fight world is the most exciting business in the world to be a part of. When we see fighters climbing up the ranks and making a name for themselves it compels us to do the same with the music. Great fighters need great music behind them. We feel like we have been blessed w the opportunity to be the official mouth piece for a lot of talented/hard working individuals.

How did you first get involved with mixed martial arts?

PrideFC videos/DVD's is what really got us into the sport. We would get together for drinks and Bar BBQ with all the boys and watch the best of the best battle it out in Japan.

How did you originally come up with the idea for CFM?

We were all huge fight fans and saw the parallels between being a fighter and an independent musician. (You know fighting to make good music and fighting to get it played/heard.) then we started thinking... why not make signature tunes for fighters? We could sponsor them (fighters) with the proceeds of our music and really help push the sport into the mainstream.

What has been the highest point for CFM so far?

I think the highest point for CFM so far would have to be all the support we've gotten from others in the fight biz. We just wrapped up our debut release, "The Album" MMA's 1st MixTape http://bit.ly/gW7S57 . And the response we've had from everybody has been wonderful. We got guys like Travis at MMAScrapsRadio, FoxSports/ESPN/Tapout Magazines Adam Villarreal, and MMA WEEKLY's Damon Martin (not to mention The BBC 1xtra's Charlie Sloth) standing behind us, and even doing cameo's on the CD. Its been phenomenal!

What's been your favourite fight of 2010?

That's a hard one, it'd probably have to be Sonnen vs Silva due to the epic battle they both endured. Sonnen came out of nowhere- promoted the fight himself and shut up a lot of naysayers, and Anderson showed the world that a real champion is dangerous down to till the last second of the final round.

What do you think about the trends of fighters choosing walk out music? Do you think it's true to say that most choose to walk out to either Rap or Heavy Metal?

Fighters should be getting paid for who they choose to showcase. Obviously heavy metal has dominated the scene so far but were really starting to see an influx of fighters gravitate towards the newer rap/hiphop/grime songs that are starting to emerge.

What CFM track are you most proud of?

That's a great question. In my heart of hearts it would have to be the song "Darius." The song is named after a real kid who suffers from a disease called "PVL". Every night he has numerous seizures that he must do battle with/endure. Its the worst thing you could imagine if your a parent but the kid still fights tooth and nail every night and finds reasons to smile. He's a real inspiration to the band.

What do you have planned in 2011?

Well 2010 has been a huge year for us and were looking to keep expanding in the year to come. The UK has been very supportive of CFM and so were looking to continually build long term relationships with guys like UCMMA, WarTime TV, and Halo PR. Since we follow the UK fight scene so closely we also fancy ourselves as UKMMA ambassadors to the US and always look for opportunities to tell the world whats going on in the United Kingdom.

Is there anyone you'd like to thank at this point?

Coalition Fight Music would really like to thank Dave O'Donnell, UCMMA, Zara at Halo PR, Nick "The HeadHunter" Chapman and all the great UKMMA fighters, gyms, journalist, sponsors and fight fans who make this the best sport in the world.