Hexagone MMA is eyeing European expansion after success in
France. | đź“·: Edward Berthelot/Getty

Hexagone
MMA has set its ambitions high for the coming years.

Founded in 2021 by brothers Jerome and Laurent Pourrut, Hexagone
MMA has quickly established itself as one of the main mixed martial
arts promotions in France. To date, the France-based organization
has held 49 events and overseen roughly 326 bouts. While speaking
with Sherdog.com, Hexagone co-founder Jerome Pourrut discussed the
origins of the successful French promotion, its plans for the
coming years, the challenges facing MMA in France, the news of a
single investment fund taking over two rival organizations,

Ares Fighting Championship and Hexagone, the up-and-coming
faces of the local scene, and more.

How Hexagone MMA became one of France’s fastest-growing
promotions

Pourrut’s passion for MMA long predates Hexagone. He previously ran
a company that distributed TV rights not only for MMA, but also for
other combat sports and professional wrestling. That’s when he
approached Cage
Rage, the British promotion that featured many MMA pioneers,
including future
Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholders Anderson
Silva, Vitor
Belfort and Michael
Bisping, among many others who competed under the British
banner. At its peak, Cage Rage was England’s top league, filling
Wembley. The passion it sparked lit the flame that would eventually
become Hexagone.

“I’ve been working around MMA for an extremely long time, since
2005, with my brother,” Pourrut told Sherdog. “We told ourselves
that as soon as MMA got legalized, we’d set up a league here in
France. There were attempts to legalize MMA in 2010, then in 2016,
before finally reaching legalization in 2020. But in 2020, there
was Covid-19, so we waited until 2021 to launch Hexagone. The name
isn’t a reference to the fighting surface, but rather to France.
They say France is a hexagonal country. Our idea was to bring MMA
to the six corners of the Hexagon. You can see it clearly today: we
went to Lille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Aix, Lyon, Strasbourg, and of
course Paris, and we’re going to Toulouse. So if you look at the
shape 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 sport
everywhere in France.”

Hexagone MMA sets sights on European expansion after French
success

It’s clear Hexagone’s ambition goes beyond national borders. Since
2021, the French promotion has also hosted events in the United
Arab Emirates, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and Belgium. The
strategy, apparently, is to expand across Europe over the next few
years. While Pourrut prefers to keep most of the names of the new
countries under wraps, the list looks set to grow in 2027, adding
countries like Switzerland and Spain.

“We’re very strong in France, but we also have a fully
international broadcast across 150 countries, with partners,
broadcasters, and very strong TV networks in certain countries. And
in those countries where we’re extremely strong, we’ll choose to go
there in 2027. I won’t name them all, because I prefer to announce
them officially. But right now, for example, what I can tell you is
that in Germany we have very strong broadcasters, Bild and Dazn.
We’ve already been to Hungary, so our wish is, of course, to go
back with Arena 4, our broadcaster there. In Serbia, we also have
TV Arena, which is extremely strong, extremely powerful. We want to
go to Switzerland. We’d also like to take a little tour over to
Spain. So our vision is that by 2028, we’ll be a predominant player
on the European MMA scale. We operate with a logic of both
identification and a will always to aim higher. We were a bit of
the underdog of MMA in France. Today, I reckon we’re number one by
the number of shows we produce per year and by the number of
spectators we draw into our arenas. That’s to say we fill an arena
to the tune of 12,000 people in a single venue. We’re on figures
comparable to the biggest international and European leagues. So
we’re working to go in that direction. Our latest event, Hexagone
MMA 45, had 137 million views across our Instagram, Facebook, and
TikTok alone. We have all the metrics indicating this push of
Hexagone across French territory, which we want to replicate on a
European scale.”

Hexagone MMA and Ares FC share ownership but remain rivals

Investment fund Slam
now controls the two major MMA promotions in France, Ares and
Hexagone. For the moment, the two will continue operating as
separate entities. Pourrut confirmed there is no intention for them
to merge, at least not on his end. At the same time, Ares and
Hexagone are competing for the same market.

“It’s not a merger at all; it has nothing to do with that,” Pourrut
stated. “Ares stays Ares, Hexagone stays Hexagone. The difference
is the investment fund Slam, which took a 51% stake in Hexagone
MMA. The leadership, the people, remain the same inside Hexagone
MMA. Our will remains the same. Ares remains Hexagone MMA’s
competitor. We have no interest in playing it as a group. I have no
interest, and I’m one of the shareholders of Hexagone MMA. We just
share the investment fund Slam, but each company and each league
has its own vision. Ares is much more centered on Paris. We go
everywhere in France; we go abroad. So it’s two completely
different identities, totally different teams. Think of a football,
rugby, or basketball club. Yes, there are common investors, but the
leagues follow two quite distinct trajectories.”

How UFC France and MMA legalization changed the sport’s
landscape

The local MMA scene has changed since
Jan. 1, 2020, the day of MMA’s legalization in France, but most
importantly since the UFC held its first event on French soil in
2022. Since then, the Nevada-based promotion has run three more
events, with another coming this year on Sept. 5, when highly
touted French prospect Salahdine
Parnasse makes his promotional debut against Dan Hooker.
Of course, the fact that Ciryl Gane
has captured the interim UFC heavyweight championship on two
separate occasions has also helped the movement significantly.

“MMA has been legalized since 2020, so we’re only in the sixth year
of our sport’s legalization. Because it’s true we won’t count 2020,
with the coronavirus. And today, when you look at the figures for
MMA, they’re exceptional. Here I’m not talking about Hexagone MMA,
I’m talking about the sport. We’re talking about a sport that’s
able to hold events thanks to the UFC. It is a very fine thing to
see the UFC in France, because it validates France as, let’s say, a
stronghold of MMA. But above all, it’s since the UFC came to France
that the topic shifted from a sport for the curious asking ’why is
there a cage, can you do anything in a cage, are there no rules?’,
to a sport that has been legitimized. Now, where France needs to
make an effort, I think, is to keep structuring our sport, to keep
making sure more and more young people sign up at MMA clubs, and
that 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 independent
federation

Today, the French boxing commission oversees MMA. Pourrut is also
part of the MMA commission, and he sounded pleased that next year
it will detach from the boxing administration. While it’s too early
to say what will change at the local level, or whether the split
will bring more funding for MMA, some things will surely change in
2027.

“The French federation will become independent at the end of the
year. So that too is extremely important. Things are going to
change, and I hope this will allow MMA’s development to continue in
the right direction, to structure the amateurs and the clubs, and
also allow the French leagues to develop and stand side by side
with the federation. So that’s work that has to be accomplished.
Our federation needs more financial and human resources. Because
it’s true we belong to another federation, but we also need
independence to be able to make certain decisions. So that, I
think, is an extremely important point in the development of our
sport.”

Hexagone was supposed to return on Aug. 7, but the card was
canceled due to the heatwave currently afflicting Europe. The show
was to be headlined by a 155-pound title fight between Wilson
Varela and Damien
Lapilus. The event was set to be held outdoors at the historic
Roman Theatre of Orange, but with conditions like these, it
wouldn’t have been safe for the spectators or the athletes.

“I’m extremely disappointed to have canceled the event at the Roman
Theatre of Orange because we’d already used the location four
times. Last year, we were under an orange heatwave alert, and we
were forced to buy water bottles for every spectator. We learned
that three hours before the show. If we didn’t have the famous
3,000 or 4,000 bottles, we couldn’t let people in. We can’t produce
an event, tell the fighters to prepare, work for months and months
of preparation, only to be told on the day itself that it’s too hot
and we can’t do the show. We were supposed to produce only a
televised show in September, so instead of one, we’re producing
two, to rebalance the number of shows we have to put on. The
heatwave in France today forced us to make adjustments. As we
speak, it’s funny you ask, because I was looking at the weather
forecast. On the day we were supposed to do the show, 38 degrees
(100°F) is already forecast, knowing that the federation requires
the 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 be
rescheduled, but the promoter intends to make the Varela-Lapilus
clash happen. At the same time, Pourrut is already looking for the
next face of French MMA. The movement has produced plenty of
talent, and more are in the pipeline, especially those already
competing in the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation.

“It’s in our DNA to spot the French gems of MMA. You see, we
recruited the likes of Oualy
Tandia, Paul
Denis Navero a.k.a. Paul Dena, Samba Sima,
Mathilde
Aschenbrenner, or Oceane
Samson. It’s in our DNA to have a league that can create the
future stars of MMA in France, who might be stars a few years from
now in the UFC; I hope for them. So yes, of course, we work hard on
recruitment, on scouting. We’re going to announce, before long,
quite a few nice signings of young French fighters who notably
performed at the IMMAF.”

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 grow
in France and is viewed as a legitimate sport.

“Beyond Hexagone MMA, I want to present MMA first and foremost as a
sport. We’re not a business as such, in fact. When we present
fights, we present the discipline. I’m a lover of the discipline.
And what I want to say is that, beyond the number of leagues being
created here and there, the idea is to be the finest ambassador of
our sport. In just six years, we’ve produced 45 events. Hexagone
MMA is one of the finest current success stories, for me, in
European MMA. Just look at the number of shows: we’ve produced more
than 10 this year already. We’re in territory few leagues can
claim, being able to say we’ve done more than 10 events in a single
year. So we’re driven by this will to build ourselves up little by
little. As you said, you came for the second event, and you’ve seen
the whole path we’ve traveled, all the growth we’ve had. We wanted
to 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 into
English by the author.