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 A Brief History of SAFO
An interview with CEO Bob Loblaw
The Saudi Arabia Fighting Organization, SAFO, has been rolling along since September, 11th of last year. The founder became frustrated and sold the org to Bob Loblaw a couple of short months later. Right now it is the premier (if not only) 345+ ID organization in the game.
It hasn't all been smooth sailing. When Loblaw first took over the organization there were around 75 fighters in total, and the average hype in each division was in the 30's. For two months Loblaw recruited away, reinvested profits back into the fighters, and built the numbers up to around 160. Things seemed to be on a great track.
There are, however, many a slip twixt a cup and a lip. A rookie oversight by Loblaw. He didn't realize that many fighters' contracts were coming up at the end of the year. Bob says he believes "we were down to 58 fighters. I thought I was going to be out of the business." "The good news was that the guys we had left were mostly guys who had been fighting and we had been investing in." Said Bob "all of the sudden we had divisional hype in the 50's, 60's and 70's"
So the numbers weren't there for SAFO at the time, but they had a quality group to build around. Bob hit the recruiting trail while taking the organization back down to one event per week. Recruiting during some tough times (while Biro had already offered fighters 2-3 contracts by the time he sent them an offer) took persistency and hard work, and Bob was able to keep putting on good events. He made another rookie mistake scheduling a couple during the Christmas/New Year's Holliday week. Those two lackluster events coupled with the contract oversight could have sunk the organization or at least Loblaw.
Since that time though SAFO has risen from its ashes Bob continued to attract good talent to mix into the good talent that was left. The company had to move on from another employee who was draining profits through an exorbitant salary and who was also causing confusion with the company's talent by putting on KT events. Now Loblaw says he's responsible for it all. Recruiting, booking events, matchmaking. Everything. "we we're lucky enough to have a writer for what I think amounted to one event" said Bob. "Now I've been attempting the write-ups and trying to get out ratings. It's a lot of work."
Now SAFO sits at 130 fighters, and the 12th ranked organization in the world. They have resumed having two events per week. Bobs he knows there is a lot of talent out there between 345k and 354k that hasn't started fighting, or maybe just hasn't found SAFO yet. He says he's confident he will continue to attract big talent to the company now that they have found their footing and are being successful in building stars. "We have 20 fighters in the top 1,000 p4p rankings in the game. Compare that to other ID restricted organizations and I know we're doing something right." I asked Loblaw if he had any advice for new or aspiring organization owners. "yeah, don't do it." He said with a laugh. "or think long and hard before you do. Be ready for a long haul. Get out on the message boards and take your lumps like a man. Some of my networking within the game looks to be finally paying off"
If you haven't participted in one of the strongest ID restricted organizations yet there is no time like the present. There is definitely room for everyone from new 25 year old creations as well as the younger guys who have been properly trained to compete at the top.
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