Few weeks ago I came across something that stopped me mid-scroll.

A guy named Brandon Soo Hoo — actor, martial artist, storyteller — put on a martial arts event at a warehouse in LA. It was called Sundown 001. Five fights, a night market, music, food, art. And an energy that felt nothing like anything else in combat sports right now.

I watched their content. I went to their website. And I thought: this is it.

Not "this is perfect." But "this is the blueprint."

So let me tell you exactly what they did right — and what I would do if I were starting a fight promotion from zero today.

First, forget everything you think a fight promotion looks like

Most people who want to start a promotion immediately start thinking: How do I get sanctioned? How do I get a TV deal? How do I get sponsors?

Wrong order.

The first question should be: What do I actually want to build?

Because if your answer is "a smaller UFC" — stop. The UFC already exists. A smaller version of it isn't interesting. It's not interesting to fans, it's not interesting to brands, and it won't be interesting to fighters who can go to 50 other shows doing the same thing.

Sundown didn't try to be a smaller UFC. They tried to be something else entirely.

Start with culture, not combat

The fight card is not the product. The experience is the product.

Sundown built an event that was equal parts warehouse party and martial arts showcase. Night market. Food. Music. Art. A theme. A vibe you couldn't find anywhere else. The fights were the anchor, but the culture around them was what made people actually want to show up.

This is what we did with the first Dirty Boxing event in Miami. Warehouse. Invite-only. No big promotion. Word of mouth only. People showed up not knowing exactly what to expect — and that uncertainty was the point.

Combat sports, at their best, are cultural. They always have been. Boxing gyms in tough neighborhoods. Muay Thai in Thailand. Pride FC in Japan. The problem is most promotions strip the culture out and just deliver a fight card in an arena with a beer sponsor.

Put the culture back in. That's your edge.

Make the promoter the face — and make sure they already have an audience

Brandon Soo Hoo didn't start from zero. He had a built-in following. He's a storyteller. He understands production and editing. He was able to communicate his vision in a way that made people believe in it before the first fight was ever booked.

This is underrated as hell.

If you're starting a promotion, you need a face. And that face needs to already have people listening to them. You don't have time or money to build that from scratch. Find someone who already has the community, the credibility, or the cultural relevance — and build the promotion around that.

The alternative is spending money you don't have trying to build an audience for a brand nobody knows yet. That's a losing game from the start.

Make it mysterious. Create FOMO. Then under-promote it.

Sundown's website is almost nothing. A logo. A flyer. A link to buy tickets. An email. That's it.

And somehow that made me want to know more.

In a world where every promotion is screaming for your attention — running ads, doing press releases, flooding your timeline — the most disruptive thing you can do is whisper.

Make people feel like they might miss something. Like there's a door that not everyone gets through. Like it's a real event, not a product being sold to them.

The first dirty boxing event felt like that. We didn't know how many people would show up. Nobody did. And hundreds showed up anyway, because the mystery and the word of mouth were more powerful than any ad campaign.

Spend less on promotion. Invest that in the experience itself.

Keep the first one cheap. Proof of concept only.

Sundown worked on this for a year. They ran into all the problems you run into in fight promotion — fights falling through, sanctioning headaches, logistics nightmares. But they kept the operation lean.

No big broadcast deal. No heavy marketing spend. No inflated production budget.

That was the right call.

Your first show is not a business. It's a proof of concept. It's you showing yourself — and everyone else — that you can actually execute. That you can pull people in. That the thing you imagined actually works in real life.

One show is not a business. The second, the third, the fourth — that's where the business starts to appear. That's when the schedule becomes clear. That's when you can walk into a sponsor conversation with receipts. That's when distribution starts to make sense.

Do the first one small. Do it well. Let that be the story.

The branding is doing more work than you think

Go look at the Sundown logo. Their color palette. The way the flyer looks. It doesn't look like a fight promotion.

That's the whole point.

Most promotions think they need to look a certain way — aggressive fonts, dark colors, three-letter acronyms, a logo that vaguely resembles a cage. It's a uniform. And it signals to everyone outside the fight world: this is not for you.

Sundown looks like something you'd see at a boutique festival or a creative agency. And that opens a door to an audience that combat sports has never been able to walk through.

If the brand looks different, it attracts different people. Different press. Different sponsors. Different fighters who want to be associated with something new.

Your branding is a message. Make sure it's saying the right thing.

Here's the simple version of the playbook:

1. Build an experience, not just a fight card
2. Lead with culture — venue, music, food, art, theme
3. Find a face who already has an audience and can tell the story
4. Under-promote it. Mystery beats marketing.
5. Keep the first one cheap. Proof of concept only.
6. Make the branding look nothing like anyone else in the space
7. Don't think about broadcast, TV deals, or big sponsors yet. Execute first.

Sundown did almost all of this right. And the internet noticed.

The guys reaching out to them now? That's what happens when you build something real.

I'm working on something with a similar DNA. More on that soon.

Best, Adam

PS: If you're building something in combat sports and want to think through the business side. Reach out or apply HERE.

PPS: Want to catch up on past newsletters? Browse the full archive HERE.​

PPPS: Check out Sundown HERE​