The next UFC pipeline: How Texas-based Fury FC continues to evolve into next big feeder league

Eric Garcia admits Fury FC’s path to the top hasn’t been linear, but it’s been right.

Texas has a robust regional scene with the quantity of promotions continually increasing. Fury FC seemingly sits above the state’s unofficial leaderboard in terms of notoriety and crafting top talent in 2023.

But rewind a decade, and the demand for shows exceeded the supply. Garcia has been a martial arts practitioner since 2007 and understood the struggles of the Texas scene in 2010. He didn’t initially get into promoting to make money. Garcia did it as a way to assist teammates.

Current UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard headed Legacy FC (a promotion that merged with RFA to become LFA) back then, but in between those cards, there were few for Houston-based fighters. Garcia, a pro fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, sought to fill the void.

“The demand for fighting was growing at a rapid rate and a lot faster than probably Mick (Maynard) could host events,” Garcia told MMA Junkie. “I had some teammates coming out of Team Tooke, guys that were fighting and training and helping me get ready. We tried continuously to get them on Legacy cards. The cards would always fill up and be booked months and months in advance.

“I said, ‘Well, I have a decent business background. I went to University of Houston and went to school for business. Let me try my hat at this promoting and maybe I can make an extra spot for my own teammates, specifically is how it started. Then, anybody else who isn’t able to get on Mick’s amateur cards can, too. The rest is history.”

The road to national recognition was slow and steady, with bumps in the road and even some left turns. But for every step backward, two more forward followed.

Before Fury FC, Garcia promoted Cage Combat, an amateur-only show. As his name and reputation built in the region, Garcia’s promoting dreams grew, too. It was time to start booking pro fights, too, and officially make his side hustle a full-on business venture.

In 2013, Garcia and then-business partner Jace Pitre officially launched Fury Fighting Championships. For two years, Garcia and Pitre promoted together. The fights were good and the show-running solid, but the financial side of the business was grim. Two years after the launch, Fury FC went from a two-man promoter crew to a solo venture.

“We were losing too much money,” Garcia said. “Jace was like, ‘I just can’t lose money like this no more. I don’t think being in this type of business is for me.’ He cashed out. … I just reinvested my own money into the company again and I took it on my own from there. From 2013 to 2015, I had a partner. From 2015 until today, it’s been all me.

“… He made a great decision on his own and it’s benefited him well. But after he left and I took it over for the first year or two by myself, it really started growing. I started taking more risks. Just because now, I felt like, ‘Well, I can do whatever I want. If I want to spend the money or take a risk on this, it’s going to be my money that’s lost.’”

A decade later, Garcia heads one of the nation’s emerging regional promotions, one that hosts as many events as any other in the United States. This year, Garcia aims to promote 16 events on UFC Fight Pass, not including his pro-am Challenger Series and all-am Amateur Series.

In total, Garcia estimates 26 cards across 12 months. That’s nine more than 2022 and 14 more than 2021. Fury FC is expanding.

“I knew that being in a business, especially like this, it takes up time to build momentum,” Garcia said. “A lot of the time, people want to see longevity before they step out and trust it. For me, two years wasn’t enough time. … I knew that if I just hung in there and continued to do honest business and do things the right way and start making the right fights, eventually it would pop off. I’m pretty happy that I did.”

Garcia estimates he puts in approximately 100 hours of work per week, but there’s still much to be done. Along the way, he enlisted the help of some other key figures and brands in Fury FC’s operation.

Following the aforementioned merger of Legacy FC and RFA, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and former LFA media director Richard Burmaster joined the squad and became the promotion’s vice president and matchmaker.

After five years of promoting solo, including two with Burmaster assisting in the matchmaking, things were in a much better place in 2020, said Garcia.

With multiple homegrown fighters on the verge of a UFC call, Garcia decided to go all-in on a March 2020 event. That’s when another major obstacle reared it’s head: COVID-19.

“That was the day that Governor (Greg) Abbott shut Texas down,” Garcia said. “He did it two hours before we opened the doors to this event. This card had Adrian Yanez vs. Ricky Turcios on it. It had Mana Martinez vs. Peter Caballero on it. Those were going to be two title fights. I still feel like that card I had built, had it taken place, that was going to be the turning point that would’ve really solidified us as an up-and-coming organization.”

Like many regional promotions, Fury FC suffered due to the pandemic. There wasn’t fear of completely going under, but the uncertainty of seemingly endless restrictions had Garcia uncomfortable.

“I think the turning point for me was that we were the first organization – I don’t know if in the U.S. regional, but I know for sure in Texas – we were the first regional promotion to come back with a show when they started little by little lifting the mandates from coronavirus,” Garcia said. “It was hell.”

Slowly but surely, Garcia put on more fights and complied with all state guidelines for holding such shows. Garcia estimated he spent $30,000-$40,000 out of pocket to do so.

Finally out of the woods, March 6, 2021 marked a major rejuvenation for the promotion, for which Garcia credits as kickstarting a wave of momentum for his company. Garcia signed a UFC Fight Pass deal.

Fury FC 44 was a rare matinee Sunday event and the headliner turned out to be the best fight in the promotion’s history when it was needed the most.

C.J. Vergara and Jacob Silva slugged it out in a wild back-and-forth brawl that went down on many hardcore fans’ Fight of the Year list.

“I think during that fight, the needle turned on viewership and it really let people know who we were,” Garcia said.

Vergara was signed to the UFC off of Dana White’s Contender Series shortly thereafter – a path that Fury FC alumni are taking more often. Adrian Yanez, Mana Martinez, Trey Ogden, Ricky Turcios, Jose Johnson, Joseph Holmes, Fernando Padilla, and others have either taken the DWCS path to the UFC or been signed directly in recent years.

The uptick in alumni on the UFC roster shows Garcia he’s doing something right.

“The faster we can put you in front of Mick or Sean and have you on ‘Dana White’s Contender Series,’ or get you the short call-up, the better off we are. It just brings more value to your business. … I’ve been very clear and upfront that my job is to build talent for the UFC.

“Because I am signed to UFC Fight Pass, I feel like those are my parents. Fury FC’s main job is to make the UFC proud and to build viewership for UFC Fight Pass and to make Mick and Sean’s job easier and to create stars on the regional level. So when one of these guys graduates and does well and goes to the UFC, it’s joy.”

In 2023, Garcia estimates 10 alumni will compete on Season 7 of Contender Series, with six already confirmed. The promotion – which has expanded into California, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Louisiana – continues to seek new territories.

Garcia said his plan in the coming years is to sit atop the list of UFC feeder leagues with the hopes of obtaining a reputation similar to that of world-renowned talent builder LFA.

“I saw what Mick did and how hard he worked, and I see where he is now. I see where LFA is now and how they built themselves as a premier organization, probably the biggest organization of UFC Fight Pass,” Garcia said. “I want to be there. I want to be up there with them, and I want people to recognize us as that promotion and the next promotion that is, ‘If we fight for Fury, we’re going to be in the UFC.’ So when I get up every day, too, I look at these young guys that are coming through us and I see that we’re changing guys lives.

“… I want to just keep putting on great fights and having people call their friends. If someone has a UFC Fight Pass account, I want them to be watching the fights and holler at a friend and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get on there right now. You’ve got to see this fight that’s happening.’”