LFA CEO Ed Soares has seen his organization’s fighter jets signed by the UFC for many years. Soares was ready to see another top prospect leave the company, with his and his company’s goal of winning as many fighters as possible into the major shows.
“Bia Mesquita,” Soares told MMA Fighting. “She’s really good. I mean, she’s a jiu-jitsu goat, but I felt (she’s) fighting right away in UFC Realm.
“Why do you think she can’t? There’s a 135 pound division. You have a charming girl with a great personality. You’re tough like a claw, you’ll come out there and finish the fight. I mean, I think you’ll check every box.
Meskita is 5-0 as a professional MMA fighter and signed with the UFC to face Irina Alexeva at UFC Rio on October 11th. Four of Meskita’s victory took place in the LFA. In her latest match, the Jiu-Jitsu Wizard won the LFA Women’s Bantamweight title in June with her second TKO victory over Sierra Din Woody at LFA 211.
Jackson McVay is another of the organization’s latest fighter jets, making its life-changing phone call to sign the UFC, making his debut in a losing effort at UFC 318.
It’s just another name Soares, and the LFA must say goodbye, as other fighters like Phumi Nkuta could potentially end up halting from getting his chance.
“Yeah, that’s surreal (to see our fighters signed to the UFC), but that’s what we’re doing,” Soares said. “It’s really easy these days for these guys (in other promotions) to say, ‘Oh, we’re developing.’ Well, I was able to look back at an interview in 2012 when RFA was the first president, where we were the first organisation and we said, “We are the developmental organisation of the UFC.” That’s what we’ve always done.
“And then people see it’s working, and all of a sudden people read my interviews and now they start to take what they’re told to be a developmental organization. But we’re the best to do it, and statistically not. It’s nothing. Statistically, look at it.
“No one is trying to do what we do because we just keep getting better and keeping us off the pack. That’s what we’re trying to do. This is the number one developmental organization in the world.