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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=456632" target="_blank">
Mike Mersch new WSoF COO
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<p><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">Attorney Michael </span>Mersch<span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> worked for the UFC from 2007 to 2015, as </span><span style="line-height: 20.8px;">assistant general counsel and then senior VP of business and legal </span><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">affair. For the last year, he has served as </span><span style="line-height: 20.8px;">general counsel for the Nevada Attorney General.</span></p>
Now he has accepted a new job, as chief operating officer of World Series of Fighting, one year after it was offered the first time.
"There's quite a steep learning curve," said Mersch, 45, Kevin Iole for Yahoo Sports.
"What gets me excited to go to work in the morning is that I love this sport; I love combat sports and I love being a part of it. [WSoF CEO] Carlos Silva is a great guy and he has a wealth of experience on the television side and he used to run the Universal Sports Network. But one of the things the World Series of Fighting has never had is someone who has been around and been involved on the MMA side of things from a business standpoint."
"Part of what I want to do is to help this company grow aggressively, but wisely. I don't want to overextend and grow it too fast. We have a really good core group of fighters, and we have to keep those fighters within the stable. And also, we have to go out there and find new talent.
"One of the hallmarks of the World Series of Fighting is that we've had some great matchmaking and we've put on some great, exciting fights. Most of the talent we've had has been young, up-and-coming talent and part of my job is to help increase the exposure for those fighters."
Mersch was particularly keen on was WSoF lightweight champion Justin Gaethje. Keeping fighters of that caliber is going to be just one of the challenges he faces in a space dominated by the UFC, with the Viacom-backed Bellator fighting hard and often successfully for the fight audience.
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