Alchemist Management is a relatively new player in the world of mixed martial arts and although they have been operating for less than a year, they have already proven to be a force to be reckoned with.

For proof of Alchemist's influence, look no further than the massive amount of hype that surrounded the Jorge Rivera and Michael Bisping fight at UFC 127. Alchemist and Rivera's sponsor, Ranger Up, were behind what proved to be one of the most effective promotion campaigns the UFC has ever seen.

Recently, Bleacher Report had the opportunity to speak to Lex McMahon, president of Alchemist Management about the Rivera campaign, UFC 128 and a number of other topics.

Alchemist Management has an interesting CEO: MC Hammer. When asked how he came to be associated with Hammer, McMahon said, "I had the opportunity to meet Hammer on the set of a Super Bowl commercial some years ago and he and I hit it off, we developed a really good rapport and one of the first things we spoke about was MMA."

"From there we just kept in touch and we started going to fights together and the opportunity presented itself for us to sit down and put together a business within the MMA community and it kind of grew from there."

In addition to McMahon and Hammer, the team has Kelly Crigger as their VP of communications. Crigger spent 24 years in the Army before joining the Alchemist team.

Jorge Rivera
Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

"We’ve always had a communications element as far as what we do and Kelly was just a natural fit," McMahon said.

"Kelly is someone I’ve known for quite a few years. He was actually an editor of mine when I was writing stories for Ranger Up. He and I developed a relationship and I knew that he was one of the foremost writers in MMA and had written quite a few books and articles and I also knew that he was getting ready to retire from the Army. I knew that I wanted to have someone like Kelly on our team."

McMahon recalled how his involvement with mixed martial arts began, "It kind of all goes back to Ranger Up and I'll go on record as saying a lot of what I'm doing now is directly attributable to my affiliation with Ranger Up."

"The first article I wrote for them was an interview with a gentleman by the name of Mak Takano, who is a pretty prominent figure in Japanese MMA. Some corporate sponsors saw what I was doing as I started writing more and more MMA articles and I was asked to put some sponsorships campaigns together. It just kind of grew from there."

The next step was when Jorge Rivera asked McMahon to manage him, "He (Jorge) felt that I was a good fit for him. I had been negotiating entertainment contracts from television to music contracts for years so it was a natural fit. So, when Jorge asked me to do it I said, 'Sure, I’d love to.'"

McMahon said that Alchemist's mission statement is simple: "Be the best at what we do."

Nate Marquardt
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Expanding on the philosophy behind that statement, McMahon brought up his past in the entertainment business, "I’d worked with my dad (Ed McMahon) quite a bit during his years in entertainment and one of the things I learned is that if you can give your clients unparalleled service, if you can put them first always, your job becomes much easier."

"We want to be in a state where we’re constantly pushing ourselves. We’ve accomplished a great deal in the roughly eight or nine months that the organization has been out and in the forefront. I’m very proud of what we’ve done, but we’ve got a lot more to do and I’m looking forward to each day that those challenges come in front of us."

McMahon said that Alchemist is careful on who they chose to work with: "It’s about quality of people. I only work with fighters that I genuinely like and believe in. It’s important that they have a great win/loss record and they’re in the right promotion and that sort of thing, but those aren’t the only metrics."

"Character says a lot. We look for guys that have tremendous crossover and marketability, so it’s the character of the person."

Alchemist is not just a three-person organization. McMahon detailed how Alchemist differs from many agencies, "We have someone that handles all of the communications work, helps position the fighters within the public eye, manages their public perception, crafts the media message"

"We’ve got someone that does the analytics to help interpret the fight data that’s out there. We’ve got someone who’s a lead on the team, who’s out handling every aspect of it from the negotiations of contracts with the promotion to the sponsorship negotiations to entertainment opportunities. We also have someone that does athlete relations and then we have a whole other group of people that are working our apparel side."

Brendan Schaub

When asked if he thought Alchemist could be a model for future MMA agencies, McMahon said, "I would hope so. I believe for the industry to continue to grow, there’s got to be a champion for the fighters, there’s got to be someone out there that can level the playing field a little bit, who can give them the right advice, the right service."

"MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world, that’s not disputed. You see actions like where Zuffa acquires Strikeforce, further establishing their position as being the preeminent brand within the sport. With them going from only a handful of shows per year to 31-32 shows per year with tons of international shows. That’s a great sign of where the sport is headed. I think an agency that gets in early with all of the right foundations in place will be poised for sustainability and long-term success."

As an example of what a team like Alchemist is able to accomplish, McMahon points to the Jorge Rivera versus Michael Bisping fight, "I’ll use the example of the relationship I have with Ranger Up and how we leveraged that for Jorge Rivera for his fight at UFC 127. Over half-a-million views on the videos we put out, the UFC putting it on their homepage, the UFC complimenting us on the work"

"We drove revenue for the UFC. We made our fighter more marketable and more valuable to the promotion. So, when you can do those sorts of things, you really are changing the paradigm. That’s what we’re looking to do every day."

"No one’s ever had even remotely as successful a marketing campaign as we had leading into UFC 127 with Jorge, and it was by design. We sat down with our partner (Ranger Up) and crafted out what was a great strategy and we tied the media element to the viral component and leveraged social media and it worked great and I’m really proud of that sort of thing."

Eliot Marshall

"In the end, it was a huge win for Jorge. Even though the fight ended the way it did, Jorge came out being in a better position and that’s all you could ever ask, that your team stick behind you and guide you in the right way and help you make the right decisions and to put you in a position that will increase your brand awareness within the fan base, will increase your value to the promotion and Jorge’s value within the UFC went up, no doubt, and it was a direct relation to the video campaign."

"Each one is a very independent experience so every time we look at an opponent or one of our clients it’s how do we create the best opportunity for them, each one’s a totally unique situation and the Bisping versus Rivera fight was just the perfect storm and the fans really got into it. The polarizing of the subject, that’s ok because people were into it, people were commenting on it, good, bad or indifferent, they were all talking about it. Half-a-million-plus people watched the videos, how many people said, 'I wasn’t excited about this fight, now I’m excited, this is going to be the fight of the night.'”

The topic of a fighter's union has been bandied about as of late, when asked about his take on a union, McMahon replied, "I’m not advocating for a union, I want to be very clear on that. It’s my concern that we address issues and not get caught up in unions and so in some respects I think that (dealing with issues) is the bigger focus here."

Alchemist has three fighters competing at UFC 128: Brendan Schaub, Nate Marquardt and Eliot Marshall.

McMahon discussed the upcoming event, "I’ve got three fighters fighting very big fights. I’ve got a kid who’s well on his way to becoming the heavyweight champion in Brendan Schaub fighting a legend in the sport in Mirko Cro Cop."

"I’ve got Nate Marquardt who was set to face Akiyama, which was a fight that he was really looking forward to and at 4:20 in the morning I’m getting messages from Joe Silva (UFC matchmaker) saying, hey unfortunately due to this terrible situation in Japan we’re going to have to make a change and is that going to work and then we’re navigating that. I have to make sure my client’s ready for that and now we’re fighting Dan and we’re excited by the matchup because we think it’s very favorable for Nate and then Eliot, he took a last-minute substitution fight to get back in the UFC against Luiz Cane."

McMahon then detailed everything that has to happen when a fight like the Marquardt bout is changed at the last minute, "I got a message at 4:20 in the morning from Joe. I’m immediately talking to his coaches, I’m immediately talking to my business partners, I’m talking to Kelly to figure out media message and I’m talking to our client."

"I have all these people on the phone before 5:00 am, talking does this fight make sense? What are our options? Is it better, worse, what’s the right media response?"

"In a pretty quick turnaround we knew we were doing the fight, we felt really confident that it’s a great matchup for Nate. It’s a huge opportunity for Dan and I applaud him for stepping up, he’s a really game opponent, but I wouldn’t want to step in against Nate right now. That says a lot about a person’s character and I think Dan Miller has tremendous character for stepping up and taking advantage of this opportunity."

As for Marquardt and the questions that emerged after his loss to Yushin Okami at UFC 122, McMahon said, "After Nate’s last fight against Okami, he put out a statement that said, 'I’m stepping into the cage, I’m standing in the middle, I’m going to fight, I’m going to put on an exciting fight,' and I don’t think that position has changed for him."

"I think he truly believes that now is his time to reestablish himself, not only as one of the top middleweights, but as one of the best fighters in the world, because Nate really is."

"He’s had a couple of tough fights, but look at Randy Couture or some of the other top fighters; they’ve all had a couple of tough fights. It’s not like boxing where one or two fights hurt your career. This is a very dynamic and fluid sport, it’s a tough sport and having a few losses on your record isn’t the end of the world. I don’t think anybody really questions that Nate is at the top of the middleweight food chain."

McMahon feels that the success of Alchemist is not just based on the level of service they provide to their clients.

The Alchemist president feels that the manner in which the organization conducts business is just as important as the service they provide, saying, "If you can come in with some integrity and some business morals and some business acumen and sophistication, I think you can excel and I think that is part of the reason we are doing as well as we are."

UFC 128: Shogun Rua vs. Jon Jones: Results, News and More