Me at Work - Photographing the fighters of Legend fighting championship (LFC)

Commissioned to photograph an MMA event in Macau.

A few years back, I was commissioned to photograph a Legend Fighting Championship event in Macau, shooting not only the live bouts but also the official portraits of the fighters.

I found the assignment incredibly enjoyable, and it marked the start of my passion for mixed martial arts (MMA), leading me to closely follow the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ever since.

If you’re not yet a fan and don’t know much about MMA, the UFC is the world’s leading mixed martial arts promotion, renowned for organising and showcasing the best fights on the planet. Its president, Dana White, is a master promoter - some might even say a master salesman 😅. He has an uncanny ability to make you drop whatever you’re doing and spend your hard-earned cash on a pay-per-view fight you had absolutely no interest in just moments earlier.

I have so much to say about MMA and the UFC, but I will leave all that to a later post so that we can get back to point on today's post:

Behind the scenes of photoshoots.

Below is the selfie I took with Australian mixed martial artist (MMA) Rob Lisita.

Below are the official fighter portraits I took of Rob:

In the image above, I focused on Rob’s fists - specifically his knuckles - after noticing they were heavily marked with scar tissue, likely the result of countless hours spent training and striking heavy bags. His knuckles told an important part of his story, so it felt essential to make them the central subject of at least one portrait.

I was "Shot" shooting the action in the ring.

That morning alone, I photographed 15 fighters. Below is a portrait of a Korean fighter I shot - Rob’s opponent at the event. Fortunately, I was given creative freedom to approach the images as I saw fit. With the owners of Legend FC trusting me to do my thing, I created two portraits of each fighter: one high-key (bright) and one low-key (dark).

With the fighter portraits complete, I turned my focus to photographing the fights themselves two days later.

I was filled with excitement and nervous anticipation as I prepared to photograph my first MMA event. I didn’t quite know what to expect. What does it really look like when a punch connects? How fast does everything happen? I was about to find out.

Before I knew it, the opening bell rang and fists, knees, and kicks started to fly. There was no time to fully take in what was unfolding in front of me, no chance to pause and process it all. With my camera pressed to my eye, thoughts came and went just as quickly as the action itself. But there was no time to linger on any of them, I had a fight to document. And that’s exactly what I did.

Here are some pictures from the event: