If you’re fan of international judo, you must be familiar with Fighting Films. Many judo players, including top competitors, grew up watching and learning from their videos.
The genesis of the company was a 1981 documentary called “Ippon”, which celebrated Neil Adams’ World Championships win that year. But it would be eight years later before Fighting Films would embark on its first major production: its coverage of the 1989 Belgrade World Championships.
By then Neil Adams had retired from competition and trying his hand at judo commentary. He was a natural and did the Belgrade commentary with aplomb. It was his lively banter in that video and others that would eventually earn him the “voice of judo” moniker.
There wasn't much judo to be seen on TV or video before Fighting Films started. And throughout the 1990’s the only way to stay abreast of international judo was through Fighting Films productions.
All of it nearly came to an end in 2007 though when Simon Hicks, the driving force behind Fighting Films, died of a brain tumour.
“I was not even born yet when ‘Ippon’ was made in 1981,” Danny says (he was born the next year). Although he grew up around judo it was not his intention to join the family business. He studied newspaper journalism but as fate would have it, a reporter’s life was not meant for him.
When Simon was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2005, Danny decided he wanted to spend every remaining moment with him. Over the next 18 months instead of pursuing journalism, Danny would learn everything there was to learn about Fighting Films. One of the first big challenges was covering the 2005 Cairo World Championships, which took place right after Simon’s first operation.
“He was unable to go, so we had a very young and relatively inexperienced team go out to Cairo and produce a couple of highlights DVDs off the back of it,” Danny recalls.
After Simon died, Danny decided to continue his father’s legacy. The transition was relatively smooth as he had already learned the ropes and the same core team was still in place.
But the industry was rapidly changing. By that time Fighting Films had already begun making the move to DVD, but piracy was a problem. New business models needed to be found.
Although Fighting Films had always had a good relationship with the IJF, its VHS and DVD productions were always its own private endeavours. However, starting in 2010, the company began to assist the IJF in producing live broadcasts of its top events, namely the Grand Prix, Grand Slams, World Masters and World Championships. All of these would be broadcast over the Internet via IJF's YouTube channel.
Fighting Films'
Superstar Turn
Simon Hicks, founder of Fighting Films, forever changed the way judo was presented on TV.