Dave Fretz - MMA Graphic Designer

Dave Fretz - MMA Graphic Designer‍

Dave Fretz, private graphic designer for the Ultimate Fan Experience and numerous MMA fighters/promotions, discussed some of his upcoming collaborations on 12/06/2022 with UFE media.

Dave is a self taught graphic designer with a marketing major was having success in the music industry with back end work such as promotion and sales. Dave picked up photography as a side gig during his regular 9-5. While working photography for music events, he started receiving requests for graphic design. Over lots of time practicing in a church that had design software, Dave saw substantial growth.

During the Covid-19 pandemic when there weren't photography jobs is when Dave got into #MMATwitter. Through his self taught knowledge on photoshop software, he decided to make fan art for MMA fighters and post them to Twitter.

While numerous fighters from major promotions were noticing Dave's work, he made a custom pair of shoes for The Ultimate Fighter season 27 runner up, Joe Giannetti. Followed by Mark Colman and Josh Hill.

The first notable “big name” fighter Dave remembers working with that felt surreal, Calvin Katter, who he still works with to this day. Dave remembers having to really focus on pushing his fandom aside to put Katter’s vision together.

Recently, 3 years ago, Dave was able to quit his full time job, and start a MMA graphic design based business in Canada. 

Dave’s newest path is working for the Ultimate Fan Experience whose goal is to bring fans closer than ever to their favorite fighters by holding digital collectables that gain in value after fighter success, as well as gain holders points to unlock. Examples of things these points can unlock are training sessions, fishing trips, Q&A’s all with your favorite fighters.

Fretz, a MMA fan himself, summarized the concept of UFE as “wild.” At the date of this interview, fans had the opportunity to enter for a chance to win a fishing trip with Niko Price. Dave said, “I love fishing, going on a fishing trip with Niko Price? That would be amazing. The stories you'd come back with!”...“MMA as a sport is still relatively young, I remember a time when there was no such thing as MMA. When the UFC first started that's when i first got into it. It was all about style vs style. And because the sport is relatively new, there's still a really great opportunity. It's the perfect time for UFE to embed themselves in the community with the fighters. Think about trying to get close to LeBron James or Michael Jordan. It's not obtainable. But we're fortunate enough to be fans of the sport where it is possible and as you meet these guys you realize they're real people and they've got passions and pastimes and things that we share.”

‍