MMAHQ.com
Reviewed By: Conor Hogan
July 22, 2011
Aside from the gear reviews that you’ll find on TheCageDoor.net, we’re also striving to bring you the most comprehensive overviews of events and services catered to the MMA/BJJ fighter. Whether you’re training to fight as a hobby or a career, it can start to get expensive (very) quickly. As a result, fighters are always looking for a great deal on quality training equipment. While several retail sites offer quality training equipment, their markup on prices usually keeps it out of the affordability range for most fighters on a budget. On the other side of the coin, cheap gear from sporting goods stores usually falls apart after a couple weeks of hard training. MMAHQ attempts to address this issue with an interesting business model.
| Features | MMAHQ uses a “Deal of the Day” format that should be familiar to anyone who has ever bought anything from WOOT or Amazon. There is only one item for sale at a time, and it changes every night at 11pm CST. They sell a variety of different gloves, pads, shorts, apparel, and protective wear at extremely reasonable prices. While the variety ensures that everyone’s desires are met, it can be a real test of patience waiting for that one piece of gear to show up. That’s part of the fun though. It has me refreshing the page nightly to see what surprises are available.
One of the recently implemented features of MMAHQ is a comment tab dedicated entirely to posting reviews of the day’s deal. While it seems like a great idea in theory, few people ever use the review tab. Most of the user content on the site is anonymous comments that have little to do with the deal itself. It can make it a bit frustrating for the people interested in actually purchasing something, but it’s a small price to pay for a good deal. [rating:4] 4 Stars |
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| Quality | The quality of the actual items isn’t lacking. I’ve bought 5 or 6 things from them, and all of my items arrived in superb condition. Aside from one or two items that I’ve noticed, their quality of stock is amazing. You can find brands such as, Scramble, Tatami, Manto, Tapout, Cleto Reyes, Revgear and many others. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the brands that were offering at wholesale prices.
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| Value | Value is really where MMAHQ shines. My absolute favorite thing about the site is that they offer a five dollar flat shipping rate, regardless of the item that you buy. In fact, the shipping is usually where I see a lot of the savings when I’m purchasing something from them. Instead of having my Scramble spats (grappling tights) shipped from the UK, I purchased them from MMAHQ and saved over 30 dollars.
[rating:5] 5 Stars |
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| Summary | MMAHQ is a fantastic site for any fighter looking for quality gear at affordable prices. It requires a bit of patience to find what you want/need, but the savings usually more than make up for the time lost. | ||
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Overall [rating:4.5] 4.5 Stars
Great review, very informative and helpful. I haven’t ordered from them yet just because its $15 shipping to the UK – but when the product is the right one I’ll be placing my order.
Thanks for the comment Jake! I’m hoping that Aaron and the guys at MMAHQ can find a way to offer the same deals (including the same low shipping rates) to the UK guys in the future. They are rapidly expanding in popularity, and I could definitely see that as a possibility.
What about the news content on the site? Did you read any of it or was your review just based on the deals? I buy deals from them all the time but I always take time to read the news they tend to have interviews that other sites don’t with Japanese guys like Miyata and Takaya and good women’s mma coverage as well.
@Steve
Very valid point man. I should have distinguished that this review was primarily directed towards the sales aspect of their site. I’m a huge fan of Japanese MMA (and all MMA for that matter), and I really enjoy their blog work as well. However, I can’t help but feel that it takes a back seat to the sales. Thanks for the comment man!