Management Team
Charles McCarthy
A fan since the first UFC, Charles McCarthy first became involved in MMA in 1999. Traveling the world and training with the best and most accomplished fighters in the world, Charles debuted in the UFC at twenty-four becoming one of the youngest MMA fighters on the UFC roster. Charles earned his BJJ Black Belt under Ricardo Liborio who is world famous Carlson Gracie black belt and founder of American Top Team.
Beginning his role in management during his active days of competition, Charles has represented a wealth of UFC talent and negotiated and closed deals with the top MMA organizations around the world.
Steven Berkeley, Esq.
Steven Berkeley is a managing member and one of the founders of Ion Sports Management, LLC. Mr. Berkeley is an attorney licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey and Florida. In addition to Mr. Berkeley’s business-related responsibilities at Ion, Mr. Berkeley is also responsible for all legal matters pertaining to Ion’s business and its clients. Mr. Berkeley began his legal career with the New York law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP working in the firm’s Employee Benefits department. Mr. Berkeley then moved to the New York office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, where he continued his legal career in that firm’s Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits department. After leaving FFHSJ, Mr. Berkeley worked briefly at Pfizer, Inc., where he served as Associate Tax Counsel based out of Pfizer’s world headquarters in Manhattan. After relocating to Florida, Mr. Berkeley served as Vice President, Employee Benefits, at Applied Digital Solutions, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company that developed global positioning satellite and radio frequency identification technology. For the past eleven (11) years, Mr. Berkeley has worked for Peachtree Settlement Funding and its successor, JGWPT Holdings, LLC, the parent company of the J.G. Wentworth and Peachtree companies, both of whom are leading buyers of high-quality, but generally illiquid, financial assets, such as structured settlement and lottery prize payment streams.
Mr. Berkeley’s involvement in Mixed Martial Arts began as a student in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Mr. McCarthy’s American Top Team gym in Boynton Beach, Florida.
After several years of training, Mr. Berkeley decided to combine his passion for MMA with his legal career and joined with Mr. McCarthy in forming Ion, where Mr. Berkeley and Mr. McCarthy share a common vision, which is to bring a level of professionalism and ethics to the management of MMA fighters and other professional athletes that exceeds that of any other management company in the history of the industry.