Ian Dean is a busy man. The 30-year old resident of Dagenham, Essex is an employee of the Warrior Promotions fight company in the United Kingdom.

Dean’s responsibilities with Warrior Promotions consists of serving as the matchmaker of the Cage Warriors UK promotion and is also the manager of England’s first-ever entry into the M-1 Challenge.

Team England made a splah in its debut this past April 29 in Tokyo, where it defeated host country Japan by a 4-1 score.

England will look to move to 2-0 on Friday, June 5 when it clashes with Team France at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City. In anticipation of the event, M-1Global.com recent caught up with Dean to discuss the event, Cage Warriors, as well as the growth of MMA in England.

M-1Global.com: How did you get involved in MMA in the UK?

Ian Dean: I got into MMA after being a fan and following the scene on the internet. Back in 2002 I met the then-Cage Warriors promoter Dougie Truman at Cage Warriors 2 in London and I asked if I could do anything to help out in the future. After a few months he asked if to help on the website and with press releases. From then on I slowly learnt the trade, making contacts with fighters, managers, promoters, going to more shows, studying how the business side of the game works. By the end of 2004, I was helping put fights together and working backstage. Finally by 2005, Warrior Promotions was formed and we slowly started to manage fighters. You can access a list of fighters we manage at http://www.cagewarriors.com/cwfighters.htm.

M-1Global.com: What do you think of Team England’s chances to make it to the finals of the 2009 M-1 Challenge Championship?

Ian Dean: Yeah, I think the guys have a great shot to get into the final. Confidence within the team is high, we have a lot of support from U.K. fans and we play our last series at home in September. Considering so many guys were unavailable for a variety of reasons, we have a strong team who on their day could beat anyone and I feel will be going onto bigger things in the future.

M-1Global.com: MMA is growing tremendously in the U.K. Can you talk about how it has happened?

Ian Dean: People don’t realize that MMA has been going in the U.K. for over 10 years now and caged events have been held regularly since the UFC first came to the UK back in 2002. I also feel that the UFC holding regular events in the U.K. since 2007 has really helped to tap the mainstream audience thanks to the financial and marketing clout. Plus, shows like Cage Warriors – and Cage Rage before that – helped get MMA noticed by the British public. Also, the impressive performances of U.K. fighters such as Ian Freeman, Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy and others has also helped to push the sport.

M-1Global.com: The U.K. has some strong fighters in the team but which team member do yo consider as the captain of the team and why?

Ian Dean: I’m really proud of the team, they are a strong cohesive unit and get on really well. I know that whilst out in Japan they all nominated Ian “M-16” Butlin as the team captain and represent the team, so I have to go with the flow. But seriously, Ian is a really charismatic fighter and his natural exuberance and personality definitely lifts the team spirits and is a good mouth piece for the team.

M-1Global.com: The U.K. team will fight team France in Kansas City on June 5. What do you expect to happen?

Ian Dean: I’m expecting Team England to come through another tough best-of-five series. I have been a supporter of French MMA for a long time and they have some really skilful fighters. However, I think Team England are such a close unit and will be riding high after their win in Japan. I think that coupled with the likes of Rob Broughton, Matt Thorpe and Simon Phillips will see us through, but I do expect it to be very close.

M-1Global.com: The win against Japan was impressive but will there be any changes in the team and if so who and why?

Ian Dean: We were really pleased by the result and the reaction we got from it, I think it made the 15 other teams in the competition sit up and take notice of not only of Team England but also UK MMA. We planned to put out an unchanged team for June 5 but light heavyweight Tom Blackledge is out due to injry and we are working on a replacement.