MMA pioneer Campbell McLaren has announced that his Combate Americas reality show is set to become a monthly live event broadcast on NBC Universo – a Spanish language cable station. NBC Universo is in just under 42 million U.S. homes, roughly the same as AXS (43 million), and more than HBO (36.5 million) or Showtime (28.7 million). Prelims will air in Spanish on Yaveo, DirecTV’s over-the-top service, which will be the first live sports event the service will do. Campbell is now on the hunt for an English language broadcasting platform.
“We’ve done a great first season , and one event in Miami,” said McLaren, who can proudly boast that Combate Americas is the first fight-themed show to capture a major television award; the show was honored for Best Variety or Reality Series at the 2014 Imagen Awards.
The first show of the new series will be broadcast on September 17th and will air each Thursday at 11 p.m. Eastern and 8 p.m. Pacific time thereafter. The D Casino in Las Vegas will be the host venue with the fights set to be staged outdoors. The main event for the promotion’s debut show will be Ramiro Hernandez (17-7) who squares off against Max Ceniceros (7-2) in a featherweight bout.
Hernandez fought twice previously in UFC. There will also be two fighters off the reality show on the Sept. 17 event, J.C. Llamas (5-0) and Ricky Ricky Palacios (3-1). Llamas who placed second in the reality show, faces Ozzie Alvarez (6-2) in a welterweight fight. Palacios faces Benji Gomez (4-4) in a bantamweight fight.
They will also introduce former Invicta fighter Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc (8-8) in a women’s strawweight fight against Katy Collins (2-1).
“I like World Series of Fighting, but in a way, World Series of Fighting and Bellator, and a bunch of others, they are doing a version of what UFC does, I’m not doing a Spanish version, I think I’m doing a different style of fighting, emphasizing different things, with a little more variety. We’re using guys you won’t see anywhere else because we’re discovering these guys. Our weight classes are 125 to 170 pounds. Like in boxing, I’m taking speed over power in terms of exciting fights. That’s where we focus, fights with a lot of action, a lot of stand-up, and a lot of heart.”
Plans are for a second show in October from South Florida and a third show on Nov. 19 from Las Vegas.
The theme of the shows will be the ‘Road to the Championship’ and will create champions in different weight classes. It will not be a tournament format, but fighters will fight on a regular basis, and in late 2016, the fighters with the most wins in each weight class will battle for the title. Most, but not all, of the fighters will be Hispanic. “Predominately, but we’re not excluding anyone,” said McLaren. “It’s probably not legal to do so anyway. But we do want the fighters to speak Spanish. You have to be bilingual. It’s America. We do want non-Hispanic fighters as well. But we’re looking for guys you haven’t seen before. There’s UFC, there’s Bellator, which is the retirement home for UFC, and World Series, which is for the guys who get expelled from UFC for bad behavior, and us.”
McLaren also said that they are scouting for talent across different cities: “I’m giving people a chance to make a name and giving them the biggest shot of their lives in or out of the cage,” he said. “The response is the guys go for it.”
Ruben Mendiola, the President of NBC Universo commented: “NBC Universo’s partnership with Combate Americas delivers on our promise to provide our Latino viewers rousing and edgy entertainment and the biggest events”.
“I’m opening up this sport to a huge group of people who have been overlooked,” said McLaren. “Donald Trump has made them the bad guys. Nobody else has gone after this group in the MMA business. But Bob Arum said this is the group that kept boxing alive in America.”
@heffiejr