Exclusive: Zoila Frausto & Julianna Pena on Combate Americas' new deal with AXS TV
Combate Americas is the premier Hispanic MMA sports franchise, rapidly becoming the number two sport after soccer, for Spanish-speaking fans worldwide. Its CEO Campbell McLaren was notably the co-founder of the UFC. The company also owns and operates a multi-platform media studio, La Jaula Studios.
Earlier today it was announced that AXS TV and Fight Network -- subsidiaries of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Inc. -- had begun a partnership with Combate Americas to become the exclusive English-language broadcaster of Combate Americas MMA events in the United States and Canada. AXS TV and Fight Network are slated to air a minimum of 35 of Combate Americas’ hard-hitting live MMA events in 2020, which will also be aired internationally on Fight Network’s international feeds.
Along with these live events, AXS TV and Fight Network will air specially curated Best Of Combate Americas programs, and will develop and co-produce episodes of FN Studios’ popular, Diary, Retrospective and After The Fight series based on the talented Combate Americas roster. The partnership further bolsters AXS TV’s roster of sports offerings, which also includes a new fantasy football show as well as the popular international professional wrestling promotions IMPACT Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling and WOW's Women Of Wrestling.
This major announcement was made today at a press conference with Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren, Anthem’s Chief Corporate Officer Ed Nordholm, MMA legend Tito Ortiz, Alberto 'El Patron' Rodriguez (former WWE Champion Alberto El Rio), Rafa 'Gifted' Garcia, Gustavo Lopez, Zoila Frausto and Julianna Pena. Ortiz and Rodriguez will notably be battling in the main event of Combate Americas’ first, live pay-per-view television event on December 7th in Hidalgo, Texas, as located next to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Other notable Combate Americas signees include professional wrestling star Melissa 'Thunder Rosa' Cervantes from the Lucha Underground television series, two-time world boxing champion Kenia Enriquez, 'Sexy' Dulce Garcia (formerly known as 'Sexy Star') who was an undefeated professional boxer and the first-ever Lucha Underground women’s champion, and MMA world champion Dani Barez from Spain.
Within the November 6th, 2019 press conference, Zoila Frausto and Julianna Pena answered a question from yours truly about what makes Combate Americas -- coming soon to AXS TV and the Fight Network -- an absolute MMA promotion to watch, as transcribed below exclusively for Sportskeeda; video of the full press conference is embedded below as well. More on Combate Americas can be found online at www.combateamericas.com.
On what makes Combate Americas the MMA franchise to watch:
Julianna Pena: "What makes Combate Americas the MMA franchise to watch is the fighters. The fighters are the heart and the soul, they're the meat and potatoes of this company. Without the fighters we wouldn't have anything for these viewers to be watching. Our fighters, like Campbell said, 'mucho mas accion.' They fight with all their 'corazon,' all of their heart, they literally throw everything but the kitchen sink. They throw the kitchen sink at you, too -- so I don't want to leave the kitchen sink out. They put everything into these fights."
"Like Campbell said, we have an 80 percent finish rate. So a lot of these fights aren't going to the judges. These judges, if you've ever been in a fight in a decision, they will make you cry. If you think you wanna fight, they'll tell you, 'Sorry, you lost.' What's amazing about Combate is that a lot of these fights don notgo to the judges. They're making these finishes on their feet all the time. They're making these finishes on the ground all the time. You never know know what you're gonna get. They really bring all the action."
"So you don't wanna blink, you want to make sure you have your popcorn ready because these fights are gonna fly by and these fighters are very fast. They're exciting and they're really exciting to watch."
Zoila Frausto: "It's hard to follow that [from Julianna Pena], but the same exact thing: we all come to fight. I've seen there's a lot of fighters out there like myself, you're either going to finish me or I'm going to go out there and finish you. I think there's a lot of fighters bringing it to the table here, so it makes for really exciting fights and I love it."