Combate Americas announces another stellar ratings victory over the competition for 2018 “Copa Combate” live television event

NEW YORK– December 17, 2018– Combate Americas today announced ratings for its biggest event of 2018 – “COPA COMBATE” – the second-annual, year-end extravaganza headlined by a one-night, eight-man Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) featherweight (145 pounds) tournament, live on television on Univision and UDN in the U.S., Azteca 7 in Mexico and on Facebook Watch from Fresno, Calif. on Friday, Dec. 7.

Despite its start time of midnight ET, the 2018 “COPA COMBATE” event, featuring eight standout competitors representing eight different countries at Save Mart Center, delivered a total of 452,000 persons 2+, including 240,000 adults in the coveted 18-49 age group, on the Univision and UDN simulcast, beating Telemundo’s boxing programming on the same night, in the same time slot, by over 50,000 viewers.

In Mexico, the event delivered over 3.89 million live broadcast television viewers on Azteca 7.

“COPA COMBATE has the biggest trophy in sports, and now has the biggest audience,” said Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren.  “This year’s tournament truly highlighted the super competitive, country versus country rivalries that you see only in Combate Americas action.”

The live, U.S. television viewership represents a remarkable increase of over 60 percent from the inaugural “COPA COMBATE” show, which garnered 280,000 live viewers in the same time slot, on Telemundo, on November 11, 2017.

The live show ranked second in its time slot for sports programming in the general market, bested by only ESPN, and beating FOX Sports 1 and The NFL Network, among others, and topped the primetime audience of Bellator 209 on Paramount Network on November 17 by approximately 70,000 viewers.

The Facebook Watch stream of the “COPA COMBATE” preliminary bout card, which included the quarterfinal stage of the eight-man tournament and immediately preceded the 90-minute live television airing of the main card that began with the tournament’s semifinal stage, delivered over 1.5 million streams worldwide.

The 2018 “COPA COMBATE” tournament saw U.S. competitor, Andres “The Bullet” Quintana (18-2) of Roswell, N.M. defeat three consecutive opponents, including championship bout adversary Alejandro “Gallito” Flores (15-2) of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico by way of stunning, first round (2:49) TKO with a spinning back elbow strike.

The trio of wins in the one-night tournament extended Quintana’s streak to eight consecutive victories in La Jaula, the Combate Americas competition cage.