Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

Knapp

With the announcement of Invicta heading to UFC Fight Pass, there wound up being a lot of questions among the MMA community.

Many of us were confused about the actually relationship Invicta and the UFC is in, and what this deal actually means for the future of Invicta. InvictaFC president Shannon Knapp talked to us Saturday to explain the nature of what the UFC Fight Pass deal means.

Knapp could not obviously tell us certain parts of the deal (how much Invicta is getting and how long the contract is), but she made it a point this is a simple distribution deal and the UFC will not have any input in terms of product.

“We are still our own company,” Knapp told us. “We decide the fight cards. Fighter pay, sponsorship, and production are still in our control. I own the company 100%.”

This means we won’t see any major changes in terms of staff. The broadcast and  production team will stay the same. In terms of fighters, they are still “Invicta fighters” and not under the UFC.

The UFC Fight Night deals comes with a lot of perks, however. The UFC will be marketing Invicta, seeing the success of Invicta ties in directly to the success of the streaming platform. It also gives a chance for Invicta to expand their brand into other markets and improve and add onto their product in the future.

“We are exclusive to Fight Pass. However with the distribution deal, anything can happen in the future,” Knapp stated. “I am always going to strive to give more content, and with the strong stable platform on Fight Pass, I can focus on giving the fans more to watch and be better at what we do.”

The next card’s date and location will be announced “soon” according to Knapp, with the previously announced title match between featherweight champ Cris “Cyborg” Justino taking on Ediane Gomes expecting to main event.

“We want to have as many fight cards as we can in the next year, with the first few cards with roughly 10 fights per card with room to grow. We are doing back to back cards to get fans and fighters going again.”

Knapp expressed to us the deal is what the promotion needed to be able to benefit the sport as a whole, and gives the tools she needs to make the fighters and WMMA succeed and grow.

“This is validation for the female fighters. They are on the largest platform for MMA and no other promotion besides the UFC has that. We will gain fans from the UFC that hasn’t seen our product, and Invicta fans will have access to the UFC content and enjoy MMA as a whole. It’s mutually beneficial for everyone.”

Filed under: female mma, Invicta wmma, MMA, wmma, womens mma

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

• MMA

This post is related to an ongoing story:

• MMA: The Women are Here to Stay

View Original Post at wombatsports.wordpress.com

View MarQFPR's Full Profile