Friday will see history made for AXS TV, which will celebrate the 400th event for AXS TV Fights, with Legacy Fighting Alliance 40 broadcast live from The Bomb Factory in Dallas. Through 14 years, the division has showcased over 2,500 fights in 16 countries, with named that have included Fedor Emelianenko, Daniel Cormier, Cris Cyborg, Mirko Cro Cop, Nick Diaz, Josh Barnett, Vitor Belfort, Roy Nelson, Pat Miletich, Alistair Overeem and Benson Henderson across promotions such as DREAM, Elite XC, Strikeforce, K-1 and more. Headlining Friday’s action starting at 9p will be a LFA featherweight title unification bout pitting Kevin Aguilar against interim champion Thanh Le. AXS TV Fights commentators Pat Miletich and Ron Kruck will call the action with cage side reporter Phoenix Carnevale.
Cynopsis caught up with AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon to talk about the occasion and the network’s role in the growth of MMA.
Simon on the history of fights on the network: Historically, we had our first fight in 2004 so we’ve been doing this for a long time in the mixed martial arts space. We have been one of the leaders in this space and along the way, we’ve worked with nearly 50 MMA promotions, and helped form a building block for the UFC. Their fighters are getting their experience on our network, and then they are appearing, performing, winning and becoming champions on UFC. Along the way to 400 fights, we’ve really become a place where fighters have become superstars.
On the evolution of production: Our biggest contribution to the sport was bringing it into the hi-def world. We were the first to do that, but today I would say the biggest production innovation has been the ability to bring international productions live to the network. The ability of our network to work with so many promotions around the world regardless of the technological issues, such as different formats, has been something that I am proud of as well.
On how audiences have changed: We are seeing that audiences have a much better understanding of the sports and its athletes. They know their backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses, etc. These fans are a lot more knowledgeable and articulated and will definitely let us know if they think we are doing it right.
On the future: We are really looking to cement our place in the sport to become where you go to find those next great champions. Nobody sends more people to the UFC than AXS TV and the promotions that are on our network. It isn’t even close. We are the place where people go to get noticed and with the amount of eyes that are on our network, no one will go unnoticed. If you perform, you will go to that next level. That is something we intend to cement as we move forward.
On network founder Mark Cuban’s support: It was Mark’s vision to bring mixed martial arts to the network. He saw the sport before it hit the mainstream and knew that was something he wanted to get involved in and he has remained supportive through 400 shows on our network.
