Big women’s match added to Copa Combate MMA
Combate Americas announced the addition of a women’s strawweight (115 pounds) showdown between undefeated knockout artist Melissa “Super Melly” Martinez (2-0) and Gloria “Gloriosa” Bravo (4-2) that will serve as the co-main event of the live Telemundo broadcast (11:35 p.m. ET/10:35 p.m. CT) of the “COPA COMBATE” Mixed Martial Arts extravaganza from Cancun, Mexico on Saturday, Nov. 11.
The battle between the 20-year-old Martinez of Mexico City, Mexico and the 31-year-old Bravo, of Santiago, Chile will immediately precede the championship stage bout and finale of the one-night, eight-man bantamweight (135 pounds) “COPA COMBATE” tournament that will award its winner a grand prize of $100,000 and that, for the first time ever, will see top-ranked fighters from the United States, Latin America and Spain represent their respective countries in a quest for glory.
“This is a phenomenal addition to an already stellar and historic fight card created for the Telemundo broadcast television platform,” Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren said in a release. “With the incredibly relentless and hard-hitting action we have seen from the women of
Combate Americas,” continued McLaren, “it is only fitting that we showcase a matchup between two of the sport’s brightest and fastest rising female stars like Melissa Martinez and Gloria Bravo on the ‘COPA COMBATE’ platform.”
“COPA COMBATE” occurs on the 24th anniversary of McLaren’s now legendary UFC 1 event that he executive produced as the co-founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The storied event set off a combat sports revolution, and changed the martial arts fight world forever.
The 5-foot-2 Martinez will return to La Jaula, the Combate Americas cage, for the second time in her career after shelling out a stunning, highlight reel knockout of Yajaira “Shokolate” Romo in the second round (2:45) of battle at Combate 15 in Mexico City on June 30.
Following the promotional debut victory, Martinez, also a decorated Muay Thai competitor, earned a second-place finish at WAKO Kickboxing’s “The World Games 2017 - Wroclaw” tournament in Poland on July 30.
The 5-foot-5 Bravo will enter La Jaula for the first time ever and put a three-fight winning streak on the line. All three of her latest victories came by way of armlock submission. Bravo recently ventured from Chile to Las Vegas, Nev. to train for the upcoming matchup with
famed, retired, former UFC world champion Miesha Tate.
In addition to the “COPA COMBATE” tournament championship bout and the featured women’s fight between Martinez and Bravo, Telemundo’s live broadcast of “COPA COMBATE” will feature the tournament’s semifinal stage consisting of two bouts that pit the winners of the quarterfinal stage bouts in each tournament bracket against one another.
The entire quarterfinal stage of the tournament will stream live on the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo app and TelemundoDeportes.com.
COPA COMBATE ON TELEMUNDO
- Live broadcast on Telemundo, beginning at 11:30 pm ET on Saturday, Nov. 11.
- This marks the first live Telemundo broadcast of MMA fighting.
- Live English feed with a dedicated announce team, including UFC superstar Gilbert Melendez, via SAP function on Telemundo
- Preliminary bout card will stream live on Telemundo.com
ABOUT COMBATE AMERICAS
Combate Americas, LLC. is the first U.S. Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise in history, designed to build Latino fighting champions and serve Hispanic fans, one of the world’s most avid groups of prize fighting enthusiasts. The Combate Americas franchise includes reality TV programming, live events and mobile programming.
The company’s CEO, Campbell McLaren, is universally recognized as the co-founder/co- creator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). New York Magazine described McLaren as the marketing genius behind the UFC; and Yahoo! Sports proclaimed that he knows more about the sport than just about anyone in it today. With an unprecedented product and a blue-chip ownership and management team, Combate Americas is poised to break new ground and bring about a new era in world championship level MMA competition.
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This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 4:09 PM with the headline "Big women’s match added to Copa Combate MMA."