Sports Media Report
Combate Americas today announced that its much-anticipated “Mexico vs. USA” live Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) event headlined by a 150-pound showdown between Pablo “El Gallo Negro” Sabori (9-5) and Anthony “The Shark” Avila (17-5) will air live on television in the U.S. on both Univision (12 a.m. ET/PT) and UDN (12 a.m. ET/9 p.m.PT) from Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 22.
The Univision and UDN airings complement the previously announced English airing of the event live on DAZN (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT) in the U.S. and Canada.
The 26-year-old Sabori of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mex. is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Michael Irizarry of San Juan, Puerto Rico in a “COPA COMBATE” tournament alternate bout at Save Mart Center on December 7.
Prior to the win, Sabori, a known pressure fighter, had notched all of his career victories by way of (T)KO, with five of them coming inside of one round.
Originally from Lemoore, Calif., the 30-year-old Avila, fighting out of retired MMA superstar Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male camp in Sacramento, Calif., will seek his fifth consecutive victory following a second round TKO of Marcello Cassero last November 9.
In addition to the live Univision and UDN television coverage announced today, Combate Americas confirmed three new preliminary bouts for the event.
A newly announced lightweight (155 pounds) contest will see undefeated, 24-year-old rising star Adrian Guzman (3-0) of Parlier, Calif. square off with Ryan Reneau (4-5-1) of Bakersfield, Calif.
In bantamweight (135 pounds) action between a pair of unbeaten upstarts, Mark Climaco (2-0) of Fremont, Calif. will go to war with Ricardo Vasquez (1-0) of Hanford, Calif.
Jimmy “Funky Cold” Molina (0-0) of Spokane, Wash. will make his professional debut against Albert “Big Al” Gonzales (0-1) of Fresno.
In the previously announced women’s flyweight (125 pounds) co-main event, former world champion Zoila “The Warrior Princess” Frausto (13-5) of Madera, Calif. will face off with fellow battle-tested veteran Jaimee “Queenie” Nievera (7-4) of San Francisco, Calif.
Priced from $25, tickets for “Combate Americas: Mexico vs. USA” are on sale online at CombateAmericas.com/Fresno and Ticketmaster.com, as well as at the Save Mart Center box office.
Doors at Save Mart Center will open for “Combate Americas: Mexico vs. USA” at 6 p.m. local time, and the first preliminary bout will begin at 7 p.m.
Combate Americas’ return to Fresno takes place just over two months after the premier media and sports franchise brought its biggest event of the year – the one-night, eight-man, $100,000 grand prize “COPA COMBATE” featherweight (145 pounds) tournament – to Save Mart Center.
Despite its midnight ET start time, the 2018 “COPA COMBATE” event garnered over 4.3 million live television viewers across the U.S. (Univision and UDN) and Mexico (Azteca 7). An additional 1.5 million viewers tuned into the live Facebook Watch stream of the “COPA COMBATE” preliminary bout card.
