AXS TV is back in the MMA business.  The company announced in a joint press conference on Wednesday that they had signed a deal with Combate Americas to be the new home for their English language broadcasts.  The news comes weeks after the announcement that the promotion had signed an extension with Univision as their Spanish language broadcast partner.

Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren said that the deal will go into effect on December 6 with a special preview of the pay-per-view event featuring Tito Ortiz and Alberto Del Rio the following night.  He also expressed that the current plan was to air 35 events in 2020 which would be simulcast between both networks.

The promotion had been with streaming service DAZN for roughly a year before parting ways in September.  The company had signed a deal in 2018 with the streaming service and joined Bellator as part of the lineup of combat sports content in DAZN’s debut year in the United States.  McLaren did say that Combate Americas would air one more event on DAZN: the annual Copa Combate one-night tournament.

After the sale of AXS TV to Anthem Sports and Entertainment, the network made multiple changes to their programming including the discontinuation of their deal with Legacy Fighting Alliance, better known as LFA, in late September.  The two sides had a long-running partnership with LFA flourishing as a type of feeder system to the UFC and AXS becoming known for airing MMA programming over the years with shows such as Inside MMA.  It was announced over the weekend that LFA had signed a new broadcast deal to air on UFC Fight Pass.

The upcoming event, Tito vs Alberto, will air on pay-per-view on December 7 and crown an inaugural women’s strawweight champion as Melissa Martinez takes on Desiree Yanez in the night’s co-feature.

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The fallout from the demise of AXS TV carrying LFA has begun. News broke barely a couple of weeks back that the cable TV station would no longer carry Legacy Fighting Alliance action, despite the promotion calling the network home for years. It was a hot topic backstage at UFC Vancouver, where a number of former LFA athletes were competing.

On Wednesday, LFA announced via social media that two of its upcoming shows, LFA 78 and LFA 79, had been postponed due to the lack of a broadcast partner. LFA 77, where the promotion intends to crown a heavyweight champion, will go ahead as scheduled.

.@LFAfighting to crown Heavyweight Champion at #LFA77#LFA78 and #LFA79 postponed, while new broadcasting partner is secured

ℹ️ Press Release:https://t.co/DWDfHsOIIF pic.twitter.com/B2BwODESz6

— LFA (@LFAfighting) September 25, 2019

Legacy Fighting Alliance was born out of the merger of two existing promotions, RFA (Resurrection Fighting Alliance) and Legacy FC, in 2017, following talks the previous year. LFA hosted its inaugural show on January 13, 2017, which saw champions from both organizations competing in title unification bouts.

With Legacy and RFA among some of the biggest players in the regional scene, LFA became something of a proving ground for fighters looking to get into the big show, mainly the UFC and Bellator MMA.

AXS TV, formerly known as HDNet, was the home of LFA from the start. It was also, in its earlier incarnation, home of WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting), which was eventually scooped up by and merged into the UFC in the Zuffa era. However, a controlling interest was recently acquired by Anthem Media, which also owns the Fight Network. That channel once aired ONE Championship, KSW, and UFC events in Canada. However, after purchasing a majority stake in TNA wrestling in 2017, they scaled back their MMA coverage, dropping several on-air personalities including Robin Black.

UFC content, which had been sub-licensed by Bell Media (TSN), was lost in 2018 when Bell opted to drop the deal as the UFC broadcast rights were up for renewal.

The casualty of their involvement with AXS TV is LFA, who following LFA 77 this Friday have a very uncertain future ahead of them. LFA CEO Ed Soares addressed the matter in a press release Wednesday.

“Anthem Sports & Entertainment recently acquired a majority interest in AXS TV, at which point LFA was advised that AXS TV would be discontinuing its live televised programming of LFA” stated Soares in Wednesday’s release, posted on the promotion’s official website. “As a result, we are in the process of seeking a new broadcasting partner. Once our new broadcasting deal is finalized, we will continue developing the next generation of MMA stars in front of a large televised audience. In the meantime, we are excited to be doing just that on Friday, when we bring the LFA Heavyweight Tournament Final to Minnesota. Daniel James and Brett Martin advanced to the final of our four-man heavyweight tournament and will face each other with the title on the line at LFA 77.”

Soares added that the “fights on Friday will be recorded for broadcast at a later date. LFA 78 in Colorado and LFA 79 in California will also be postponed until a later date. Those dates will be released in conjunction with the announcement of an exciting new broadcasting deal.”

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