Combate Americas inks long-term deal with Univision

After a brief period on NBC-owned Telemundo, Combate Americas has jumped ship to Univision.

With this move, the promotion will be on one of the networks that is consistently the #1 Spanish-language network in the country, in the top 3 for viewership, and often in the top 3 most watched networks slots overall in America. That counts for both English and Spanish-speaking networks, and they will begin to include MMA into their programming. The partnership begins immediately, with their upcoming Combate Estrellas I card on April 13th being transmitted on Univision. The announcement was made live on-air by none other than former UFC fighter Erik “Goyito“ Perez, who will be headlining the April 20th card in Monterrey, Mexico.

The main event for that card is a bantamweight battle between former Dana White Contenders Series contestant John “Sexi Mexi” Castaneda (US) facing Marc “Lufo” Gomez (Spain) in a rematch from the tournament finals at Copa Combate in November. That fight had been a very closely contested tilt between the two, with the Spanish kickboxer impressing many with his performance against the Greg Nelson alum. Castañeda had previously fought for what was then the inaugural bantamweight title, but missed weight and still won his fight against Gustavo Lopez. Gomez has relocated to Sacramento for this fight, sharpening his wrestling game up at Team Alpha Male.

This card also includes the MMA debut of Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano, a five-division boxing champ that is under the tutelage of former UFC champion Miesha Tate. Also on deck is a rematch from last year’s fight between Danny Ramirez and Erick “Ghost Pepper” Gonzalez as well as Alliance MMA’s Paulina “Firefox” Granados vs hard-nosed grappler Sheila Padilla.

The main card will be a 90-minute timeslot with three fights on it, and the prelims will be streamed online live via UnivisionDeportes.com.