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Duke loves wrestling and there is no one that does it better than your host. I have come. Here. To chew bubble. Gum. And kick ass and. I'm all out of bubble. Hi, this is Shannon Knapp, president of Invicta Fighting Championships, and you're listening to Duke Loves Wrestling. Brothers and sisters, you know that here at Duke Loves Wrestling. We are very serious about women
athletes and women's sports. We have been fortunate enough with our listening audience to have a very unusual demographic situation here for the past four plus years of Duke Loves Wrestling. The majority of our listeners are women, highly unusual for a show that's primarily about pro wrestling and MMA. But I believe part of the reason why is because we do not hesitate to have women on here to highlight the great things women are doing in pro wrestling, mixed martial arts and beyond.
And we're going to we're going to continue that. I'm very serious about that, which is exactly why we have our friend, a member of the Pro Sports Hall of Fame, legitimately a legend when it comes to matchmaking in the mixed martial arts world, and she is so excited to let us know about the great things happening in her company, Invicta Fighting Championship. So without further ado, welcome back Shannon Knapp. How you doing there, Shannon? Doing great and you're just way too kind.
That was quite the introduction, so thank you for the very kind words. Well, it's, and you know, you and I have talked about this a lot through the years. I just, I'm fascinated by the fact that you've been able to remain so grounded despite the fact that you're literally a legend. Like this is, this is not somebody just complimenting you. It's, it's exactly who you are. You are a legend. And the proof is in the pudding.
When anyone looks at the cards that you've put together, it's always exciting, it's always fun, it's always well balanced. You do a great job and and you deserve that praise. Well, thank you that, like I said, that is incredibly kind.
I don't know that I look at myself as a legend by any stretch of the imagination, but what I do think is that I care about the athletes and I care about the match ups and I do my best to ensure that they are fair and equitable and that it's entertainment that the fans want to see. Well, certainly it's entertainment that the fans want
to see and and listen. Invicta FC-55 Friday, June 8th at Memorial Hall in Kansas City. Talk to me about this because you folks have just recently signed a major broadcast partner for this event and for a few events coming up afterwards, right? Yeah, actually, you know, that's the exciting news that right now is that yes, we did, we have a multi fight agreement with CBS Sports Network. So it's really an exciting time. We've mapped out the rest of the
year. So yeah, we have a great partnership and you know, it's it's very exciting internally. It's very exciting for the athletes. It's just a, you know, a great partnership, one that I hope that, you know, we foster along and goes longer than just this year. Absolutely. And listen, shout out to our friends over there at CBS Sports. This is a major pick up here. Invicta FCI mean you, you couldn't get any better and certainly with Invicta FC-55 kicking off this partnership.
What a card you have here, Shannon. I mean, you know the the bantamweight title match between Bernardo and Ruben, this is going to be a knock down, drag out fight, right? Yeah, this is a high in my opinion. You know, it's a high quality main event definitely. I mean it I mean Bernardo doesn't want to give up the belt and all this coming for that belt. So I think that there's just a lot of heat on this fight enough that it's going to be really
good. You know, when I was putting this match up together with, you know, and I do have others, I work with my team when we were talking about this match up and everybody's excited about it. It's just one of those fights that's really going to solidify who really belongs as our champion in in that regard. Olga's coming off, you know, a submission in her last outing that you know, was went up for submission of the year, the MMA Awards and Toledo.
She's she's tough, she's going to be hard to beat. But you know, with, that's the combination that makes it a great fight. It makes it a great fight indeed. I mean, folks, this is going to be potential match of the year, no doubt about it, because two great fighters who are serious, this isn't playtime. These are professionals here. So you're you're going to see a battle, no two ways about it. What other matches, what other matches on the card do you feel are really going to stand out
and and pop the crowd there? Well, now, Duke, you know, I think all of them are going to be that way now. That's why they're on this, you know, the card. You know, I always look at it this way. There are not easy fights in Invicta. But what we do here at Invicta is we build champions and you know, we test our athletes. We, you know, we just don't give, give means. But we never throw our athletes
in the deep end. So what in when you structure fight cards like that, what you really get is you get really competitive, compelling matchups. And so for me, I think every fight on this card is going to be great. You know, we've got Sayori Oshima that's coming in. She's from Japan and she's the Deep Jewels champion there. I'm excited to see her on this card and you know, so we got new talent that's coming through that I'm just excited to see on the card.
But when you match them up with their opponents, it becomes really a great fight, if that makes any sense. Oh, it makes perfect sense. And I I'm telling you folks, there was something so special about Invicta Fighting Championship cards because exactly what Shannon is saying, they're so well matched. It's, it's, and then you say to yourself, well, of course they are. You literally have a Hall of Famer.
She's literally in the Pro Sports Hall of Fame for this exact reason, because she's so great at matchmaking. It's, it's really, really interesting when you think about all the matches that you'll see in Invicta and just how competitive they are. For the most part, it matters. It certainly does matter there. I I wonder, Shannon, what's going to happen next? I mean, you got this great distribution deal with CBS Sports now for your next couple of fights there. What else?
What else do we have going cooking in the in the pot, so to speak? Well, I think we've always got something going on over here. Even when we're not moving fast, we, you know, we're always thinking and, you know, branching out and trying to find ways to make combat sports better for women. So I know I talked about this before, but it's still on my agenda with the boxing, you know, kickboxing and some type of jiu jitsu style event under
the Invicta banner. So hopefully, you know, we'll be able to roll those out sometime very soon. But yeah, we're always thinking about growing, you know, and moving forward and doing what we can to really make a difference for the women's sport. And thankfully, women's sports are really being more embraced than they have in the past. So I think that kind of knocks down some barriers for us and opens up, you know, the roadway for us to make some good changes. So we're really excited about
that. Absolutely. And and listen, like you said, you know, women's sports is really moving up in the forefront. The WNBA, they're breaking records with attendance and, and television viewership and what have you. You have the Olympics on the horizon here. You know, folks are going to get excited about all the women's
sports in the Olympics as well. That energy continues to carry and certainly when it comes to Invicta Fighting Championships, it's right there as well for for folks who are listeners that, you know, they work in different areas in terms of event promotion, their own selves, that you know, we even have some folks who work in government who listen to the show. If there are cities that would love to have Invicta put on events in their city, do you have any advice?
What's the best way that they can reach out to you and your team and and start having these types of conversations? Well, certainly they can reach out to me. I'm very approachable and always eager to hear anything that anybody's got to say in that regard. So certainly reach out to me. If if someone is interested in hosting an event and let's see if we can get a deal, then you always want to go somewhere. You're welcome, right? Absolutely, folks, you want Invicta FC in your city.
There's no two ways about it. Again, the the excellence of the matchmaking, the fact that they're, you know, have this partnership with CBS Sports. So these are big match, big event fields. They're the tax revenue generated from having a major promotion. The number one, the only right now, all women's MMA promoter that's doing it on this scale. Invicta fighting championships,
reach out to these folks. Definitely, you know, do what you got to do. Let's let's have your municipality meet with these folks and see if they can bring Invicta to you so you can enjoy that first hand. But if you can't catch it, definitely you got to tune in on CBS Sports because Invicta 55, it's coming right around the corner there, June 28th, Memorial Hall, Kansas City, can't wait. Once again, Shannon, we appreciate you. You are so wonderful.
We appreciate all the wonderful athletes that you continue to provide opportunities for. I mean, certainly. And I just can't wait to see what's gonna happen next. Well, thank you. Like I said, thank you for the kindness and thank you for always supporting us. We can't do it alone, and it takes all of us to make that difference. And we're certainly grateful and thankful to you, Duke. Till next time, be kind to yourselves and be kind to others. Take it away. Tony Shivani.
Mr. Tony Shivani and we're definitely out of time on Duke Love Left list.