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Now Strictly for the Culture 
Brothers and sisters, you have 

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seen the T-shirts, the hats, the
hoodies, the mugs in the hands 

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of some of your favorite pro 
wrestling stars, podcasters and 

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influencers out there and now 
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Visit strictlyfortheculture.ca 
and you too can be part of the 

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movement. 
Bigger than sweatshirts and 

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commercial success. 
Strictly for the Culture aims to

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build with like minded people 
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the world through knowledge, 
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So what are you waiting on? 
Visit strictlyfortheculture.ca. 

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Do it for the love, do it for 
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Most importantly, folks, do it 
strictly for the culture you're 

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locked in. 
This is what we have here folks,

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to the only show that matters, 
The Queen of the Crop. 

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Duke loves wrestling and there 
is no one that does it better 

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than your host. 
I have come. 

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Here. 
To chew bubble. 

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Gum. 
And kick ass and. 

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I'm all out of bubble. 
Hi, this is Shannon Knapp, 

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president of Invicta Fighting 
Championships, and you're 

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listening to Duke Loves 
Wrestling. 

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Brothers and sisters, you know 
that here at Duke Loves 

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Wrestling. 
We are very serious about women 

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athletes and women's sports. 
We have been fortunate enough 

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with our listening audience to 
have a very unusual demographic 

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situation here for the past four
plus years of Duke Loves 

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Wrestling. 
The majority of our listeners 

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are women, highly unusual for a 
show that's primarily about pro 

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wrestling and MMA. 
But I believe part of the reason

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why is because we do not 
hesitate to have women on here 

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to highlight the great things 
women are doing in pro 

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wrestling, mixed martial arts 
and beyond. 

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And we're going to we're going 
to continue that. 

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I'm very serious about that, 
which is exactly why we have our

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friend, a member of the Pro 
Sports Hall of Fame, 

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legitimately a legend when it 
comes to matchmaking in the 

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mixed martial arts world, and 
she is so excited to let us know

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about the great things happening
in her company, Invicta Fighting

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Championship. 
So without further ado, welcome 

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back Shannon Knapp. 
How you doing there, Shannon? 

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Doing great and you're just way 
too kind. 

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That was quite the introduction,
so thank you for the very kind 

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words. 
Well, it's, and you know, you 

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and I have talked about this a 
lot through the years. 

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I just, I'm fascinated by the 
fact that you've been able to 

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remain so grounded despite the 
fact that you're literally a 

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legend. 
Like this is, this is not 

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somebody just complimenting you.
It's, it's exactly who you are. 

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You are a legend. 
And the proof is in the pudding.

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When anyone looks at the cards 
that you've put together, it's 

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always exciting, it's always 
fun, it's always well balanced. 

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You do a great job and and you 
deserve that praise. 

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Well, thank you that, like I 
said, that is incredibly kind. 

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I don't know that I look at 
myself as a legend by any 

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stretch of the imagination, but 
what I do think is that I care 

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about the athletes and I care 
about the match ups and I do my 

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best to ensure that they are 
fair and equitable and that it's

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entertainment that the fans want
to see. 

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Well, certainly it's 
entertainment that the fans want

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to see and and listen. 
Invicta FC-55 Friday, June 8th 

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at Memorial Hall in Kansas City.
Talk to me about this because 

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you folks have just recently 
signed a major broadcast partner

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for this event and for a few 
events coming up afterwards, 

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right? 
Yeah, actually, you know, that's

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the exciting news that right now
is that yes, we did, we have a 

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multi fight agreement with CBS 
Sports Network. 

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So it's really an exciting time.
We've mapped out the rest of the

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year. 
So yeah, we have a great 

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partnership and you know, it's 
it's very exciting internally. 

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It's very exciting for the 
athletes. 

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It's just a, you know, a great 
partnership, one that I hope 

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that, you know, we foster along 
and goes longer than just this 

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year. 
Absolutely. 

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And listen, shout out to our 
friends over there at CBS 

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Sports. 
This is a major pick up here. 

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Invicta FCI mean you, you 
couldn't get any better and 

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certainly with Invicta FC-55 
kicking off this partnership. 

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What a card you have here, 
Shannon. 

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I mean, you know the the 
bantamweight title match between

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Bernardo and Ruben, this is 
going to be a knock down, drag 

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out fight, right? 
Yeah, this is a high in my 

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opinion. 
You know, it's a high quality 

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main event definitely. 
I mean it I mean Bernardo 

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doesn't want to give up the belt
and all this coming for that 

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belt. 
So I think that there's just a 

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lot of heat on this fight enough
that it's going to be really 

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good. 
You know, when I was putting 

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this match up together with, you
know, and I do have others, I 

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work with my team when we were 
talking about this match up and 

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everybody's excited about it. 
It's just one of those fights 

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that's really going to solidify 
who really belongs as our 

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champion in in that regard. 
Olga's coming off, you know, a 

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submission in her last outing 
that you know, was went up for 

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submission of the year, the MMA 
Awards and Toledo. 

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She's she's tough, she's going 
to be hard to beat. 

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But you know, with, that's the 
combination that makes it a 

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great fight. 
It makes it a great fight 

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indeed. 
I mean, folks, this is going to 

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be potential match of the year, 
no doubt about it, because two 

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great fighters who are serious, 
this isn't playtime. 

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These are professionals here. 
So you're you're going to see a 

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battle, no two ways about it. 
What other matches, what other 

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matches on the card do you feel 
are really going to stand out 

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and and pop the crowd there? 
Well, now, Duke, you know, I 

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think all of them are going to 
be that way now. 

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That's why they're on this, you 
know, the card. 

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You know, I always look at it 
this way. 

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There are not easy fights in 
Invicta. 

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But what we do here at Invicta 
is we build champions and you 

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know, we test our athletes. 
We, you know, we just don't 

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give, give means. 
But we never throw our athletes 

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in the deep end. 
So what in when you structure 

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fight cards like that, what you 
really get is you get really 

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competitive, compelling 
matchups. 

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And so for me, I think every 
fight on this card is going to 

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be great. 
You know, we've got Sayori 

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Oshima that's coming in. 
She's from Japan and she's the 

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Deep Jewels champion there. 
I'm excited to see her on this 

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card and you know, so we got new
talent that's coming through 

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that I'm just excited to see on 
the card. 

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But when you match them up with 
their opponents, it becomes 

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really a great fight, if that 
makes any sense. 

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Oh, it makes perfect sense. 
And I I'm telling you folks, 

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there was something so special 
about Invicta Fighting 

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Championship cards because 
exactly what Shannon is saying, 

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they're so well matched. 
It's, it's, and then you say to 

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yourself, well, of course they 
are. 

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You literally have a Hall of 
Famer. 

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She's literally in the Pro 
Sports Hall of Fame for this 

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exact reason, because she's so 
great at matchmaking. 

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It's, it's really, really 
interesting when you think about

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all the matches that you'll see 
in Invicta and just how 

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competitive they are. 
For the most part, it matters. 

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It certainly does matter there. 
I I wonder, Shannon, what's 

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going to happen next? 
I mean, you got this great 

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distribution deal with CBS 
Sports now for your next couple 

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of fights there. 
What else? 

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What else do we have going 
cooking in the in the pot, so to

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speak? 
Well, I think we've always got 

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something going on over here. 
Even when we're not moving fast,

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we, you know, we're always 
thinking and, you know, 

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branching out and trying to find
ways to make combat sports 

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better for women. 
So I know I talked about this 

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before, but it's still on my 
agenda with the boxing, you 

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know, kickboxing and some type 
of jiu jitsu style event under 

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the Invicta banner. 
So hopefully, you know, we'll be

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able to roll those out sometime 
very soon. 

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But yeah, we're always thinking 
about growing, you know, and 

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moving forward and doing what we
can to really make a difference 

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for the women's sport. 
And thankfully, women's sports 

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are really being more embraced 
than they have in the past. 

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So I think that kind of knocks 
down some barriers for us and 

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opens up, you know, the roadway 
for us to make some good 

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changes. 
So we're really excited about 

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that. 
Absolutely. 

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And and listen, like you said, 
you know, women's sports is 

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really moving up in the 
forefront. 

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The WNBA, they're breaking 
records with attendance and, and

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television viewership and what 
have you. 

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You have the Olympics on the 
horizon here. 

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You know, folks are going to get
excited about all the women's 

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sports in the Olympics as well. 
That energy continues to carry 

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and certainly when it comes to 
Invicta Fighting Championships, 

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it's right there as well for for
folks who are listeners that, 

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you know, they work in different
areas in terms of event 

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promotion, their own selves, 
that you know, we even have some

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folks who work in government who
listen to the show. 

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If there are cities that would 
love to have Invicta put on 

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events in their city, do you 
have any advice? 

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What's the best way that they 
can reach out to you and your 

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team and and start having these 
types of conversations? 

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Well, certainly they can reach 
out to me. 

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I'm very approachable and always
eager to hear anything that 

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anybody's got to say in that 
regard. 

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So certainly reach out to me. 
If if someone is interested in 

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hosting an event and let's see 
if we can get a deal, then you 

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always want to go somewhere. 
You're welcome, right? 

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Absolutely, folks, you want 
Invicta FC in your city. 

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There's no two ways about it. 
Again, the the excellence of the

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matchmaking, the fact that 
they're, you know, have this 

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partnership with CBS Sports. 
So these are big match, big 

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event fields. 
They're the tax revenue 

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generated from having a major 
promotion. 

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The number one, the only right 
now, all women's MMA promoter 

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that's doing it on this scale. 
Invicta fighting championships, 

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reach out to these folks. 
Definitely, you know, do what 

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you got to do. 
Let's let's have your 

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municipality meet with these 
folks and see if they can bring 

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Invicta to you so you can enjoy 
that first hand. 

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But if you can't catch it, 
definitely you got to tune in on

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CBS Sports because Invicta 55, 
it's coming right around the 

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corner there, June 28th, 
Memorial Hall, Kansas City, 

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can't wait. 
Once again, Shannon, we 

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appreciate you. 
You are so wonderful. 

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We appreciate all the wonderful 
athletes that you continue to 

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provide opportunities for. 
I mean, certainly. 

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And I just can't wait to see 
what's gonna happen next. 

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Well, thank you. 
Like I said, thank you for the 

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kindness and thank you for 
always supporting us. 

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We can't do it alone, and it 
takes all of us to make that 

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difference. 
And we're certainly grateful and

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thankful to you, Duke. 
Till next time, be kind to 

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yourselves and be kind to 
others. 

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Take it away. 
Tony Shivani. 

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Mr. Tony Shivani and we're 
definitely out of time on Duke 

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Love Left list.