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Now Strictly for the Culture Brothers and sisters, you have
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Do it for the love, do it for the knowledge.
Most importantly, folks, do it strictly for the culture you're
locked in. This is what we have here folks,
to the only show that matters, The Queen of the Crop.
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.