GLORY CEO talks stateside deal for 'SuperFight Series' beginning with GLORY 19

GLORY has great news for its fan base in the United States as well as abroad, with the announcement of its renewal of two European television deals (Fight Channel, Kombat Sport) and plans to bring the "SuperFight Series" to a U.S. network, starting with GLORY 19 on February 6, 2015 (see the fight card here).

Fight Channel reaches subscribers in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Slovenia. And the new deal will run through 2017. Fight channel will show GLORY fight cards, GLORY Rewind programming and GLORY SuperFight Series cards.

Kombat Sports will also broadcast the GLORY SuperFight Series throughout 2015 to approximately seven million subscribers in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Israel, Portugal and Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Europe is a very important market for us, where some of our most loyal and hungry fan bases exist," said GLORY CEO Jon J. Franklin, in a recent press release. "This partnership with Kombat Sport and Fight Channel will satisfy that desire for world class kickboxing through an exciting time in company history."

MMAmania.com spoke to Franklin about the new television deals that will help GLORY maintain presence in over 170 global territories through 2015 and into the future.

"On the television side, it has been a busy couple of months with a few new deals in the international marketplace including Fight Channel and Kombat Sports," Franklin said. "And then, of course, we are still on EuroSport in like 40 countries and Sportcast in Taiwan. So, we've got a real good and wide net of international distribution. We've got fighters all over the world and we've got TV networks out there bringing the action all over the world."

GLORY continues to pick up some really good networks around the world, Franklin said, before adding that "there are only a few holes missing." The GLORY CEO plans on continuing to deliver the world's leading kickboxing promotion to as many countries as possible.

"That is something I have been pushing very hard on is to broaden the net of distribution globally," he continued. "It's great for revenue, but it's also great for building the brand and exposing the fighters. Ultimately, you want to make stars out of the fighters. They have to make starts out of themselves, but you have to give them the platform to do it. "

The SuperFight Series is the fight card that serves as the prelims for the promotion and takes place prior to the main card broadcasts on Spike TV. The SuperFight Series for GLORY 19 has just been announced and it will include lightweight standout Andy Ristie, Canadian up and comer Josh Jauncey, and a heavyweight battle between Everett Sims and Xavier Vigney. Since the February 6th card is in Hampton, Virginia, which is near several Armed Forces bases, there will also be a special fight between a fighter from the Air Force and a Navy Seal.

Franklin was both proud and excited to say that the SuperFight Series card on GLORY 19 will indeed, be on U.S. television (BloodyElbow's Fraser Coffeen was first to report). The only SuperFight series card that was on U.S. TV was GLORY 16 in Denver, which was broadcast on CBS Sports.

"We will announce how it's going to be on the U.S. probably within the next week," he said. "We have a couple of different TV opportunities for the Superfight Series in the United States. So, it's just a matter of picking one and going with it. So, we are going to pick one. We are just trying to decide what is the best strategy, and the best way to go.

"But starting with GLORY 19, we will definitely have that on TV in the U.S. So, from that standpoint, that will be a good thing to help build the brand and expose some of the fighters. So where you might not have seen Andy Ristie, now starting with GLORY 19 you will. We will make that announcement soon."