Combate Americas and Telemundo Deportes announce ‘Copa Combate’ $100k tournament on Nov. 11

What better way to celebrate the anniversary of UFC 1?

Combate Americas, founded by UFC co-creator Campbell McLaren, will stage a one-night, eight-man elimination tournament featuring a grand prize of $100,000. Airing exclusively on Telemundo, “Copa Combate” takes place Sat., Nov. 11, 2017 in Cancun, Mexico.

“We are incredibly excited to partner with Telemundo Deportes and to bring back to life, live on Telemundo, the leading U.S. broadcast television network, the most thrilling format for competitive fighting that was responsible for changing the combat sports world forever when I introduced the UFC in 1993,” said McLaren.

Bantamweight fighters from across the globe will compete for the grand prize, but it won’t come easy. The winner will need to compete — and win — three times across the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship stages.

The participants are as follows:

• John “Sexi Mexi” Castaneda (14-2) of Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Marcelo “Pitbull” Rojo (12-4) of Cordoba, Argentina
• Carlos “Lobo” Rivera (10-2) of Mexico City, Mexico
• Mikey “El Terrible” Erosa (12-5) of San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Marc “Lufo” Gomez (20-10) of Barcelona, Spain
• Andres “Doble A” Ayala (11-4) of Bogota, Colombia
• Kevin “El Frio” Moreyra (4-1) of Lima, Peru
• Ricky “El Gallero” Palacios (9-1) of Mission, Texas (wildcard entry)

The eight competitors will be separated into four tournament brackets, with the top four fighters given seeded positions based on their worldwide rankings. Quarterfinal stage opponents for the four fighters will be determined based on a lottery ball drawing that will take place on a date to be announced.

“Telemundo Deportes is committed to continue expanding its portfolio of sports events, and we are thrilled to partner with Combate Americas to bring this unique MMA tournament to millions of Hispanic viewers,” said Ray Warren, President of Telemundo Deportes. “Copa Combate is a tournament created for our core audience featuring an exciting format and a diverse group of Hispanic competitors, and we look forward to an historic broadcast.”

Telemundo’s live broadcast of “COPA COMBATE” will feature the tournament’s semifinal stage consisting of two bouts that pit the winners of the quarterfinal stage bouts in each tournament bracket against one another. The entire quarterfinal stage of the tournament will stream live on the Telemundo Deportes En Vivo app and TelemundoDeportes.com.