Lion Fight CEO Scott Kent: 'MMA Has Created Model for Combat Sports' | MMAWeekly.com

Over the course of the past couple years, the Las Vegas-based Lion Fight promotion has steadily built itself into one of the premier Muay Thai companies around.

While Lion Fight has prospered in Muay Thai, company CEO Scott Kent feels that MMA helped lay the foundation for which his promotion has been able to find success on national television.

“I think the difference now is that MMA has created a business model for combat sports that didn’t exist before,” Kent told MMAWeekly.com. “We’re the first major Muay Thai promotion to get a national TV deal on AXS TV.

“Muay Thai is very aggressive with the elbows; there are a lot of cuts and a lot of injuries, so I think that would have been a tough sell before MMA and what the UFC was able to accomplish. K-1 didn’t allow elbows, and once you throw elbows in, you get a whole other level of weaponry that a fighter can use.”

Not only has Lion Fight been able to use an MMA template for exposure, but also fighters like Cris “Cyborg” Justino and Ky Hollenbeck have been able to cross over into Muay Thai on a large scale with the company as well.

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“What we’re finding is a lot of MMA fighters really love Muay Thai, and would rather be in a stand-up fighting style, so we’re starting to see almost a rebound of fighters who were doing of MMA (who are coming back into Muay Thai),” said Kent.

Even though crossover appeal has been good for Lion Fight, Kent believes it’s the promotion’s core Muay Thai talent like Gaston Bolanos, Victor Saravia and Jorina Baars that paving the way for the company.

“They are all committed to Muay Thai,” Kent said. “They’re very exciting fighters. You can be a good fighter, but you need that ‘it’ factor too. In this sport you’ve got to be able to deliver in fights, because you’ll get knocked down pretty fast, and we’ve certainly seen that.”

It’s the young talent Lion Fight has been able to foster that has made it so they haven’t had to rely on past stars like Ray Sefo, Ernesto Hoost or Remy Bonjasky.

“Ray is a good friend of mine, he comes to our events, I go to his World Series of Fighting shows, but I think there’s a new generation of fighters out there,” said Kent. “Really what we’re focusing on is our young fighters, and developing their fan base and creating an audience for them.”

Fans can next experience Lion Fight on October 21 in Las Vegas, Nevada, headlined by a middleweight title bout between Malaipet Sasiprapa and former Cage Combat MMA vet Ky Hollenbeck.

“We’ll have six pro Muay Thai fights (on the main card), all of which are expertly matched,” Kent said. “They’re amazing fights. If you’ve never seen full rules Muay Thai fighting, it’s all stand-up fighting. It’s elbows, it’s knees, it’s kicks.”

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