Scott Kent hopes MMA fighters will take Lion Fight crossover challenge

Scott Kent has seen first hand how his muay Thai promotion has grown, and in a hurry.

Now the Lion Fight CEO wants to see a few more MMA fighters step up and give crossing over a shot.

Kent is coming off a highly successful Lion Fight 14 in late March in Las Vegas. At that event, Jorina Baars beat Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino in an entertaining main event, and the success of the live broadcast on AXS TV has Kent thinking bigger things for the future.

In fact, he believes the Baars-”Cyborg” fight might have been Lion Fight’s version of the Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar fight that helped propel the UFC to the next level years ago.

“I think it is,” Kent recently told MMAjunkie Radio. “The AXS TV ratings were through the roof on this fight. I think it gave us an opportunity to further expand our muay Thai audience, not only with our casual fans, but with our MMA audience. We had press we’ve never had before, and that’s what a celebrity like Cris ‘Cyborg’ will afford you, is the opportunity to be on a much bigger platform. When the fight goes the way it did, it’s just a home run.”

But what would be even better going forward, Kent believes, is if other MMA fighters gave muay Thai a shot with Lion Fight, the way Justino has.

The extra attention she brought to the promotion’s most recent event has put it in a bigger limelight than ever before, and other MMA fighters crossing over for one-off bouts would not only put a spotlight on the sport, but it would give them an opportunity to keep the competitive fires burning when they’re not training for MMA fights.

“Competitive fighters love a standup fight,” Kent said. “And we’re really putting the call out now to all MMA fighters – if you love standup fighting, if you think you’ve got great skills, let’s put you against a muay Thai fighter and let’s see what happens.”

Kent even has a few names in mind, including Melvin Guillard, the lightweight veteran who recently was released by the UFC and signed by Las Vegas-based World Series of Fighting.

“Melvin, you mention Paul Daley – there’s a lot of guys out there that have good muay Thai backgrounds or are very aggressive strikers, and that’s what we want to really showcase in muay Thai: fighters that will really bring it,” Kent said. “We want to make sure that all of these fighters have an opportunity. If they want to be a two-sport champion, let’s give them the platform to do that. And now we’re at a level where we’re getting a lot of media attention, where we have the wherewithal to bring in a lot of these fighters. … It’s an interesting challenge for the fighters themselves, and I think it makes marketing sense for us.”

Kent said Lion Fight is looking at a September return in downtown Las Vegas, though no date or venue is yet concrete. Lion Fight 15 takes place May 23 at Foxwoods Resorts Casino in Ledyard, Conn. The card will be headlined by Cosmo Alexandre vs. Mark Holst.

Alexandre and Holst are two of those two-sport standouts Kent mentioned. Alexandre has a 6-1 MMA record, having fought for Bellator and Legacy FC. Holst is a UFC veteran who is 12-5 in MMA.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, MMAjunkie lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Brian “Goze” Garcia. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.

Below, check out video highlights from Lion Fight 14, which took place in late March in Las Vegas:

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