Invicta Fighting Championships has secured new ownership along with a television platform with the news they have been bought by Anthem Sports & Entertainment.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reports that the first event under its new ownership will take place Friday, May 21st on AXS TV, which is owned and controlled by Anthem. Invicta will also air on Fight Network in Canada and other digital platforms overseas, according to ESPN’s report on the acquisition.
Company president Shannon Knapp will remain in her role while joining Anthem’s board of directors and work alongside company executives Jaime Pollack and Ant Evans. Pollack worked at the UFC for eleven years and served as its senior vice-president of global content and general manager for Latin America. Evans worked at the UFC for nearly twelve years as its director of media relations and later, as senior director of editorial & content acquisition.
The women’s MMA group launched in 2012 as a streaming pay-per-view property before striking a deal to stream its events on UFC Fight Pass in 2014.
The company launched in an era that predated the UFC’s promotion of women’s fights. The promotion saw many of the top women’s fighters compete under the Invicta banner including Amanda Nunes, Marloes Coenen, Liz Carmouche, Raquel Pennington, Barb Honchak, Alexis Davis, Shayna Baszler, Cat Zingano, Julia Budd, and Carla Esparza among the many in the early days of the group.
Anthem Sports & Entertainment is also the parent company of IMPACT Wrestling that airs Thursday nights on AXS TV.
