One of the more unusual MMA promotions out there is Lights Out Xtreme Fighting, a promotion founded by former NFL star Shawne Merriman. That promotion is set for LXF9 Saturday night from the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank, an event which will stream on Fubo’s free advertising-supported Fubo Sports network beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Merriman and Pamela Duckworth, head of Fubo Networks and Originals, both spoke to AA earlier this year on the LXF-Fubo partnership, with Merriman saying Fubo was a good fit thanks to their embrace of other athlete-focused content (including shows with Gilbert Arenas, Terrell Owens and Matthew Hatchette, R.J. Hampton, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Orlando Scandrick, and more).
“The biggest part of working with Fubo is how they’ve really supported the players’ voice, and the creativeness and direction of players’ personal stories,” Merriman said. “It kind of fit just early on, because everything that I’ve built, even with a name like Lights Out, I’ve been called that since I was 16 years old. I didn’t just roll out of bed and be called Lights Out one day. So from kind of building that brand unknowingly at 16 years old, then going to the University of Maryland, keeping that nickname all the way through there, then going to the pros, it turned into a brand that is really promoting the next up and coming MMA fighters in the sport.”
“And I’ve kind of built this brand by having the career I did in the NFL. But now, being in a position where I can kind of support these other fighters that are trying to get out there, Fubo has been the perfect home, because they just believe in the voice and direction of the players. I think even now when we look at the commentators on broadcasts, who are the best people on TV? It’s the players, because they have these stories of the inside stuff that happens, that you would only know from inside the locker room. And here, I think we can tell the right story here at Fubo.”
Duckworth said athlete content is a key focus for Fubo Sports, and the goal there is to show off athletes’ different sides.
“These guys are more dimensional. Everyone looks at them as one-dimensional, like Shawne being a NFL superstar, but there’s so much more to him. I like giving them a platform where they can show all their dimensions. Shawne is our business partner in this deal, we work hand-in-hand on everything from sponsorships to how the show’s going to look to where we’re going to be next. I just believe in the voice. I want people to be able to see behind all these guys, to check out their passions. And I want to give them that voice. And I think it’s working out.”
Duckworth said working with Merriman and LXF was a natural fit for them, even from early conversations.
“We met through a guy who works for me, [executive producer] David Pagan, who’s an old buddy of [Merriman’s], and we just kind of hit it off. We had the same vision for what this would be. And we just decided to go into business together.”
And she said many athletes like Merriman are good fits to create media content given their familiarity with dealing with sports media and the preparation habits they’ve developed in high-level sports.
“Another reason I love working with athletes is they show up prepared,” she said. “I never have to worry that Shawne’s not ready to roll, and it’s the same with all the other guys on our network. They show up ready to roll. I’ve been very lucky in my career to work with everyone, Peyton and Eli [Manning], Shawne. It’s an easier way to work.”
Merriman said he thinks he brings something different to MMA promotion ownership given his background in both the NFL and MMA. He said his MMA training started off on an interesting note, involving both NFL on Fox reporter Jay Glazer and UFC legend Randy Couture.
“I come from a different perspective. I’ve been training myself in the sport of MMA every offseason, I started in 2005-06 with Jay Glazer. And I grew up with professional boxers in my family, and Jay Glazer, right after in 2005 I’d had a great season, won Rookie of the Year and all that stuff, and we’re in the gym, and he says ‘Hey, I know you grew up boxing, but I think MMA might help you out in football.'”
“And I said ‘Okay, what do I do?’ And he sent me an address to come to the gym the next day, and I walk in, and Jay Glazer’s here, and Randy Couture is here. And that was my first day, before I did any kind of pummeling, any kind of jiu-jitsu, anything. And Randy’s just coming off a big win, he’s at the peak of his career. And I looked at Jay and I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m not fighting Randy Couture today, I just want you guys to know that.'”
Merriman said MMA skills do translate to football, and vice versa, which is part of why many ex-NFL players are taking up combat sports.
“What I found out is there was a lot of correlation between two sports. And if you look at it now and look at the former athletes that are transitioning to combat sports, it’s becoming more and more mainstream. Look at the guys that are doing it, Le’Veon Bell, Frank Gore, Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy, who had some decent success in the UFC.”
He said LXF is particularly interested in developing those athletes.
“We’re really focused on transitioning a lot of these guys. I have five former NFL guys training right now to make their debut. And I’ve been around the sport; in 2018, when I launched Lights Out Extreme Fighting, that was the whole goal, because a lot of these guys didn’t know that pathway into this sport.”
And he said that combination of MMA and football works well for him and LXF.
“I also believe I bring a different set of eyeballs than anybody else in this industry because of where I came from. I’m fortunate because I can not only talk football all day, give me a camera, give me a microphone, I can talk football all day. But I’ll always have this special part of that moment, because everybody in this country loves fighting, football and fighting.”
“The two work together. And so it gives me a little more room to promote and get behind these guys. Because there are a lot of outstanding combat fighters people just don’t know because they don’t have a forum to get there.”
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“Football is always going to be king of sports in this country. And I understand that. But the oldest sport is fighting. Fighting’s been around a lot longer than everything, and fighting’s not going anywhere. And just seeing where MMA is going, in my opinion, it’s overtaking boxing, it’s overtaking other combat sports, and that’s because there’s more and more transition to it.”
He said he’s seeing more and more former pro athletes wanting to take up MMA, and LXF is working with a number of them.
“The sport is getting to that level now where you’re having ex-professional athletes considering fighting. They’re already disciplined and ready to go,” he said. “And now they’re seizing their opportunity. Over the course of the next 24 months, you’re going to see more and more guys making that transition.”
Merriman said LXF was a natural post-football fit for him, letting him put his interests in MMA and media together.
“I played on the biggest platform and in the biggest business in this country when it comes to sports, the NFL,” he said. “The reason what makes the NFL who they are is because of NFL Films, the storytelling, how they build it up. When you walk on the field and you see all these cameras, everything’s starting to come together. So I had that passion to do that.”
“And on the broadcast side, I’ve been on shows on NFL Network, I’ve done quite a bit of stuff behind the scenes too on the production side, so it made sense when I built Lights Out; I had this platform, I understand how all this stuff goes, and it started to mesh well. And like half of these fighters know me, I’ve been in there with them, I’ve jumped in training camps, I’m not foreign. …I just felt like there was a void in this space that I could do that not many people could do.”
He said it also has given him something to focus on, and he hopes it does the same for the other former football players turning to LXF.
“You hear these stories about former athletes making a transition. A transition is hard mid-life, I don’t care who you are. I had a thousand things lined up, and it was still difficult. I had TV, I had stuff going on, it was still rough. And it is rough for everyone. The two things guys miss on a day-to-day basis are the locker room, being around the guys, and the competitive part of the games. …Being back around it, it’s almost therapeutic for me too.”
LXF is one of several MMA promotions Fubo Sports works with, and Duckworth said MMA is great content for them.
“The amount of passion involved in all of MMA is beyond. The people in the audience, they’re totally into it. It’s in our top-10 most-viewed. We carry a lot of fighting libraries as well as live events. America loves the competition of it and the excitement of it. You never know what’s going to go on.”
LXF9 can be viewed live on Fubo Sports beginning at 8 p.m. ET Saturday.
