NEW YORK – March 4, 2026 – COMBATE GLOBAL did not waste any time making an impact on its new U.S. television partner’s platforms while also recording over 500,000 total live viewers with its largest aggregate live global television audience reach in company history from EstrellaTV studios in Burbank, Calif. on Thursday, February 26 , beginning at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT.
The live debut on EstrellaTV, the multiplatform Spanish-language network owned by MediaCo Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: MDIA), was amplified with a live stream on the network’s digital platforms, while the COMBATE GLOBAL Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) show also aired in Spanish on the promotion’s Samsung TV Plus channel in the U.S. and Mexico; streamed live, worldwide in Spanish on the COMBATE GLOBAL YouTube channel; and streamed live globally in English on FIGHTTIPS, the YouTube channel owned and operated by famed MMA content creator, Shane Fazen.
U.S. viewership of EstrellaTV’s live broadcast of the season premiere event significantly beat viewership in all segments of FOX Deportes’s live coverage of professional soccer in the same time slot, and total reach just for the EstrellaTV multiplatform event exceeded an estimated aggregate of 100 thousand (measured in households and video sessions).
EstrellaTV’s leadership expressed strong enthusiasm over the viewership results.
“On nearly all streaming platforms, it was the leading content for the 24-hour window and, as a whole, it was the number one content for EstrellaTV’s FAST channel. This is a great start for building an audience with live sports.”, said Rene Santaella, Chief Operating Officer, MediaCo.
“Live sports are a powerful engine for audience growth and premium sponsorship demand,” said Brian Fisher, Chief Revenue Officer, MediaCo. “Combate Global gives brands authentic, cross-platform scale across linear, FAST, and digital creating deeper integrations that drive real revenue growth.”
“It was Mucha Más Acción everywhere on Thursday night,” said COMBATE GLOBAL CEO Campbell McLaren, commenting on the unprecedented reach for his company’s live event series. “The fights were phenomenal, our live audience reach was greater than ever and our new venue provides fans with a one-of-a-kind experience on-site.”
COMBATE Global has also acknowledged the bandwidth problem it experienced with the live YouTube streams on its own YouTube channel as well as the one on FIGHTTIPS, and issued an apology.
“We understand fans experienced a problem with our live YouTube feed, causing repeated interruptions while they were streaming the show, and we want to let everyone know that we have fully corrected the issue, which was due to the bandwidth in our venue. This issue will not happen again during our live event season,” said McLaren and Fazen in a joint statement.
Thursday’s show, the first of 20 COMBATE GLOBAL live television events scheduled for this year, delivered as much fast-paced fighting as it did television coverage and viewership numbers.
The five-bout card was headlined by the return of Mexican television star and MMA competitor, Jawy Mendez, often referred to as “The Mexican Jake Paul”, who notched his second career win by way of TKO, stopping Puerto Rican rival John “El Sicario” Padron in the second round of battle.
All 19 remaining COMBATE GLOBAL live events this year will take place at the same venue, EstrellaTV’s custom-designed studio equipped with state-of-the-art television screens wrapped around the set, a tunnel entrance for fighters, a premium overhead lighting package and arena-style bleacher seating for a live audience.
The season premiere event was attended by several Hollywood moguls, including music industry pioneer Pepe Garza.
COMBATE GLOBAL returns to the air live on Thursday, March 12 with a fight card headlined by three-time world boxing champion and unbeaten MMA fighter, Kenia “Mexican Queen” Enriquez, who will take on Japanese JuJitsu black belt CaySea McBride in a strawweight (115 pounds) contest.
Additional information about COMBATE GLOBAL and its athletes can be found on www.CombateGlobal.com as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Sources: Nielsen, NPM, L+SD data; Video sessions are based on EstrellaTV internal numbers provided thru Amagi and FAST distribution partners.