Following the success of Banner Promotions’ mixed boxing and MMA fight card last month in Las Vegas, South Coast Promotions organized a similar event in Houston’s Reliant Arena on Friday, July 18th. Read more to find out how Donna English, the event’s promoter, got the idea to hold Texas’ first mixed card.

In an emailed interview to The No Holds Barred Show, English’s original plans stemmed from a little education.

”I attended a ‘Promoter’s School’ in California last year which included the attendees working 2 promotions (1 MMA and 1 boxing). It was exciting. I then decided that since the Texas Boxing Commission would approve such an event, it was what I wanted to promote - a mixed combative sport event,” she said.

The support shown to South Coast Promotions was quick and enthusiastic from the Houston-area and greater Texas MMA communities.

”Extremely receptive,” English said about the interest shown by Houston-area MMA trainers Tony Orozco and Saul Soliz, both of whom had fighters from their camps on the card. “I did not meet any MMA trainers or managers that were not. They were all professional and extremely easy to work with. The fighters were nothing but a class act from the beginning to the end. There was never a concern with the mixed card.”

Polite applause and semi-enthusiastic cheers could be heard throughout the evening’s boxing portion of the card. The MMA fights drew a very receptive and strong, emphatic cheers throughout the evening. Despite the presence and main event scheduling of the semi-infamous Hector “El Macho” Camacho, the three MMA bouts had fans in the arena on their feet.

Final figures surrounding the event are not in yet, but English confirmed that sales from Ticketmaster totaled a very promising 3,050.

South Coast has an additional three more evenings of boxing and MMA fight nights, all of which are tentatively scheduled to be hosted at Reliant Arena.

”It was our original plan to ‘swap’ the cards: the first being primarily a boxing card with three to four MMA bouts, the second being primarily an MMA card with three boxing bouts on the card, the third card would go back to boxing with MMA, and the fourth would be primarily MMA with a couple of boxing bouts.”

The first event has served as quite a litmus test for both boxing and MMA, as well as the future of mixed cards. Promoting the event required local media attention in evening news sports segments as well as purchasing commercial time on sports radio stations in the Houston area.

Overall, the apparent success of the historic evening seems to build momentum for future cards.

MMA Results

Daniel Piñeda (6 – 1) def. Vince Libardi (8 – 3) via TKO 1st.

Jonathan Brookins (8 – 2) def. Jose Santibañez (7 – 2) via submission 1st.

Mike Bronzoulis (2 – 1) def. Paul Hansen (1 – 1) via TKO 1st.