Growing pains are a part of any new company. There was a time when the UFC was banned in 36 states. Bad things are going to happen. Unforeseen things. Things that are going to hurt the credibility of your product.
Invicta Fighting Championships president Shannon Knapp found that out the hard way Saturday night.
For the first time, the all-women’s MMA organization tried its hand at pay per view. The fourth event from the progessive company would be streamed live on its website (invictafc.com) – only this time it would be for a fee.
That wasn’t the problem. There were thousands of people willing to pay and a strawweight title fight between Carla Esparza and Bec Hyatt had diehard MMA fans excited. Other names like Shayna Baszler, Alexis Davis and Amanda Nunes would also be featured. There was a buzz among the niche audience that Invicta is trying to hit.
But many people – maybe even most – were not able to watch it.
Invicta wasn’t at fault, at least according to Knapp. She said Saturday night that something went wrong with USTREAM, her company’s online streaming provider, and no one from Invicta could get anyone on the phone from the service to figure out the issue.
Some people were able to get the stream to start and it crashed. Some were never able to get it to work at all. And a handful of people paid and got nothing in return.
Knapp made the snap decision to lift the pay wall with seven fights left on the 13-fight card. Anyone who did pay, she announced on Twitter, will get a refund if they want one. It was the right decision, albeit one she shouldn’t have had to make.
I was one of the lucky ones. I purchased the event for $7.95 and was at first shut out. Then during the Cassie Rodish-Stephanie Frausto fight, I got an e-mail from USTREAM telling me I was good to go. When I queued up the video, there were people still complaining on the live chat that they couldn’t see the fights.
They didn’t miss anything historic. It wasn’t Invicta’s best showing. Most fights were uneventful grappling battles and only one on the main card – Davis’ third-round submission of Baszler – ended in a finish.
I’m sure Knapp is fine with that side of things. Invicta’s product has never been a question – it’s quality. The streaming system was anything but Saturday night. And it was that likely driving Knapp mad into the wee hours of the morning.
She shouldn’t feel too badly. UFC president Dana White has been there. Even after more than a decade under the current regime, the UFC has its ups and downs. White had to cancel a pay-per-view show just this past September.
Saturday was a bad night for Invicta. But that’s all it was – one night. The organization is less than a year old. It’ll continue to be the standard bearer for women’s MMA in this country. Knapp can rest easy knowing that.