This year's Imagen Awards Show saw a first last Friday, with MMA reality series Combate Americas becoming the first fighting-centered show to win a major television award.
The award for "Best Variety or Reality Series" was given to the show at the 29th annual Imagen Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel International in Beverly Hills, California, according to Yahoo! Sports. Combate Americas is the first U.S. Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) sports franchise, and was created by Campbell McLaren, co-founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He serves as Combate Americas' CEO as well as an executive producer of the show.
"It's an incredible honor to receive this award just after our first year of operations," McLaren said.
McLaren accepted the award with fellow executive producers Gabriela Cocco Sanchez, Margie Moreno, Gloria Medel Solomons, and Luisa Varona, Examiner.com reported. The achievement sets Combate Americas apart from other popular fighting programs, such as The Ultimate Fighter, Bellator's Fight Master and Mark Burnett's The Contender, none of which have won a major television award.
Combate Americas airs on mun2, and has achieved massive national and global success since its creation. The first season of the show featured cameos from UFC champion and Hall of Famer Royce Gracie and other Latin celebrities.
Founded in 1985, the Imagen Awards serves to "encourage the positive portrayals of Latinos in all forms of the entertainment media and to reward the excellence of those entities or individuals whose productions elevate the image and status of all Latinos," Yahoo! Sports reported.
McLaren said the award means a lot to the show, since he focused on portraying Latinos on television in a positive way while connecting with Latino sports fans in the U.S.
"One of the immediate goals with Combate Americas was to create an authentic show that Latino fight fans in the U.S. would not just enjoy, but also identify with on both a personal and cultural level," he said. "Winning the Imagen Award for 'Best Variety or Reality Show' confirms that we achieved this goal."
