Issue 094
November 2012
Invicta Fighting Championships’ cards have become a viral sensation – brought to you courtesy of a wannabe childhood ninja who lives and breathes mixed martial arts
LEADING WOMAN
Shannon Knapp
Invicta FC president
To put it mildly, Shannon Knapp is not your typical woman. While young girls typically fantasize about beauty pageants and the latest teenage heartthrob, Knapp was trying to secure smoke bombs and wall-walking skills for her potential combat career. “Most girls want to be models or teachers; I wanted to be a ninja,” she tells FO. “I used to buy Soldier of Fortune magazine; I don’t know what kid buys that. In the back they had advertisements for ninja camp and I would plead with my mom to send me.”
Although that dream never became a reality, Knapp’s passion for the combative arts never tired. Combining her background in broadcasting with her skills as a self-defense instructor, Knapp quickly carved herself a spot in the budding mixed martial arts scene of the early 2000s. It was Royce Gracie who originally caught Knapp’s eye, but it was her friendship with Bas Rutten which drew her into the sport.
“I was very good friends with Bas Rutten, he’s like a brother to me. Through him, I met a lot of people and I put my broadcast degree and background into the sport.” Over the last decade, Knapp has worked with nearly every major MMA promotion in North America, including King of the Cage, Affliction, IFL, Strikeforce and the UFC. Unheralded, she’s taken on a variety of roles such as journalist and fighter manager, as well as a contributor on the corporate side of the business.
“There’s something to be said about laying low in the industry and learning. That’s what I did. I’ve been in it forever. All the athletes know me. You might not have known me, but that’s OK. I always said if you didn’t know me, then I felt like I was effectively doing my job.” Knapp’s ability to connect with the athlete made her a unique commodity in a sport trying to shatter the thug-like stereotype with which it had been associated for too long.
“They used to sit me down to do these interviews with these athletes and I would make them cry for some reason,” laughs Knapp. “It was really the strangest thing and people always laugh about it. I think at that point, promotions identified with the fact I had a connection and could communicate very effectively with the athlete. I started getting job offers and then went into the corporate side of it, as well as management.”
After being amicably released from Strikeforce, following Zuffa’s purchase of the company in 2011, Knapp began to brainstorm. With business partner Janet Martin, she came up with the idea for Invicta FC, an all-female promotion which would give talent throughout the world a cage to call home.
“The idea pretty much came about as Zuffa came in and purchased Strikeforce,” says Knapp. “There was some uncertainty in the industry, especially among the females, about not knowing what would happen. The perception was that Zuffa didn’t like female athletes. I think that’s when the birth happened.”
The groundbreaking promotion held its first show April 28th this year. Featured were Marloes Coenen, Liz Carmouche, Jessica Penne and the long-awaited MMA debut of Beijing Olympics bronze medalist wrestler Randi Miller. The reception to the event was overwhelming. In total, nearly 250,000 unique visitors watched the free live stream from the promotion’s website.
“The only way to get your product out there to the masses and get everyone to see the event is to do it for free. We had to do it for free. Getting it out there for everyone to see was very important for us,” says Knapp. Despite some offers from television networks, Knapp and the Invicta team decided that, again, streaming their second event free from their website would be more beneficial in the long run.
“We had some offers,” she admits. “It’s not that we’re saying no or that we don’t want to work with anyone in the future. But I think at this point in time it’s a lot more advantageous to the company to go back in and do what we did the first time. It’s huge in building our brand. It’s marketing 101. Throw your product out there and let people familiarize themselves with it and we’ll go from there.”
It is a strategy that, by all accounts, has proven successful, with viewership numbers well surpassing those of the inaugural show.
Knapp has pioneered a canvas for female martial artists to apply their craft on a grand stage. “If you really love this sport in its purest form, you cannot be gender biased,” Knapp adds. “I get goose bumps when a good fight starts. If you love a good technical well-matched fight, how can you not want that? I don’t care if it’s man or a woman; if it’s a competitive, good fight, you have to love it.”
It’s Knapp’s dedication to the fighters that has made her a unique and successful figure in the world of mixed martial arts. Unlike many promoters, her eye is not solely focused on the cash register, but rather what her company can do to push women’s MMA into a new level of popularity and respect.
“I’m not in it for a fast buck, I’m not in it to be a rock star,” Knapp explains. “The whole reason I ever got involved in the sport is to be make a difference. I’ve always been a huge advocate for the athlete and the sport as a whole.”
