A Look at G4TV's Run at the Fight Game: Champions of Champions Elite

Over the weekend, G4TV, a television network which was once known as TechTV and is currently a network aimed at twenty-somethings who love videogames and technology, took a stab at the fight game. This took the form of an hour-long program centered around last year's Champion of Champion's 2 Muay Thai event from Jamaica. Along with the fights, when the program was taped last year, there was a mini-documentary filmed about Muay Thai and how big the sport is in Thailand.

G4, interestingly enough, chose to base their one hour program around that documentary and one of the fighters who spoke throughout it, Clifton Brown ended up being the main star of the show. Also, from how the Champions of Champions Elite homepage reads, it looks like this event will be a monthly program aired on G4TV. In a way, I am shocked. I'm shocked because a cable network is going to be airing Muay Thai fights for the rest of the year on the last Sunday of the month as well as I'm shocked that nobody really knew about this happening. 

I feel like the online fight community usually has its finger on the pulse of upcoming shows, but in this case, this completely came out of nowhere. If you Google "G4TV Champion of Champions" you pull confused forum posts and our initial report of the show airing. If you take that into account along with the rumors of G4 wanting to air a show akin to MMA Live, it makes sense that they dip their toe into the water and start airing some fighting on the network. I'll be hard pressed to complain about Muay Thai airing on American television, but it seems like an odd choice, considering Muay Thai is incredibly niche in the United States.

Due to the lack of promotion I almost wonder if this is unrelated to the rumors of G4 going after the MMA audience and RISARC Productions is fitting the bill and paying for TV time. If you read their Twitter feed it smells of desperation.