Justin Adams
On January 28th. — Billy Bob’s Texas will kick off their cowboy boots and put on a set of MMA gloves for XKO Thursday Night Fight Night. And the talent-rich combat sports scene of Texas couldn’t be more excited.
Xtreme Knock Out, also known as XKO, is the number-one ranked MMA and Muay Thai promotion in Texas and if you haven’t been to one of their shows, I suggest you get there. With production value second to none, it’s easy to see why some of the most exciting fighters in MMA today have made their way through this promotion. In the past ten years since it’s inception, over thirty athletes have gone on to fight for the UFC after competing inside the XKO cage. Top talents such as Kevin ‘Trailblazer’ Holland, Geoff ‘Handz of Steel’ Neal, Abdul Razak Alhassan, Steven ‘Ocho’ Peterson, James ‘The Texeceutioner’ Vick and a number of other star combatants have appeared under the XKO banner during their climb to the top.
The backstory behind the family-owned XKO comes from years of hard work, as I learned from my discussion with promotional owners Thomas and Chris Bussey. Their father, Mike Bussey, initially owned a combative sports gym and had ties to Team Takedown, the home of former UFC welterweight champion, Johny ‘Big Rig’ Hendricks.
After attempting to bring the martial arts scene to light through reality T.V. shows on the Discovery channel and MTV, the Bussey’s turned some efforts towards promoting professional wrestling shows before finally gaining the traction to get regional fighters in the cage to slug it out.
Fast forward a decade, and you have a full-on talent development league, teeming with incoming UFC and Bellator MMA stars. In fact, XKO has hosted more female MMA fights than any other promotion, save for the UFC and Invicta FC. If ever there was a promotion ready for UFC Fight Pass that would assist Dana White’s Contender Series in finding the next big star, XKO is it.
From Kevin Holland’s spinning elbow knockout of TUF alumn Bubba McDaniels to Alex Munoz’s three-second knockout, the finishes never fail to deliver in the XKO cage. Who wouldn’t buy a ticket to see fights like Kevin Holland vs Geoff Neal, just prior to their UFC introductions? What about perennial scrappers like Chris Gutierrez or Steven Peterson diving down the rabbit hole to see how tough they really are?
If you’re in the area, I strongly suggest you buy a ticket. If not, buy the PPV at www.XKO.TV! The headlining spot is a wild light heavyweight Muay Thai bout between former UFC standout Rashad Coulter and fast-rising contender Joel Guzman that I can promise will be worth the price of admission on its own. Regardless of the outcome, XKO has found that recipe for success and modern-day MMA owes the Bussey family a tip of the hat.
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