With a passion for mixed martial arts, it was Combate Americas that opened the doors to sports broadcaster Max Bretos to call the action.

Bretos alongside The Ultimate Fighter 18 winner Julia Pena serve as the English language broadcasters for Combates.

THE BEGINNING

AXS TV airs Combate Americas.

In 2018, he joined the team. He credits former mixed martial arts champion Gilbert Melendez for putting in a good word.

For the Cuban American, it was his first time calling mma and he was nervous.

“I knew Gilbert and I gravitated to him and that whole day Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren  was saying you are an announcer, but you have to be a representation of Combate so I met everyone,” he said.

He later elaborated, “In the hotel, everything is there; you are sharing the gym and one of the fighters came in on the treadmill,” he said. “They are all accessible.”

Early in his career, he worked for Fox Soccer Channel and later for ESPN where he worked as a reporter and later an anchor.

EMBRACING HIS HERITAGE

Embracing his Hispanic background has been key, he was at the forefront of embracing his culture at ESPN.

Hence, that is what makes Combate Americas different from the rest of the mma promotions.

“Being Latino and people get shocked but there is a certain way people fight in certain parts of the world,” said Bretos, who trained some martial arts.

Bretos added, “In places we go like Mexicali or Monterey, they like to fight standing up until someone goes down; there’s no ground game.”

Moreover, in the early days of mma, he would cover it for ESPN when the sport did not receive much coverage.

He knew one day that sport would become what it is today, respected globally.

Until today, Bretos is not shy to say that he will view videos on Youtube to learn different moves from mixed martial arts.