I’ve been a fan of Michael Schiavello’s since he started doing work internationally calling Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Boxing and MMA a bunch of years ago. He really started to pick up steam when he was calling K-1 events on HDnet starting in 2008, which bled over into DREAM’s MMA shows and then became a fulltime gig for HDnet, which is now AXS TV.
AXS TV has done a great job of supporting MMA, from the beginning when they tried to run their own shows to how many smaller, regional and international events they pick up and run on a regular basis, as well as Inside MMA. They’ve done a lot for the world of fighting and have even kept up the same level of coverage after switching formats from a Girls Gone Wild and Drinking Made Easy type of network to an entertainment and music network, MMA still has a home on AXS TV.
Things sort of culminated into a perfect storm this weekend for them when Schiavello and Pat Miletech were calling the action at RFA 7 in Denver and there was a fighter on the card named Danny Mainus. Schiavello, upon research, found out that his name was pronounced “my anus,” and let’s just say that the fight has become stuff of legend. It picked up so much steam that a video of the calls went viral and caught the eye of the future king of late night television, Jimmy Fallon.