{"id":148411,"date":"2025-09-16T22:46:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148411\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T22:46:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:46:04","slug":"ex-nfl-star-talks-ai-powered-game-changer-for-mma-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/148411\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-NFL star talks AI-powered game-changer for MMA promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">Former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/nfl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NFL<\/a> star Shawne Merriman is no stranger to bringing innovation to Lights Out Xtreme Fighting in hopes of standing out from other organizations in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">On Saturday, Merriman is set to introduce a &#8220;game-changer&#8221; to the world of mixed martial arts and combat sports. He told Fox News Digital that fans who watch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/ex-nfl-star-shawne-merriman-talks-upcoming-lights-out-xtreme-fighting-card-promotions-increased-exposure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lights Out Xtreme Fighting<\/a> 27 on Lights Out Sports TV will see a different way advertisements are displayed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nfl-shawne-merriman-091625-2.jpg\" alt=\"Shawne Merriman spars\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Shawne Merriman spoke to Fox News Digital about new innovative happenings at Lights Out Xtreme Fighting. (Robert Hanashiro, USAT, USA TODAY via Imagn Content Services, LLC)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019re doing our first commercial use of AI virtual sponsorship,&#8221; Merriman said. &#8220;People watching at home on Lights Out Sports TV will see ads change every fight. This is something that we\u2019ve been working on for a long time. We\u2019ve been working behind the scenes for six months and now we\u2019re bringing it to commercial use.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, companies can sponsor fights on a per-minute basis. They\u2019re buying time for less cost. And everybody will be able to get to see it for the first time. I\u2019m really, really excited about that because this is gonna be a game-changer in combat sports and everybody gets a chance to see it for the first time live.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Merriman said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/ex-nfl-star-shawne-merriman-brings-vision-life-launches-free-sports-tv-channel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lights Out Xtreme Fighting<\/a> partnered with PTF Lab to help incorporate the new idea on ads into the fights.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/ivanka-trump-reenters-dc-ring-upcoming-knockout-ufc-white-house-fight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">IVANKA TRUMP RE-ENTERS DC RING FOR UPCOMING KNOCKOUT UFC WHITE HOUSE FIGHT<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/nfl-shawne-merriman-091625-1.jpg\" alt=\"Shawne Merriman and Snoop Dogg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Rapper Snoop Dogg (left) with Shawne Merriman during the Colorado State Rams game against the Miami (OH) RedHawks in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl at Arizona Stadium on Dec. 28, 2024. (Mark J. Rebilas\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There\u2019s a lot of regional promotions that are struggling right now, and we\u2019re one of the ones that are extremely successful because we figured out ways to bring incremental revenue without having to raise a bunch of capital,&#8221; Merriman explained. &#8220;So, we\u2019re very lean as a company.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I got a great staff and then I\u2019ve always thought outside of the box when it comes to growth \u2013 and this is it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lights Out Xtreme Fighting 27 will take place at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California. The fight begins at 5 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lights-out-mma-091625-1.jpg\" alt=\"A Lights Out Xtreme Fighting poster\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Lights Out Xtreme Fighting 27 takes place on Sept. 20, 2025. (Lights Out Xtreme Fighting)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tyrell Fortune will take on Demoreo Dennis in the main event with four other big bouts on the card.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u00a0sports coverage on X<\/a> and subscribe to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Former NFL star Shawne Merriman is no stranger to bringing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,593,85,40293],"class_list":["post-148411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-trending-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}