The first season of “Battle Bang” consists of 10 episodes, or DVDs, with each containing two fights and four hardcore sex scenes. The debut release will hit the streets on Feb. 8. The format of the series is loosely based on the popular Spike TV reality show “The Ultimate Fighter,” with elements of MTV’s “Bully Beatdown” thrown in.
“The title pretty much explains itself. It’s guys really cage fighting to win a ‘prize’ or a ‘punishment,’” said Antigua Pictures’ Kevin Muss, the producer of “Battle Bang.” “The prize is a beautiful ‘10’ girl; the punishment is not necessarily an ugly girl, but she’s not as hot as a ‘10’ and she ‘punishes’ the loser.”
The series will also be unfolding on pay-per-view channels across the country through a distribution agreement with New Frontier; the first season will run through February on select cable systems. Plans call for the entire first season to be released on DVD by the end of June. As the first season winds down, Antigua plans to release the entire Season One in a special package similar to its mainstream counterpart “The Ultimate Fighter.”
Numerous high-profile male performers competed in Season One, including Danny Mountain, Keni Styles, Tyler Knight, Derrick Pierce, Justin Syder, Dick Delaware, Marco Rivera and Seth Dickens, among others.
The female talent in the first season included Alexis Texas, Lexi Belle, Monique Alexander, April O’Neil, Bridgette B, Vicki Chase, Kylie Reese, Misty Stone, Dana DeArmond, Sophie Dee, Mulani Rivera, Charley Chase, Isis Love, Amy Brooke, Jynx Maze, Jazy Berlin and more.
In Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter,” several up-and-coming professional mixed-martial artists live in a house together, train and then compete for one six-figure UFC contract with a series of fights. Muss said the main difference with “Battle Bang” is the combatants don’t live in a house together, but there is time spent during each episode to develop their character.
“There’s a lot of reality and a lot of dialogue. We build up the relationships,” Muss said. “To my knowledge this is the first real fighting and fucking porn series. I know there’s been certain promotions where they put on boxing gloves and let the guys punch. But this is a real grappling round. This is a real striking round. Guys got choked, submitted, body slammed, kicked and knocked out from head kicks and knocked out from overhand rights. This is reality porn fighting.”
Muss said that his friends in the MMA community helped inspire the idea to do “Battle Bang.”
“In ‘Battle Bang’ everyone’s a winner even when you lose,” he noted.
In Season One, Antigua put heavyweight (over 205 pounds) and light heavyweight title belts on the line, in addition to the girls as prizes. Muss said the tenor of the series changed as soon as word got out.
“We didn’t think there would be that big a pool of the male talent wanting to do this but within the first week of casting for this thing we had about 15 to 20 guys come out of nowhere. It was monstrous, like a tidal wave,” Muss said. “Once guys were getting the word, as well as the other producers, people were calling and saying, ‘I want to fight. Let me just come down and check it out.’”
Muss continued, “We basically wanted to give them a high incentive. If you see the ‘prize’ it’s some ravishing, big-titted, big-butt, beautiful girl. Then the ‘punishment’ is maybe a not-so-beautiful, maybe not-so-curvy, doughy-around-the-mid-section girl.
“We didn’t pick girls that were foul or 300 pounds. They were ‘beautiful punishment.’ And the girls really got into their parts. The prize acted sexy, and the punishment acts nasty and dominant.”
Muss said that the first season generated enough industry buzz that he has already been casting for Season Two which will begin shooting in February.
“I have an idea of who we want. What we’re going to do in Season Two is have more specific matchups, like if there’s a beef between two guys, those guys are really going to fight,” Muss explained. “The fights are going to be more planned in Season Two. If there is a 185-pound guy he’s going to go up against another 185-pound guy. There’s a few of the male talent that have beefs against each other. So we’re kind of playing that aspect up.”
Muss said none of the fights were staged. After the fight, there was “a special area where the prize was consummated.”
Headgear was optional.
“Most guys chose not to wear it,” Muss said. “Regardless of whether there was headgear or not, there were knockouts and multiple tap-outs and submissions where guys were sleeping just like a real MMA fight. If you were to watch it, if you didn’t know they were fighting for sex scenes, you would think it was real, like a show on a cable network like ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’”
Antigua Pictures Sales Manager Dave Peskin told XBIZ, "There's a lot of excitement surrounding this first 'Battle Bang' release. You can view the trailer now for 'Battle Bang 1' on YouTube. You can also pre-order the DVD at AntiguaPictures.com."
Visit BattleBangLive.com for more information.
For Twitter updates, follow the series @BattleBang; and for sales info, email davep@antiguapictures.com.
