From GameStop to Crypto Cage Fights: How a Lingerie MMA League Went All-In on Bitcoin
Wall Street's meme-stock madness just spawned the unlikeliest crypto convert—a lingerie-clad fight league betting big on Bitcoin.
When the GameStop saga exposed traditional finance's fragility, this combat sports disruptor saw an opening. Now they're cutting out banks, bypassing payment processors, and paying fighters in hard-capped digital gold.
The playbook? Straight from the DeFi underground. Fighter purses auto-convert to BTC via smart contracts. Merch sales settle on Lightning Network. Even cage-side NFTs let fans own a piece of the action—literally.
Sure, hedge funds might scoff at a 'brallelujah' business model. But when your entire industry runs on 30-day net terms and chargebacks, maybe it's time to embrace irreversible transactions.
One roundhouse kick at the fiat system—and this time, the SEC isn't stopping the fight.
How did LFC get here?
Donnelly had just wrapped up filming “Tight,” a 2011 mockumentary series about an all-girl porn star rock band, when actor Joel Chanin asked to borrow money to purchase Bitcoin. The then-writer and director laughed at Chanin, claiming that it was worthless because you couldn’t use it in real-world stores.
“I was very wrong and willing to admit my mistakes,” Donnelly laughed, adding that Chanin still works with him and serves as Coach Joel Kane in the Lingerie Fighting Championships. It's worth noting that Donnelly still does not personally hold Bitcoin.
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Donnelly was a producer for Playboy TV, creating hits like “The Boy Nexxt Door”—a TV show about a guy who wants to pursue a career in the adult film industry. By 2013, he created the first edition of Lingerie Fighting Championships, which was originally shot in a similar mockumentary style to “Tight” with a fake audience.
“I don't think the cable companies understood the joke, because they presented it as a sporting event, and it did well. So they ordered more,” Donnelly said, adding that they sold real tickets for the organization’s second event. “We were in that odd position of becoming the very thing we were making fun of.”
Numerous successful events later, the Lingerie Fighting Championships went public via a reverse merger with Cala Energy Corp. However, Donnelly said, Cala Energy Corp failed to deliver on a number of promises made during the merger, which left the organization in a sticky position.
“I'd never really had an interest in having a public company, and certainly didn't know what I was doing. So I made every mistake you can make as a public company,” Donnelly told Decrypt. “I brought in every toxic lender you can. At one point, we had six in that space. We have bought out five of them, and the one that stayed are fans of what we do.”
The sole remaining lender, called Octus Fund, helped Lingerie Fighting Championships raise the $2.23 million to buy Bitcoin, he said. Right now, the organization is solely focused on its upcoming fights in London and Cardiff, but afterwards, it WOULD be open to raising more capital for additional Bitcoin buys.
“As a public company, you’re really two companies,” Donnelly explained. “On the public side, it raises interest in us and all of that stuff. On the business side of things, if [Bitcoin] continues to rise, as is our belief and prediction, it gives us access to additional funds, should we need them.”
The burning question at the core of the public company treasury trend is: Can a public company stomach a 76% drop in Bitcoin's value, as the leading cryptocurrency saw in the year after setting its then-peak price of around $69,000 in November 2021?
Donnelly said in the case of Lingerie Fighting Championships, the company won’t be reliant on Bitcoin as its primary revenue generator—thanks to a YouTube channel of 837,000 subscribers, a touring show, and new broadcast deals. He believes that this will reduce the pressure put upon the company if Bitcoin’s price were to drop.
However, this privilege may not be the case for every company hopping on the Bitcoin treasury trend. Some experts have warned that firms may be forced to sell their digital assets, potentially at a loss, to pay off investors.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
