There was a time in television when MMA fans tuned in weekly to watch Kingdom, a gritty MMA TV show that showcased the life of a fighter.
[Editor’s Note: MMA Crossfire is celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2025. Editor-in-Chief Kenai Andrews takes a look back at 15 impactful Crossfire stories]
Longtime fans keeping score will remember the 2014 series Kingdom, which revolved around a Navy St. MMA gym owned by Alvey Kulina and his girlfriend Lisa. The show generated a following with the drama and life experiences explored over the course of its short-lived three seasons.
Kingdom starred Frank Grillo, Kiele Sanchez, Matt Lauria, Jonathan Tucker, Nick Jonas, Joanna Going, and Natalie Martinez. Even Talia Shire joined the cast in the final season, and there were a few fighter cameos over the course of the show.
Looking back, Kingdom was a whirlwind that rode the coattails of Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey’s rise to international stardom and then vanished like a bead of sweat into the canvas.
But what a ride it was.
MMA Crossfire was amoung the media invited to interview the cast on set and appear in an episode. This particular episode had a guest star in former UFC welterweight champion and Hall of Famer Matt Hughes and pioneer “Judo” Gene LeBell, who was in Rousey’s circle at the time.
“Character development has always been top priority, but at this point, we have been proficient at shooting our fights and handling fight days, to the point where it allows us to expanding our visual language with that,” Kingdom creator Byron Balasco explained to MMA Crossfire’s Nick Anthony. “We can do more speciality shots and move a lot faster than when we first started.”
“The fighters and the people around them in there world are every similar and reflective of anybody’s world,”and Balasco continued when asked of the message he wanted the show to convey to casual fans. “These are people like you and me living a life maybe on a more extreme plane, but their struggles are the same as anyone. They struggle to feed their family, make a living, to keep their loved ones safe and together.
“We’ve had the same crew since the beginning, so we’re definitely a family and a traveling circus right now. We’re all very close, we all know the right buttons to push to get a rise out of each other, but when the lights come on and it’s time to go, it’s really a kind of tight machine that just works. There’s a lot of trust.”
Kingdom symbolized the beginning of the globalization movement of the UFC, and the transcending of many of its stars outside of the cage. It was the missing impactful television element that movies like Warrior, and Southpaw firmly anchored around to form an entertaining decade for fight fans.
