ESPN to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Special Programing

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ESPN is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and has created a slate of programming centered around the theme “Somos.” Starting on September 15th and over the next few weeks, ESPN2, ESPN+ and ESPN Deportes will air a vast collection of original, live, and digital programming.

What’s Happening:

  • Tuesday, September 15th, marked the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, and ESPN is featuring a full slate of dedicated original content and programming built around the theme, “Somos,” to highlight the contributions of Latinos in sports.
  • Hispanic Heritage Month-themed programming includes: a mix of live events, as well as original content that will air across ESPN networks throughout the month.  
  • In addition, as part of a season-long music collaboration with producer DJ Khaled for Monday Night Football, DJ Khaled will also select a song specifically celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month for the Chargers-Saints game on Monday, October 12th.

Original Content

UFC Ultimate Knockouts:

  • UFC Ultimate Knockouts: Hispanic Heritage Month, a UFC-produced four-part special featuring some of the biggest Latino names in MMA, will kick off ESPN’s Hispanic Heritage Month-themed programming.  
  • The 30-minute special will feature a deep list of former champions, contenders and stars in their most memorable performances, including:
    • Cain Velasquez
    • Henry Cejudo
    • Jorge Masvidal
    • Nate Diaz
    • Yoel Romero
    • Tony Ferguson
    • Among others
  • The first episode, UFC Ultimate Knockouts: Hispanic Heritage Month – KOs from Mexico airs Tuesday, September 15 at 11 pm ET on ESPN2, and Thursday, September 17 at 11:30 pm ET on ESPN Deportes.
  • UFC will also offer fans UFC – Hispanic Heritage Month apparel available at UFCStore.com.
  • A percentage of profits from sales of the apparel will benefit a national Hispanic nonprofit organization.

The 3 Knockdown Rule on ESPN+:

  •  “The Latino Legacy”, the next episode of The 3 Knockdown Rule hosted by television personality and boxing aficionado Mario Lopez and ESPN boxing writer Steve Kim, is available to stream now exclusively on ESPN+.
  • Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, with a special guest appearance by boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya, Lopez and Kim pay tribute to the generations of Hispanic boxers who have positively influenced and enriched the sport loved by all “Latinos”.
  • Lopez and Kim examine the legacies of Campeones de la Pelea (fight champions) like Julio Cesar Chavez, Roberto Duran, and modern-day stars such as Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and Ryan Garcia, while De La Hoya reveals the real chisme (gossip) behind some of his most significant bouts.

Somos El Paso Strong: 

  • This 30-minute documentary tells the story of El Paso Fusion, a youth soccer team comprised of 10 to11-year-old girls, who were selling snacks outside of a local Walmart on August 3, 2019 to help pay for their first out-of-state tournament.
  • In an instant, their lives changed forever when a man targeting Hispanics committed one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
  • El Paso Strong follows EP Fusion for the next full year as its coaches and players try to recover and rebuild their lives.
  • The program airs Wednesday September 23 at 11:30 pm ET, ESPN Deportes.

Greenland:  

Hosted by ESPN Deportes’ Andrés Agulla, Greenland is a four-part series produced by ESPN Originals that highlights some of the most exotic and inaccessible soccer fields on earth.

Episode 1 (Friday, September 25, 8 pm ET, ESPN Deportes):

  • First, we travel to Jujuy, a region whose culture remains largely disconnected from the rest of Jujuy is the most climatically diverse province in the country, yet grass does not grow naturally in these parts. Nevertheless, Club Independencia is a truly unique space, a meeting spot for the entire community.
  • Next, we travel to Tijuquinha, a community that borders the Barra da Tijuca region in Brazil. More than 20,000 people co-exist here in an environment complicated by overcrowding.
  • In this setting, the neighborhood’s epicenter is a dirt field.

Episode 2 (Friday, October 2, 8 pm ET, ESPN Deportes): 

  • For the second episode, we travel to the Archipelago of San Bernardo in Colombia, where we find Santa Cruz del Islote, a floating town in the middle of Paradise.
  • Approximately 800 people live there on less than one hectare, making it the most densely populated island in the world. In this setting, imagination is the greatest impetus.
  • We conclude in Xochimilco in Mexico City, where soccer poses an unbelievable challenge with a pitch atop a volcano, in the Field of the Gods.

Episode 3 (Friday, 10/9, 8 pm ET, ESPN Deportes):

  • For the third and last episode, Greenland makes a special stop at Machu Picchu, Peru. This is the story of a sacred place and its ties to soccer.
  • Episode 3 concludes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where we visit the Victoriano Arenas Stadium, where fans co-exist surrounded by El Riachuelo River, also known as Matanza River, one of the most polluted rivers in Latin America.

Live World Championship Boxing Event

  • On Saturday, October 17, 2020 (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 10 pm ET), Teofimo Lopez will take on WBO/WBA/WBC Franchise world champion Vasiliy “Loma” Lomachenko, in what will be the biggest fight of his young career.
  • Last December, Lopez made history when he became the first boxer of Honduran descent to win a world title as he defeated Richard Commey to win the IBF lightweight world title.
  • As a lead up to Lomachenko-Lopez, ESPN will air Blood, Sweat & Tears: Lomachenko vs. Lopez, a two-part series that will feature both boxers’ camps leading up to the big day.  
  • The two-part series will air on ESPN, Friday, October 9 pm, ET and Sunday, October 11 at 9 pm ET.

Digital

“El Rostro Latino de Béisbol:”

  • Who is the Latino face of MLB? That is the question ESPNDeportes.com and FiveThirtyEight sought to answer.
  • To determine this, ESPN polled 30 MLB writers, analysts, contributors and insiders, factored a combination of stats, social media score and Google trend score and ranked them.
  • Subsequently, FiveThirtyEight worked on a formula to determine which MLB Latino superstar should be crowned “El Rostro Latino de Béisbol” (the Latino Face of Baseball).  
  • The winner will be revealed Friday, October 2 on ESPN Deportes’ SportsCenter.

Additional Storytelling:

Celebratory vignettes will air across ESPN Deportes and appear on digital and social platforms.

Somos #21: Roberto Clemente: 

  • Voiced by Latin Grammy winner Residente, the feature explores the significance of #21 to Puerto Rican – and other Latin American – players in the Big Leagues.
  • Many current and former peloteros chose not to use it as a tribute to Roberto Clemente. The Pirates are the only team to have that jersey retired, while others use it as a way to honor his legacy.

Somos Acereros: 

  • An animated short feature dissecting how the Pittsburgh Steelers have become one of the most beloved teams south of the border.

Somos Nación Raiders:

  • Raiders Nation should be known as Nación Raiders due to its long history with Hispanics, on and off the field.
  • From Super Bowl-winning Latino players, Jim Plunkett and Tom Flores, to super fans Carlos Santana and George Lopez, Latino Raider fans are among the most passionate, boisterous and loyal fans in the NFL.

Somos El Rostro de Grandes Ligas: 

  • ESPN Deportes’ Latino Face of Baseball winner will be unveiled on SportsCenter Thursday, October 1.

Somos NFL:

  • An animated feature reviewing the history of the NFL’s broadcasts in Spanish in the U.S. and Latin America, which helped reap a new generation of hardcore fans across the continent.