Joe Antonacci: The Revolutionary Behind the Joe Palooka Brand

The word “revolutionary” is not thrown around that often in the MMA world because there are very few men that are bold enough to find a way to introduce the sport to the rest of the world.

These are men that do something out of anything to not only contribute to the MMA world, but they contribute to the MMA world in a way that nobody in or out of that world ever forgets, even when they leave our visible everyday lives in peace.

Joe Antonacci, a well-known ring announcer known for his talents in the boxing world—who was also a big professional wrestling fan back in the days of George “The Animal” Steele—is not as well known in the MMA world.

He is, though, a revolutionary in his own right through his creation of the “Joe Palooka” MMA series which is set out to make major waves through the comic book world, and of course the MMA world.

If the Joe Palooka series sounds like the series surrounding the boxer of the same name—the popular series that lasted from 1930 until its discontinuation in 1984, or from Joe Louis’ Heavyweight title reign until Larry Holmes’ Heavyweight title reign—that’s because the current version of Joe Palooka is a revival of that very series, of course with an MMA twist.

As Antonacci recently told Bleacher Report’s Dale De Souza, Joe Palooka’s life changes in the heat of two men’s attempt at a bank robbery. From there, Palooka takes on the breath-stealing, fictionalized life of a mixed martial artist.

In describing the creation of the comic and its fantastic conveyance of Antonacci’s story—through the writing of the renowned award-winning American author Mike Bullock and the artwork Mr. Fernando Peniche—Antonacci enthusiastically connected his character to the reality of MMA that makes it so fun to watch for fans, and that they are soon hooked and unable to shy away from it.

“What lends itself better to superhero-like action, movement and fighting than MMA?” Antonacci said. “I can’t think of another thing, so it’s really, really something that we’re looking forward to launching.”

Fans of MMA might not see it when they’re worrying about title shots, rankings, “lay-and-pray” and everything in between, but when it comes to the actual fights, the action behind the majority of the bouts is not often something that is easy to capture into words.

The same can be said about the bouts Joe Palooka will find himself in throughout his journeys and bouts.

Last week, Team Palooka reached an agreement with the Authentic Sports Management team to feature a virtual “who’s who” known as The Blackzilians—a group featuring "former UFC light heavyweight champion “Suga” Rashad Evans, UFC welterweight contender Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, UFC middleweight Jorge Santiago, rising UFC lightweight Michael “The Menace” Johnson, Strikeforce lightweight star JZ Cavalcante, and Strikeforce competitors Danillo and Yuri Villefort, among others" according to the official press release, as well as the Miller brothers—in upcoming issues of the series.

In addition, Team Palooka sponsored Brendan Schaub and Johny Hendricks for Hendricks' UFC 133 bout with Mike Pierce and Schaub's UFC 134 clash with Minotauro Nogueira.

They will also sponsor Mike Massenzio for UFC 136, but what did the fighters think the first time Antonacci told them about it?

"Every fighter's been a little bit different, I gotta be honest with you," Antonacci said. "It's always a fighter and their manager who say, 'What's in it for us? Will we get the money up front? Is there any type of residuals?'"

"And I've had other managers who've said, 'You know something, this is about branding, and this is about believing in a brand.'"

"You believe in our brand, which is our fighter; we believe in your brand, which is an MMA comic book, so guess what? Let's get involved together and make this thing work for the both of us."

Antonacci has had fighter representatives say that the Joe Palooka brand isn't for them, but he's also had people openly say that they couldn't wait to get on board with the brand.

That has, in turn, helped Team Palooka reach a younger demographic of kids who get to experience a sweet taste of MMA before they're even considered ready to watch the real thing.

The fighters then get to show their own kids, as well as other younger fans, that they got the chance to be in a comic book, let alone an actual cage.

Seriously dude, how many fighters can honestly say they have been in a comic book?

At the end of the day, the Joe Palooka series is something that Antonacci wants fans of both the sport and the comic book world alike to get excited for because right now is only the launching pad towards the bigger and better heights to which Team Palooka is heading at a rapid rate.

As an added bonus, especially for those of you who can never get enough of the sport, Antonacci has something just for you MMA World:

“If they visit www.palooka.com—it takes two seconds—they give their name and their e-mail address,” Antonacci said, “and we’re going to send them exclusive information, exclusive images. We have content, we hand out T-shirts, and we’re going to have an entire line of tee-shirts and caps and all kinds of special stuff, and we just can’t wait.”

“I think the fans are absolutely going to love it, and I know if the fans have half as much fun reading it as we had making it, it’s going to be a huge hit.”

I speak with fairness to Antonacci and his team, as well as myself, when I say that I cannot find much of a reason why a first look at the comic would make a MMA fan or comic book fan not want to follow the saga of Joe Palooka with a similar passion to the one Antonacci shared for the elder incarnation of the series.

If you’re wondering, you really can go to the official Joe Palooka site and enter in your name and e-mail address to get exclusive access to the information and content behind Joe Palooka.

I can tell you right now from firsthand experience that you will not regret it for a second.

We in the MMA world have often compared the current crop of greats to Marvel superheroes and DC Comics superheroes, but never before has MMA had a superhero that they could call their own—a superhero that we could say epitomizes the modern mixed martial artist.

Now, we finally have that man, thanks to Joe Antonacci, and his name is Joe Palooka.