LOS ANGELES – To this day, Paulina Granados’ father can’t bear to watch her fights.

That’s too bad, in a way, because the Alliance MMA fighter has turned into a capable competitor, one who will look to run her Combate Americas record to 3-1 when she returns to “La Jaula” on Friday night.

“He just can’t do it,” Granados told MMA Junkie with a laugh in a recent interview. “My mom, she gets real into it. She watches my fights and is yelling and everything. But my dad, I think he doesn’t want to see his little girl get beat up or something. I’m like, ‘Dad, I’m going to go out there and win!'”

Maybe there’s a little bit of old-school machismo in there, as Granados grew up in a small Mexican-American community outside Corpus Christi, Texas, the sort of place where you’re expected to live up to traditional gender roles. Or maybe some people just aren’t fight fans, regardless of who’s involved.

But if Mr. Granados is ever going to give his daughter’s sport a chance, Friday night’s Combate Americas card might be the right starting point.

While the pioneering Invicta FC has been running all-women’s cards since their inception in 2012, and Ronda Rousey’s star power helped fuel a boom in which women still play an integral role in the UFC well after her retirement from mixed martial arts, we haven’t seen a show from a mixed-gender promotion quite like the one the Latino-themed promotion will hold next.

The card at the Galen Center on the campus of the University of Southern California, titled “Reinas del Combate” (“Queens of Combat”), will feature women’s fights in all four of the top spots on the card.

In featured bouts, undefeated Melissa Martinez (5-0 MMA) meets Caroline Gallardo (3-2 MMA) in the strawweight main event; jiu-jitsu standout Kyra Batara (7-4 MMA) takes on Francis Hernandez (3-3 MMA), a late replacement for Angela Magana, in the co-feature at strawweight; Granados (4-3) takes on Gloria Bravo (4-4 MMA) at atomweight; and Yasmine Yuaregi (1-0) takes on Daniela Espinosa (0-0) at strawweight.

There are also two other women’s bouts on the 10-fight card, which streams live in English on DAZN starting at 10 p.m. ET.

“Being on a show like this means a lot to me,” Granados said. “Combate has been aggressive about signing women’s competitors since they started. They told me they were committed when they signed me, and by having a show like this, they’re showing they’re backing up their words with action.”

Indeed, Combate Americas president Alberto Del Rio believes that “Reinas” is a matter of the fans telling the promoters what they want to see, and the promoters responding.

The former WWE star, also known as Alberto al Patron, has a background in both MMA and lucha libre, and he believes that if the fans say they want women featured front and center, then that’s what they should get.

“Remember when Dana White said that he would never have women fight in the UFC ever?” Del Rio asked. “And one year after that, he was headlining a show with Ronda Rousey. What changed? People started tuning into Ronda’s fights and buying tickets to Ronda’s fights.

“The people spoke, and the marketplace spoke, and what they’re saying is that they see women as equal to men in fighting. So that’s what where doing here with ‘Reinas de Combate.’”

For Batara, the show represents the culmination of a journey that began when she was 13 years old and growing up in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Wash.

“I was a cheerleader; that was my thing,” Batara told MMA Junkie. “My dad was a big fight fan, and he felt like I needed to learn self-defense. So next thing I know, I’m in a jiu-jitsu class. And then next thing I know after that, I’m on my high school wrestling team going up against boys that were bigger than me and winning.

“I know that’s kind of the opposite of how the story goes sometimes, right?” said Batara, who lives in Las Vegas and bases her training at the UFC Performance Institute. “For me, I had it ingrained in me from that early age that I was empowered to take control of my own destiny.

“So for me, a show like ‘Reinas’ isn’t some way to prove other people wrong or some type of gimmick. What it means to me is that this was my spot all along, and I plan on going out there and using this platform to show what I can do.”

Indeed, this isn’t some sort of one-off stab at promoting women’s fighting for Combate. The company has incorporated WMMA from the outset and has continued to recruit a stream of women’s competitors, such as former WBC and WBO world champion Kenia Enriquez and former lucha libre standout Dulce “Sexy Star” Garcia, who defeated Marian Ruiz via decision on April 12 in Monterrey, Mexico in her pro MMA debut.

Title shots have been promised to the winners of Friday night’s featured bouts, which has Batara – who has won six of her past seven overall fights and all six in Combate – seeing “Reinas” as both an endpoint and a pivot to the next stage in her career.

“I’ve won six straight (Combate Americas) fights,” Batara said. “I’m glad I have this platform, but this is my time.”