After a busy week in the MMA world (2 events in 1 week!) we resume our series reviewing the history of MMA and it’s major organizations. To this point, we’ve had a 2 part series on the history of MMA (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2), and followed that up with another 2 part series detailing the history of the UFC (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2). I could break down all the other mainstream organizations and draw this out, but I’ve decided instead to just cover them all with a few quick blurbs in this single post, hope you don’t mind.
We have 3 organizations left to cover: Pride, which was purchased and absorbed by the UFC, WEC, which is owned and operated by UFC, and Strikeforce, which is really the only realistic competition to the UFC. Of course, nobody knows for sure unless they were to square off, but many believe that outside of a handful of fighters, many in the Strikeforce organization aren’t quite up to par of what the UFC offers. But competition will bring out the best, so it’s all good for the fans.
We’ll cover the history of these 3 organizations after the jump.
As always I’d like to thank Wikipedia for compiling excellent information, making my job so much easier. Most of what you are about to read came from those pages.
Pride Fighting Championships was the biggest mixed martial arts organization in the world, based in Japan. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride was initially conceived in 1997 by Kakutougi Revolution Spirits to match popular Japanese pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada with Rickson Gracie, the purported champion of the Gracie family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners.
Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events. As one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world during its ten years of operation, Pride broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide. In 2000, Pride hosted the first ever Pride Grand Prix, a two-part openweight tournament held to find the “world’s best fighter”. The tournament was held over the course of two events, with sixteen fighters competing in an opening round, and the eight winners returning three months later for the final round. The second round of the tournament marked the first time Pride was broadcast in the United States, and featured American fighter Mark Coleman winning the tournament by defeating Igor Vovchanchyn in the final round.
In March 2007, Dream Stage Entertainment sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-owners of Zuffa, which owns rival promotion the Ultimate Fighting Championship and most of the fighting talent was absorbed into their organization. As a result many of the Pride staff left to form a new organization alongside K-1 parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group. This new organization founded in February 2008 is entitled Dream.
Strikeforce was founded as a kickboxing organization. It became involved with MMA in 2006 with the Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Gracie event on March 10, 2006, at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. In March 2008, Strikeforce partnered with NBC to broadcast weekly highlight and fighter-profile series, Strikeforce on NBC from April 12.
In February 2009, Strikeforce purchased several assets, including a video library and several fighter-contracts, including Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith from ProElite, owner of the defunct EliteXC promotion. Days later it also announced it had agreed to a three-year broadcast deal with Showtime for up to 16 events per year, as well as a deal with CBS for an option to produce up to four events for them. During August 2009, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced that they had signed formal alliances with Japanese MMA-promotion Dream and Russian promotion M-1 Global. Coker said the partnership would allow for co-promotion and fighter exchanges for events both in the US and Japan, and he mentioned Shinya Aoki versus Josh Thomson or Gilbert Melendez as well as Melvin Manhoefversus Robbie Lawler creating the best match ups possible that would not have existed before.
In June 2009, Strikeforce announced its August 15 bout between Gina Carano and Cris “Cyborg” Santos would be for its newly-created female MMA 145 pounds (66 kg) championship. The bout would also historically be the first women’s match to headline a card by a major U.S. organization. It was aired on the Showtime premium cable channel where Santos won the fight by TKO with one second left in the first round.
World Extreme Cagefighting is the sister promotion to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), both owned and produced by Zuffa, with a focus on the lighter weight classes (155, 145, and 135 lb). The WEC uses the same rules as its older and much larger sibling, and holds its matches in a smaller octagonal cage. The organization was started in 2001, by Scott Adams and Reed Harris and was purchased by Zuffa in December 2006. With the purchase, the WEC continues as a separate promotion with its own roster of fighters.
The WEC announced that it would dissolve their light heavyweight and middleweight divisions after their December 3, 2008 event to further their concentration on lighter classes. Fighters from the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions started fighting in the UFC after the dissolution of their divisions. Also, on February 3, 2009, the WEC officially announced the creation of a 125 lb. Flyweight Division and the dissolution of its welterweight division (Flyweight is the last division under the “Unified Rules of MMA” remaining, excluding Super Heavyweight, to be activated under Zuffa). Fighters from the welterweight division started fighting in the UFC after the dissolution of their division. The only weight class remaining to cross-over between the WEC and the UFC is the 155 lb Lightweight division.
Due to its shared ownership under Zuffa, fans and commentators have continually speculated about a unification between the WEC and the UFC, particularly the lower weight classes. The 125-145 classes are of particular interest because the WEC’s champions at those weight-classes are competitive with the best MMA fighters in the world, whereas the 155-pound class (and prior, heavier weight-classes) have been effectively minor-league caliber compared to their UFC counterparts. Though speculation has not abated, management from the WEC as well as Dana White at the UFC have given no indication of plans to disband or reorganize the organizations.
This wraps up all the major organizations in MMA today. We’ve weathered the dry spell between major MMA events, so in the near future we will resume our regular focus with the MMA Minute, picking and reviewing fight cards. Thank you for hanging with me through this series, I hope you’ve learned a lot, I know I have!
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