Dead MMA Promotions

Their marquees will forever shine down upon the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, testaments to the collective financial folly and hubris of those who dared stake for themselves a claim in the unmapped wilds of mixed martial arts and failed miserably. They are the promotions who crashed and burned–the Pride Fighting Championships, the IFLs and the Afflictions, the EliteXCs and WFAs–the promotions who rose up, reached for some market share and were swatted away by the lone diner at the table, a diner unwilling to let even a scrap fall from its plate. Now these alternatives to Octagon-brand combat are gone. But lest history repeat itself, as it invariably does whenever a would-be Dana White thinks he can do better than the real thing, those failed promotions should not be forgotten. So here, in order of appearance… the dead.

World Combat Championship: When the UFC debuted on pay-per-view in 1993 and began raking in the dough as a pay-per-view cash cow, the world took notice. So too did entertainment executives angling for the “next big thing”, who in October of 1995 hatched up a wacky kind of tournament that would have one half focused on striking and the other focused on grappling, all of which would culminate in a finale that pitted a striker against a grappler. The event’s only bright spot was Renzo Gracie, who crushed a world-class judoka, demolished a wrestler and then pounced on a pro boxer to win top honors. Otherwise, this one-shot deal was a bust.

Extreme Fighting: There was still money to be made in this whole “no-holds-barred fighting thing”. Thus came Extreme Fighting, which, backed by Penthouse magazine dollars and orchestrated by John Peretti, sprang up in November of 1995 to provide fans with a “sport-like” alternative to the spectacle of the UFC. Thanks to EF, Olympic Gold Medal wrestlers were lured into the cage, as well as champion kickboxers and judo toughs like Maurice Smith and Igor Zinoviev, and by the third event five-minute rounds were employed (a concept that was years ahead of when the Unified Rules would require them). Sadly, the highly-politicized movement to ban “human cockfighting” in 1997 saw MMA banished from New York State (EF had a show scheduled for Brooklyn) and booted from pay-per-view providers, which spelled financial doom for the organization. After four installments, EF was no more.

Martial Arts Reality Superfights: Also inspired by the UFC’s early success was a one-shot promotion called Martial Arts Reality Superfights (a.k.a. MARS), which in November, 1996, put gigantic wrestler Tom Erikson on one side of a tournament and jiu-jitsu master Murilo Bustamante on the other. The result? A draw after 40 maddening minutes of the Brazilian butt-scooting and the American terrified of engaging. In the main event, Renzo Gracie needed about a minute to knock UFC star Oleg Taktarov out with a kick to the grill. There was only one MARS event. The world didn’t need another.

Pride Fighting Championships: The UFC has always dominated the US market, but when it came to the world outside those borders, Japan’s Pride Fighting Championship was king. Packing tens of thousands of fans into such huge venues as the Tokyo Dome and the Saitama Super Arena, Pride FC was MMA on a grand scale, and its tournaments–which crowned the likes of Mark Coleman, Wanderlei Silva and Fedor Emelianenko as champions–were the stuff of legend. The organization debuted in October, 1997, but allegations of yakuza involvement eventually killed its television broadcast deal in the Land of the Rising Sun, which in turn spelled doom for the one true competitor of the UFC. In March, 2007, after ten years of operation, Dream Stage Entertainment sold Pride FC to Zuffa… and that was all she wrote.

World Fighting Alliance Version 1.0: When Zuffa bought the UFC from Bob Meyrowitz and Semaphore Entertainment Group in January, 2001, a wave of optimism washed over the industry (which had for years been mired in the “dark ages” of pay-per-view exile and relative obscurity). Riding the crest of that wave on a surfboard of Las Vegas glitz and glamour was John Lewis’ World Fighting Alliance, which, in November of 2001, began putting together cards stacked with up-and-coming talent in Sin City’s Hard Rock Hotel and the Aladdin. “Where the fight club meets the nightclub” was the promotion’s motto, and the WFA saw Rich Franklin, Josh Thomson and Frank Trigg rise to prominence. But by November, 2002, Lewis’ financial backers had a change of heart, and the WFA Version 1.0 ended after three shows.

Ultimate Athlete: Also inspired by Zuffa’s infusion of cash into the industry and the changing currents of public opinion was Ultimate Athlete, which came to life in January, 2002, and showcased such fighters as Steve Berger, Pete Spratt, Stephan Bonnar, Dennis Hallman and Nick Diaz. Things fizzled out by September of that same year, but of the four UA events, the highlight (or low point, if you will) was the biker gang riot that broke out during their March event, abbreviating the night and forcing fighters and fans alike to flee into the night.

World Fighting Alliance Version 2.0: Things grew quiet once again as the industry ebbed and flowed, but when “The Ultimate Fighter” hit the airwaves and proved to be a runaway success, there was a renewed interest in throwing money down the MMA well. The first to step up was the WFA Version 2.0, which was no longer helmed by John Lewis but talked a big game–so big, in fact, that they promised to dethrone the UFC. But after months of securing top fighters, their lone outing in July of 2006 proved to be too costly, and though fans were treated to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson squeaking by Matt Lindland, Bas Rutten destroying late replacement Ruben Villareal and Lyoto Machida besting Vernon “Tiger” White, WFA Version 2.0 ended up being the punch line of many an MMA insider’s joke.

International Fight League: In April, 2006, real estate developer Kurt Otto and comic book mogul Gareb Shamus realized their interest in MMA with the inaugural IFL event. The concept was simple: contrived teams of B-level fighters would compete in five-bout face-offs, with the two top teams going head-to-head at the end of the “season”. Unfortunately for Otto and Shamus, the concept never took off, and the endeavor was a cash-eating carcass by July, 2008. Seriously, did anyone honestly think a league with such team names as the Seattle Tiger Sharks, Tokyo Sabers and San Jose Razorclaws would work?

BodogFIGHT: Billionaire Calvin Ayre had some money to throw away, so he picked MMA as his method of getting rid of it. In August, 2008, BodogFIGHT shipped a slew of B- and C-level fighters off to a compound in the jungles of Costa Rica to fight, with the bouts recorded and aired on an the rarely-watched TV network “ION”. The process was repeated again for a St. Petersburg, Russia show and a Vancouver, British Columbia show, with a pay-per-view featuring Fedor Emelianenko taking out Matt Lindland added to the mix. In what came as a shock to no one, by February, 2008, the magic money sack was empty.

EliteXC: Boxing promoter Gary Shaw breathed life into EliteXC in December, 2006, and its first event was in February of 2007. What followed included some of the most memorable milestones in the sport, including the star turns of backyard brawler and YouTube hero Kimbo Slice and female warrior Gina Carano, and the first-ever live primetime broadcast of an MMA event on major network television. However, mismanagement saw EliteXC falter, and the knockout blow came when Kimbo was felled by last-minute replacement Seth Petruzelli–a turn of events that prompted the promotion’s financial savior to flee with their wallets. The joyride was over by October of 2008.

YAMMA Pit Fighting: Former UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz wanted to give MMA another go, so in April, 2008, he put together YAMMA Pit Fighting. What’s a “yamma”? A concave pit inside a cage, which made for a perverse challenge that fighters like Travis Wiuff, Ricco Rodriguez, Pat Smith and Eric “Butterbean” Esch had to overcome if they wanted to emerge from within its confines victorious. Wiuff won the one and only YAMMA Pit Fighting tournament while Oleg Taktarov submitted Mark Kerr in a superfight. But the real winners here were the fans, who were never subjected to the yamma again after this one-shot deal was done.

Affliction: What does a clothing company know about running an MMA promotion? Not much, apparently. Affliction entered into the fight show fray with their “Banned” event in July, 2008, overpaying every fighter on their card but giving fans a healthy dose of Fedor Emelianenko. Their second installment, “Day of Reckoning”, was in January of 2009, but Affliction’s third–dubbed “Trilogy” – was not to be, and was cancelled a little more than a week before its scheduled August 1st date when half of its main event tested positive for steroids. The organization is officially done with the promoting business, and has returned to what it knows best: tacky clothing.
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