The deep pockets of IFL founders Gareb Shamus and Kurt Otto allowed the IFL to be different when it was founded in 2006. Veterans like Renzo Gracie and Ken Shamrock were head coaches of their own camps, and some of the fighters on the roster included Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson, Robbie Lawler, and Vladimir Matyushenko. The fighters trained together in their camps and were guided by a coach with MMA experience.
#WMMA 5 COMPANIES SERIES#
Instead of a series of one-on-one fights, IFL events were billed as team vs team. Most MMA organizations take their own unique spin on the rules and structure of the sport, but the IFL may have had one of the more ambitious concepts. The organization was dissolved and all of the fighter contracts were acquired by UFC.ģ International Fight League (IFL): 2006-2008
#WMMA 5 COMPANIES TV#
After a few months that arrangement was deemed too difficult as Zuffa could find no support from Japanese TV networks. This was only months after their acquisition of WEC, and initially they intended to keep PRIDE alive as another brand in an MMA portfolio. Zuffa, smelling blood in the water, stepped in and acquired the struggling company for an alleged $70 million. In 2007, after years of bad press and a Japanese market that began to grow tired of MMA, PRIDE found itself in financial trouble. Officially it was labeled a suicide, but the Japanese media remained suspicious and some people believed PRIDE was, to some extent, a front by the Yakuza used to launder money. Allegations of Yakuza (Japanese mafia) involvement only intensified in 2003, after company president Naoto Morishita was found dead, hung in his hotel room. However, the success was not without controversy. In 2002 they filled the Tokyo National Stadium with 91,000 people for ‘Pride: Shockwave’, setting a record for MMA attendance that still stands to this day. MMA’s popularity in Japan peaked during the PRIDE era. PRIDE was also home to, arguably, the greatest MMA fighter of all time and without a doubt the biggest talent to never fight in the UFC, Fedor Emelianenko, who went 14-0 during his tenure in the organization. UFC stars such as Anderson Silva, Mauricio Rua, Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Filipovic, Mark Hunt and Alistair Overeem all plied their trade in PRIDE before venturing into the UFC. Founded in 1997 and based out of Japan, PRIDE was considered by many to play host to the highest level of MMA in the world.
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Pride Fighting Championship is remembered fondly by fans of MMA for its intensity, unrelenting physicality, and extremely high level of competition. 5 World Fighting Alliance (WFA): 2001-2006
Let’s take a look at the history of these five organizations. The UFC may subtly downplay the level of competition with the organizations that would eventually become their subsidiaries, but make no mistake about it, some of these events played host to extremely high-level fights. Many of the UFC’s past and present stars originally fought for their rival organizations and only made their name in the octagon after having their contracts transferred to Dana White and friends. Zuffa has responded with extreme prejudice to anyone who’s tried to get a piece of the MMA pie, but the assets they’ve acquired through these hostile takeovers have spurred the growth of the UFC. UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, employed similar corporate takeover strategies when purchasing all of these entities acquire their content library, acquire their fighter contracts, and disband the organization. WEC is one of many organizations that the UFC has bought out over the years, and they join a list that includes other organizations such as PRIDE FC, Strikeforce, World Fighting Alliance (WFA), and the International Fight League (IFL). Hardcore fans won’t be surprised to see these two headlining this upcoming event though, they remember Urijah Faber’s reign as the WEC Featherweight champion and Renen Barao’s dominant performance when he burst onto the North American MMA scene in that same organization, World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC for short). For MMA fans that only follow the sport through its premier organization, UFC, it’s a sudden rise. Both men have only been in the UFC for a little over three years, but in that time have become some of the most recognizable fighters out of a roster of 428 people. The first major event of the year, UFC 169: Barao vs Faber II, will be headlined by UFC Bantamweight Champion Renen Barao and MMA veteran Urijah Faber, with Barao’s championship on the line. The sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) continues to captivate fans both old and new as 2014 kicks into gear.
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