Best MMA Promotions Outside The UFC (Top 7)
The UFC has been the biggest MMA promotion and the leader in the MMA world for over two decades now. It’s hard to think of any promotion that can match their success or even come close to it.
This is because UFC is a powerful brand and the first-ever MMA promotion in the west. And of course, it is the home of the best fighters and its events are huge. All the MMA talents in the world will, at some point, end up fighting in the UFC. That’s just how this game works.
But all these fighters need to work their way up in some other promotions before the UFC recognizes their talent and potential. Even though they are not as popular as the UFC, these promotions offer good entertainment. And trust us, the MMA game is a fast-rising one and we may see some promotions listed below emerging and challenging UFC in the future.
7. Absolute Championship Akhmat
Also known as ACB, ACA is a Russian organization that promotes MMA, kickboxing, and BJJ matches. Most of the ACA events took place in Russia, as well as in other countries across the world.
ACA is one of the leading European MMA promotion for a reason. Whether it’s BJJ or MMA, all their events look very professional and the quality of competition is good. Over the years, many ACB fighters went on to compete inside the UFC cage and do well. The most famous one is, of course, the UFC champ Petr Yan.
You can watch ACB events on Match TV and they are also streaming them on social media platforms. It’s really worth checking out.
6. Rizin Fighting Federation
Rizin is a Japanese MMA promotion founded by the former “Pride FC” bosses. In the 2000s, Pride FC was the biggest MMA promotion, even bigger than UFC.
Rizin came in with the idea to gather the best fighters from other promotions, let them fight, and find out who’s the best. Yet, this idea is still up in the air and has never lived up to its potential. Even though this sounds great, it is a bit too ambitious.
But, we could see a couple of very famous MMA fighters competing inside the Rizin ring. In 2016, Rizin held a heavyweight tournament, won by the MMA legend, Mirko CroCop. The event saw some other famous faces like King Mo and Wanderlei Silva who backed off from the event due to injury.
And also, Rizin has been a home of many freak show fights like the one between the kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa and boxer Floyd Mayweather. We can all recall how that played out.
But overall, Rizin is still very young and we may expect it to grow in the following years.
5. M-1 Global
Founded in 1997, M-1 is the most famous Russian MMA promotion and home of many skilled fighters. M-1 also operates at a high rate as it includes around 10–20 events per year, which is a lot.
M-1 events also include various types of martial art competition. One of the best is “M-1 Selection” which represents a proving ground for the upcoming fighters. M-1 gives them a chance to showcase their skills on the world stage and in front of many people watching.
In 2018, the promotion started collaborating with the UFC where the M-1 will be the farm league for the UFC to find the best Russian fighters. This is great for M-1 since the UFC will help them preparing new events and sign their best fighters.
Throughout history, many great MMA fighters came out of M-1 Global. Some of the most famous ones are UFC contender Alexander Volkov and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
4. Professional Fighters League (PFL)
Founded in 2012, PFL is an American promotion and its concept is unique and different. In short, PFL presents MMA in the format of, let’s say, NBA basketball. We know this sounds weird at first, but it’s actually very simple. Here is how it works.
Every PFL season starts in May and ends in August. It consists of six weight classes, six events, and around 72 fighters in total. First, fighters compete in a regular season. They receive three points for winning every fight, one point in case of a draw, and zero for losses. Also, they can earn bonus points for finishing the fight inside the first (3 points), second (2 points), or third round (1 point).
Once the regular season is over, eight fighters with the most points will advance to the playoff (elimination) round. The six winners of each weight class will win the prize of $1 million dollars.
All fighters compete under the Unified Rules of MMA and in the unique ten-sided cage (decagon).
3. KSW
In our opinion, the Polish KSW is the best European MMA promotion and its events are huge. It embraces a WWE model of preparing and holding events just a couple of times a year. But, we can see them slowly adding more and more events per year.
KSW puts a lot of effort into creating a story behind every event, and they all visually look different. Some of its largest events, like KSW 39, included a live audience of 57.000 people.
As you would expect, KSW is gigantic in Poland, and their events look amazing. From great visual effects to the great production, they top quality and even better than the UFC for instance.
KSW roster is filled with skilled Polish and European fighters. And when it comes to money, they are treating their fighters really, really good. In fact, most of the fighters can earn more in KSW than in some other, bigger promotions like the UFC.
This is a great way for KSW to keep the fighters inside the promotion and prevent them from leaving. And this is exactly what makes KSW so strong. KSW champ Roberto Soldic once said he turned down the UFC contract because KSW pays much better.
You can watch all KSW events on their official streaming channel KSWTV at a very reasonable price.
2. ONE FC
ONE FC is the fastest growing MMA promotion on the east. And many people see it as a promotion that will challenge UFC in the future. Founded in 2011, ONE features MMA, Muay Thai, and kickboxing fights which are very popular all across Asia.
Further, it is made up of ten weight classes out of which four are female divisions. Unlike in other promotions, ONE FC has a much different weigh-ins format. After the death of a 21-year-old Chinese fighter in 2015, ONE FC banned cutting weight by dehydration. As a result, the weight cut process is much healthier and fighters cut less weight.
ONE FC is also stacked with talented fighters from top to bottom. In the last few years, we have even seen many UFC fighters joining ONE. The most famous ones are former UFC champs Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez.
1.Bellator
Bellator is, perhaps, the second-best MMA promotion in the world. Like some other from this list, Bellator also features kickboxing matches, MMA matches as well as MMA tournaments.
Bellator consists of nine weight classes, two of which are female divisions (145lbs; 125lbs). Its roster includes some very famous names and former UFC fighters and champions. Basically, whenever UFC ends a contract with one fighter, he/she would likely sign a new deal with Bellator. That’s how it usually goes.
Further, let’s have a look at the Bellator tournament format as it is very interesting. Here is how it works:
Each tournament includes nine weight classes with eight fighters competing in each one. It starts with the opening round in which we have four fights per weight class. Four winners would then proceed to the semi-finals and finals.
We have to point out that each tournament lasts three months and there is a one month break between the opening round and finals.
So in total, finalists of the tournament have to fight three times in three months. That’s a lot!
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