🥋Competitions

The sport's flagship and by far its biggest brand, the UFC crowns the champions widely regarded as the true world's best. Founded in 1993 and rescued from near-bankruptcy by Zuffa in 2001, it grew into a multibillion-dollar business, sold to Endeavor for about four billion dollars in 2016 and folded into TKO Group Holdings alongside WWE in 2023. It runs more than 40 events a year across eight men's and four women's divisions, and its pay-per-views and ESPN deal define the commercial ceiling of the sport.

For a decade PRIDE was the UFC's equal or superior, staging operatic spectacles at the Tokyo Dome and Saitama Super Arena before crowds of tens of thousands. Its ring rules, open-weight tournaments and roster of icons — Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva, Mirko Cro Cop, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira — gave the sport its most romanticized era. Financial and organized-crime scandals crippled it, and Zuffa bought the promotion in 2007, absorbing its stars and ending the sport's split between East and West.

For over a decade Bellator was the clear number-two promotion in North America, built on a tournament format that crowned challengers and later on signing established veterans and prospects. Airing on Viacom's networks, it developed champions like Patricio Pitbull and hosted grand-prix events across divisions. In 2023 the Professional Fighters League acquired Bellator, consolidating the challenger tier of the sport and folding much of its talent into a combined operation.

The dominant promotion in Asia, ONE built a broad combat-sports platform spanning MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing and submission grappling, with a huge regional television footprint. Headquartered in Singapore, it signed marquee talent including Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez and became a genuine alternative destination to the UFC for elite lighter-weight fighters. Its blend of striking and MMA under one banner reflects the martial-arts culture of its core markets.

Rebranded from the World Series of Fighting in 2018, the PFL introduced a distinctive season-and-playoff structure with a one-million-dollar prize for each division's champion, treating MMA more like a traditional sports league. It expanded aggressively, launching regional leagues and a marquee 'PFL vs Bellator' pay-per-view, and in 2023 acquired Bellator to become the most serious global challenger to the UFC's supremacy.

A California promotion that grew into the UFC's main American rival in the late 2000s, Strikeforce ran on Showtime and CBS and built deep divisions, including the era's leading women's roster headlined by Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano and Cris Cyborg. It also featured heavyweights like Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem. Zuffa bought it in 2011 and gradually wound it down by 2013, migrating its best talent and its women's divisions into the UFC.

Founded to revive Japan's PRIDE-era spectacle, RIZIN stages large New Year's Eve cards blending MMA, kickboxing and open-weight tournaments in the theatrical style Japanese fans embraced. It has hosted returning legends and homegrown stars like Kyoji Horiguchi and cross-over talent, keeping a distinct national scene alive and serving as the spiritual heir to PRIDE's showmanship in the modern era.