Top 11 MMA Organizations

11. Combate Americas: This MMA promotion is geared towards meeting the needs of a hispanic audience, which is an audience that commonly isn’t focused on by other MMA promotions. The organization was founded by Campbell McLaren back in 2011 and has been going strong ever since it’s creation.

10. ONE Championship: ONE is widely known for doing away with extreme weight cutting practices that are commonly used by fighters. Chatri Sityodtong’s Singapore based MMA organization started up back in 2011 and has immense amounts of talent. This talent includes a man who competes at flyweight that a few people consider the GOAT named Demetrious Johnson. ONE Championship acquired DJ in a famous one of a kind trade with the UFC who received welterweight Ben Askren in return.

9. Pancrase: This organization was founded the same year as the UFC back in 1993 by Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. The organization has seen a lot of great fighters come through such as Bas Rutten, Josh Barnett, and Nate Marquardt.

8. ACB: Absolute Championship Berkut was founded by Mairbek Khasiev back in 2014, and is one of the leading MMA organizations in Europe. The organization has been the home of amazing fighters like Petr Yan, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Artem Lobov, and many more.

7. M-1: This is an organization that is based in Russia and is a place that the UFC loves to use to scout Russian talent. M-1 is the top promotion in Russia and has been home to some of the best fighters in the world including heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko, Bellator light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov, and UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

6. Cage Warriors: This is a promotion that was created in 2001 and is based out of London, England. Cage Warriors is largely responsible for the sport having a large presence in the UK and is an organization that is just full of talent. Amazing fighters have been a part of the organization such as Michael Bisping, Gegard Mousasi, Dan Hardy, and most famously Conor McGregor.

5. Rizin: This operation is based in Tokyo, Japan, and was founded by Nobuyuki Sakakibara, former president of Dream and Pride. They notably hosted Floyd Mayweather vs Tenshin Nasukawa during a special New Years event in 2018 or 2019 depending on where you were on the planet at the time. They’ve done a great job at recapturing the love that fans had for Pride back in the day.

4. Invicta: This organization founded by Shannon Knapp and Janet Martin is a unique standout because all the fighters who compete in the promotion are women. The first Invicta Fighting Championship event took place in April of 2012 and hasn’t slowed down since. Many of the UFC’s top contenders got their start in this organization and it has proven to be a great place to find top notch talent.

3. PFL: The Professional Fighters League (commonly referred to as PFL) is an American based mixed martial arts league that was founded back in 2018. Unlike the rest of the organizations on this list, PFL is the first major MMA organization where individual athletes compete in a regular season, post season, and championship.

2. Bellator: This organization has worked really hard to earn this number 2 spot and has hopes to surpass the UFC in popularity one day. The organization started off as a tournament based entity back in 2008 and has evolved into the amazing league that it is today.

1. UFC: The UFC is without a doubt the creme de la creme of the MMA world. They’re the gold standard of MMA and have been at it since 1993. The UFC has worked hard to make people around the world acknowledge MMA as a sport rather than just human cock fighting. If the UFC never paved the way, then many of the other organizations on this list may have never existed.

Honourable Mentions: Legacy Fighting Alliance, Titan FC, and Brave Combat Federation