Beyond the UFC: 3 European Promotions
Mixed martial arts – MMA – is a sport extremely popular across the world. The Ultimate Fighting Championship – UFC – is, without a doubt, its best-known and most popular promotion. Fighters from all over the world meet their opponents in its ring – soon, on its island – to prove their skill and endurance in full-contact fights.
Big and famous as it may be, the UFC is by far not the only MMA promotion there is, though. The Old World has quite a few of them, actually. While most of them have fallen victim to the social distancing rules that force people to stay in their homes playing games at the All Jackpots Casino instead of gathering at a real-life casino resort watching UFC fights, they are very much worthy of attention.
Fight Nights Global
Russians are known as fierce fighters – and this makes the Fight Nights Global MMA promotion such an interesting one to follow. Founded by former Sambo champion Kamil Gadzhiev, world champion kickboxer Batu Khasikov, and television producer Sangadji Tarbaev, the promotion originally held a ring under MMA and K-1 rules, then transitioned to the octagonal cage popular in the rest of the world.
Fight Night Global’s last event, the “Global Steel Heart 11” set to take place on April 17, was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. Its main event would’ve been a bout between Armenian kickboxer Armen Petrosyan and Russian fighter Artur Aliskerov.
ARES Fighting Championship
ARES Fighting Championship is a recently established Afro-European MMA promotion created by Vivendi Sports, part of the French media giant Vivendi. The promotion was born in the worst moment of them all.
Its inaugural event, ARES 1, was held in December in Dakar, Senegal, featuring newcomers like Senegalese wrestler Reug Reug and the Lapilus brothers. Further events were planned to be held in Belgium and Africa this year… but were stopped by the ongoing pandemic.
Cage Warriors
Finally, let’s not forget one of the biggest European MMA promotions from London, Cage Warriors. Founded in 2001 and active since 2002, the promotion has had many talented fighters under its umbrella, including Conor McGregor, Dan Hardy, Dennis Siver, and many others. Its events can be seen on several international channels, including Viasat and BT Sports, as well as the UFC’s streaming service UFC Fight Pass.
Cage Warriors 113, the last event held by the promotion, took place at the O2 Arena in London this March. The next event, planned to be held in June, has been postponed to October – it will include a title fight between defending Cage Warriors Middleweight world champion Nathias “Notorious” Frederick and Greek fighter Andreas “The Spartan” Michailidis. The event is scheduled to take place at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, UK.
