UK Mma scene

Couple of questions on the state of British mma.
Is it progressing?
What is the biggest UK mma organization?
Any chance of terrestrial stations taking an interest?

Welcome to the Armbar mate! I believe you may be member 100!

TomHughes or Sunthunder might be the best for answering this question for you.

thanx mate

Make sure you stick around!

Anfields5thKing wrote:Welcome to the Armbar mate! I believe you may be member 100!

TomHughes or Sunthunder might be the best for answering this question for you.

I wondered why my ears were burning...

I think Ultimate Challenge UK may well be the biggest UK organisation. They have a contract with Sky Sports 3 showing their events on delay the week after the event. The money from Sky has got to be good for the show.

UCUK have got some pretty solid British fighters on their cards and they're doing their best to help home grown talent flourish, after all a fighter has to start somewhere. They do their best to promote local fight clubs, London Shoot, Tsunami Gym, Team Sure Grip, Team Titan, Bandogs Gym, Team Semtex, Rough House. You have to bear in mind that DREAM's welter weight champion and Strikeforce title contender Marius Zaromskis comes from a Cage Rage background along with Paul Daley. My favourite thing about these local events is that the fighters come out to win, they want to impress potential organisations and build their records, only one fight on a 13 fight card went to a decision! I for one really enjoyed the event, even more so as the friends I went with were good friends with two of the guys on the card. I love the local feel of the events, large chunks of the audience are there to support a single fighter which means the cheering and chanting give it an amazing ambience which is very unlike a UFC card where not many fighters get to fight in front of a local crowd.

ZT Fight Nights put on a very impressive 8 man one night heavy weight tournament recently. They had a lot of fairly big name British fighters on the card: James Thompson (PRIDE, DREAM Cage Rage and EliteXC veteran), Neil Wain (UFC veteran), Rob Broughton (M1 Challenge and Cage Rage veteran), Tengiz Tedoradze (Cage Rage veteran) and Joe Vedepo (UFC veteran) amongst others. It's quite an impressive collection but the organisation went down the pan. It was originally meant to be held in London at the HMV forum but moved to a town hall in Hove. Also, the tournament prize was reduced by £5000 too.

The one thing that seems to be common to all British organisations is that they do not appear to have that many exclusive contracts. Pro fighters need to fight in order to make money and unfortunately none of the British organisations can offer anywhere near what the UFC, WEC or Strikeforce can offer. On the other hand, Dave O'Donnell, the main promoter seems to have no problem with his fighters moving on to bigger and better things. At the last Ultimate Challenge, which I went to, they even called Brad Pickett in to the cage and let him announce that he's permenantly moving to the USA. They had no hard feelings and were happy to see him moving on to better things.

The chances of one of the five main terrestrial channels taking any interest at all is slim and none. The BBC still doesn't cover MMA so I don't see it on BBC. On the other hand, five has been screening taped delays of old UFC events on their scheduling.

The main thing that all UK events are missing are the production values. I don't even mean PRIDE size production values, I mean, they're even cheaper than the UFC. I think it has been mentioned before on 606 and I happen to agree is that the main problem is the image that the UK organisations give off. Both the UFC and PRIDE gave off an image of being well organised, well run professional events. At two seperate Ultimate Challenge events fighters have made their way to the cage and have forgotten their mouth guards. Yes, I know you have to take into account pre-fight jitters but the organisers of the event shouldn't let the fighters and their corner men leave the changing rooms without their essentials. Delaying a fight for a corner man to run to the changing room isn't very professional. The same can be said of the ring girls which are distinctly "chavvy". No, I don't particularly appreciate the UFC ring girls (who I view as robots, wave at camera, wink and blow a kiss and repeat) but at least they have a slightly classy uniform and not the type of girl you'd find in a tabloid selling her sexy secrets.

I think of yourself and sunthunder are the lads to ask about british mma mate. Both of ye really know your stuff. When this site takes off I think the two of ye would be great as reporters on the UK scene. I really hope you can find time to post here as I enjoy your posts. I've ignored british mma for a long time and become a bit unknowning but since I've moved here full time I'm starting to take more of an interest.

up north here we have orgs like cobra, no quit, eite techique and no holds. all shite if u ask me they all cross promote with the one im in we dont have a name but just 3 fighters including myself we train with glenn mcrory who is a boxing coach,.

Thanx for the info Tom,you know your stuff.I have been to a couple of Cage Rage events when it was around,good to know Dave 0 Donnell is still involved.

Seen an advert last night for BAMMA 2 on bravo on the 21st feb

no much more details the there will be 16 fighters involved hopefully some kind of tournamnet

the_king wrote:up north here we have orgs like cobra, no quit, eite techique and no holds. all shite if u ask me they all cross promote with the one im in we dont have a name but just 3 fighters including myself we train with glenn mcrory who is a boxing coach,.

I think that is an overly harsh statement, King. None of the domestic British organisations are fantastic but the same could be said of a lot of the American promotions. They don't have the same calibre of fighter nor the production values of the major shows. Mind you, you don't pay the same entrance fees as you would for Strikeforce or UFC! A ringside ticket for Ultimate Challenge will set you back about £150 and I'd hate to even guess how much one for the UFC would cost!

A lot of the British and European promotions are filled full of domestic fighters which equates to a lot of strikers eg boxers, tae kwon doe and karate fighters because of the popularity of those martial arts which leads to most having an awful ground game. In America they're full of amateur wrestlers with awful stand up.

As for the production values, I don't see Ultimate Challenge moving back to Wembley Arena or even dreaming about the O2 for at least a couple of more years. They need to focus on sharpening up their image and continue working on their match making so people will want to go to the shows as well as tuning in to it on television to see exciting bouts.

Ringside UFC seats go between 3000 and 5000. Dana tends to give the best tickets away to celebs in his attempts to make events glamourous!

Anfields5thKing wrote:Ringside UFC seats go between 3000 and 5000. Dana tends to give the best tickets away to celebs in his attempts to make events glamourous!

You're bang on the money about the freebie tickets. It's amazing how many of the tickets are given away at "sold out shows" just to increase the numbers of celebs or increase the number of viewers at a show, and it's not like they give away cheap tickets either!

So, ringside seats are almost 20 times more expensive for the UFC. Yes, most would say that the fighters in the sports "Premier League" shows are sometimes 20 times better than those on the lesser shows but I think it always looks awful when fighters compete in front of half empty arenas.

I've never understood what appears to be the American inclination to only show up to watch the televised portions of the card. Whenever I go to a British event the stands are normally 75-80 percent full, of all of the punters who have bought tickets for the night, by the time of the first fight with more working their way in as the night progresses. At UFC events most of the undercard fights appear to take place in front of half filled arenas. I just don't understand whether or

Dont get that either mate, you pay 50quid for a ticket and dont watch the whole show. Some undercard fights are unbelievable. I remember in Dublin seeing Dennis Siver smashing Nate Mohr with the nastiest Spinning back kick.. winning KO of the night.

People who only turn up for the televised part of the show apre pricks and posers! Celebs who only want their face on TV

rudeboyben84 wrote:Dont get that either mate, you pay 50quid for a ticket and dont watch the whole show. Some undercard fights are unbelievable. I remember in Dublin seeing Dennis Siver smashing Nate Mohr with the nastiest Spinning back kick.. winning KO of the night.

People who only turn up for the televised part of the show apre pricks and posers! Celebs who only want their face on TV

I still can't fine that fight anywhere for free! I've heard so much about that kick and still haven't seen it! I think Pearson may well be in for trouble when the two match up. It'll be good to see his brown belt in Judo in action!

Did you see the Kick he Broke Paul Kellys ribs with?? Just like that... only the opponent wasnt a stone cold killer like Kelly and folded to the canvis to be hammerfisted silly! Sivers heelkicks are brutal. Im really liking his style, I hope he puts a beatingon Pearson.

As an update to the topic, it looks like Ultimate Challenge UK is going to start making blood testing standard throughout it's events. I think it's great to see them instituting it, although I don't think many if any of the fighters on the scene have juiced, as it will help legitimise the sport in the UK. Good move Mr O'Donnell!