Mixed Martial Arts In The United Kingdom
Mixed martial arts in the United Kingdom is one of the fastest growing sports thanks to the promotion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC. History UFC 38 was one the earliest entries of MMA in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2002, at Royal Albert Hall. Michael Bisping became the first UK Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC champion. In 2022 Brendan Loughnane become only the fourth Briton to win a World MMA title with a major organisation after Liam McGeary and Leon Edwards. Domestic Organizations The major organizations for MMA are Cage Warriors, UCMMA and Full Contact Contender Television The Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC is broadcast on BT Sport. The Professional Fighters League, PFL is broadcast on Channel 4 as of 2022. Bellator MMA is broadcast on Channel 5 (British TV channel), Channel 5. ONE Championship, ONE is broadcast on Sky Sports as of 2024. References Mixed martial arts in the United Kingdom, {{mixedmartialart-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Bisping
Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (; born 28 February 1979) is an English former mixed martial artist, sports commentator, analyst, and actor. He competed in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional competitor from 2004 to 2017, he held the UFC middleweight title, the Cage Rage light heavyweight title, and won the light heavyweight tournament of '' The Ultimate Fighter 3''. At UFC 78, Bisping became the first British fighter to compete in a UFC main event. In 2013, he became legally blind in his right eye after fighting Vitor Belfort, in which a fight-ending head kick had left Bisping with a detached retina. Three years later, Bisping won the UFC middleweight title by knocking out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, becoming the first British fighter to win a UFC Championship. He defended his title against Dan Henderson at UFC 204, but lost it to Georges St-Pierre the following year at UFC 217. After his knockout ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Leon Edwards
Leon Edwards (born 25 August 1991) is an English professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Welterweight Champion. A professional since 2011, Edwards formerly competed for BAMMA, where he was the BAMMA welterweight champion. As of 13 May 2025, he is #4 in the UFC welterweight rankings. Early life Edwards was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and lived with his parents and his brother in a one-room house. Growing up, he was surrounded by crime, and his father was involved in what he describes as "questionable activities". Edwards moved to the Aston area of Birmingham, England at nine years old. In the early hours of 2 October 2004, when Edwards was old, his father, Rufus Edwards, was shot and killed in a nightclub in Croydon, London. He was then involved in criminal activity such as drug dealing, street fighting, and knife possession along with others in his social cir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ONE Championship
ONE Championship, formerly ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) until January 2015, is a Multinational corporation, multinational combat sports Promoter (entertainment), promotion founded on 14 July 2011 by Chatri Sityodtong and Victor Cui. Originally focused on mixed martial arts (MMA), ONE events have since incorporated muay thai, kickboxing, and Submission wrestling, submission grappling bouts. The promotion held its first event on 3 September 2011 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, and has since held List of ONE Championship events, over 200 events across Asia. In 2022, parent company One Group Holdings, changed its legal operations from Singapore to the Cayman Islands. History Founding and early history: 2011–2014 Entrepreneur Chatri Sityodtong founded One Fighting Championship (ONE FC) in July 2011 to unite Asia through martial arts, leveraging Singapore's infrastructure. The promotion debuted on 3 September 2011 with ONE Fighting Championship: Champion vs. Champion, ON ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Channel 5 (British TV Channel)
5 (formerly known as Channel 5 and Five) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK and Australia division. It was launched in 30 March 1997 to provide a fifth national terrestrial channel in the United Kingdom. Channel 5 was renamed Five, from 16 September 2002 until 13 February 2011. Most of this was under the RTL Group's ownership with Richard Desmond purchasing the channel on 23 July 2010 and reverting the name change.'Mini-revamp planned for Channel 5 News' ATV Network, 30 October 2010 On 1 May 2014, the channel was acquired by Viacom (2005–2019), Viacom (now Paramount Global ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bellator MMA
Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) was an American mixed martial arts promotion (entertainment), promotion founded in 2008 by Bjorn Rebney and operated until 2025. The promotion takes its name from ''wikt:bellator, bellātor'', the Latin word for "warrior". Bellator's first event was in 2009, and the promotion held List of Bellator MMA events, 313 "numbered" events. At one point, Bellator was considered the second largest MMA promotion in the United States, and one of the largest combat sports, combat sport promotions in the world. Paramount Global (formerly Viacom (2005–2019), Viacom) purchased majority ownership of Bellator from Rebney in 2011, with Paramount's television networks serving as the promotion's media broadcasters in the United States. On November 20, 2023, after then-broadcast home Showtime (TV network), Showtime announced the discontinuation of its sports division, Bellator MMA was acquired by the Professional Fighters League (PFL). Histor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commercial activities, including Television advertisement, advertising. It began its transmission in 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in the United Kingdom. At the time, the only other channels were the television licence, licence-funded BBC1 and BBC2, and a single commercial broadcasting network, ITV (TV network), ITV. Originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. Until 2010, Channel 4 did not broadcast in Wales, but many of its programmes were re-broadcast ther ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Professional Fighters League
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) is an American mixed martial arts league founded by venture capitalist Donn Davis in 2017 and launched in 2018, following the acquisition and restructuring of the former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) promotion in 2017 by MMAX Investment Partners. It is the first major MMA organization in which individual athletes compete in a regular season, post-season and championship, rather than on a year-round basis. The PFL currently puts on fights across six weight-divisions: Featherweight (MMA), featherweight, women's lightweight, Lightweight (MMA), lightweight, Welterweight (MMA), welterweight, Light heavyweight (MMA), light heavyweight and Heavyweight (MMA), heavyweight. In addition to this, there is also a ‘Super Fight’ division, which is not defined by weight, but instead is based on the status and name value of individuals who compete in it. The PFL's matches are held inside a 10-sided Mixed martial arts#Fighting area, mixed martial arts cag ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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BT Sport
TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as BT Sport on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at Warner Bros. Discovery's complex in Chiswick Business Park, London, having been based at Here East, the former International Broadcast Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London until July 2023. The channels are available on the EE TV, Sky UK, Sky and Virgin Media television platforms in the UK and Sky Ireland, Sky and Vodafone Ireland, Vodafone TV in the Republic of Ireland. The networks were established in 2013 after BT Group's acquisition of rights to the Premier League. BT also acquired the operations of previous rightsholder TNT Sports 4, ESPN prior to launch, integrating them with BT Sport. In 2022, BT Group announced an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery to form a joi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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UCMMA
Ultimate Challenge MMA (also referred to as UCMMA) is a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United Kingdom. It is shown live on London Live in the UK, Fight Now TV in the US and on Viewster in several other countries. History The collapse of EliteXC was quickly followed by Cage Rage with its final show Cage Rage 28 in 2008. Later that same year Dave O'Donnell, one of the original owners of Cage Rage, created Ultimate Challenge UK. Their first event 'Bad Breed' covered the spot where Cage Rage 29 was going to take place. After a while of promoting many successful events, UCUK dropped the 'UK' out of the name and replaced it with 'MMA' becoming 'UCMMA'. UCMMA has been steadily approaching the same popularity that Cage Rage once enjoyed. They have sponsorships with companies like Cash4Gold, Official Watches, MMA Sports Nutrition, and Coalition fight music. On August 6, 2011, UCMMA 22 - Warrior Creed was shown on PPV channel Primetime. UCMMA can now be watched on Fi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sports Gazette
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a particular sport can vary from hundreds of people to a single individual. Sport competitions may use a team or single person format, and may be open, allowing a broad range of participants, or closed, restricting participation to specific groups or those invited. Competitions may allow a "tie" or "draw", in which there is no single winner; others provide tie-breaking methods to ensure there is only one winner. They also may be arranged in a tournament format, producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs. Sport is generally recognised as system of activities based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with major competitions admitt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bleacher Report
''Bleacher Report'' (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sports and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London. ''Bleacher Report'' was acquired by Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System in August 2012 for $175 million. In March 2018, ''Bleacher Report'' and Turner Sports launched B/R Live, a subscription video streaming service featuring live broadcasts of several major sports events, although the service was discontinued in 2021 and merged with the company's mobile app. ''Bleacher Report'' owns multi-media social network House of Highlights, and its branding was used for Max's sports coverage prior to 2025. History Founding: 2005–2011 ''Bleacher Report'' was formed in 2005 by Sam Erez, Harry Ryan, Bryan Goldberg, and Dave Nemetz—four friends and sports fans who were high school classmates at Menlo School in Atherton, California. Inspired by Ken Griffey Jr., they wanted to start writing ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cage Warriors
Cage Warriors (CW) is an Irish-owned mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in London, England. The promotion was established in 2001 and staged its first MMA event in London in July, 2002. Many MMA stars have made their names under the Cage Warriors banner, including Conor McGregor, Michael Bisping, Paddy Pimblett, Gegard Mousasi, Tom Aspinall, Antônio Silva, Ian Machado Garry, Martin Kampmann, Dan Hardy, Joe Duffy, Cathal Pendred, Neil Seery, and Dennis Siver. CW are one of the few top promotions to take their events abroad, travelling throughout countries in Europe, North America and the Middle East. The promotion is watched globally via a host of television partners such as BT Sport, FreeSports and Viasat, and is one of the featured promotions on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)'s digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. It is currently being presented by UFC & BT Sport analyst Dan Hardy, with commentators Josh Palmer and Brad Wharton ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |