Compared to the many other sports that there are in the world, mixed martial arts is one of the youngest.
For the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) specifically, the worldwide leader in MMA just recently celebrated 25-years of existence in November 2018. And as we watch the sport grow before our very eyes, we see all the different possibilities that can and have become realities.
Just looking back ten years ago, options were quite limited for the athletes that were taking part in the sport that was once viewed as human cockfighting. Meaning that if a fighter wasn’t in the UFC, then they were most likely struggling to make a decent living and the UFC was their only goal when it came to where they wanted to be.
Of course, this isn’t to pretend that organizations like WEC and Strikeforce didn’t exist at the time with Bellator just coming onto the scene along with PRIDE FC a few years prior. Ultimately, they weren’t viewed as the end all be all.
However, fast forward 10 years and fighters now have plenty of different options that they can make their careers in.
Bellator has now firmly established themselves as the clear No. 2 promotion in North America with the likes of the Professional Fighters League hot on their tails. Invicta FC is the premier organization for female fighters, and overseas in Asia, there is ONE Championship and RIZIN FF.
As for Europe, the Poland based promotion of KSW is one of the clear top dogs that isn’t quite as popular in North America as some of the others listed but are doing just fine in their respective part of the world.
With many of the big stars that KSW has been able to produce on their own, one of the bigger ones has been one of the top worldwide flyweights, Brazil’s Ariane Lipski.
Continued: Violence Queen cometh: Ariane Lipski and her inevitable arrival in the UFC
