Covering the UKMMA scene for a number of years it’s become quite apparent of the struggles and difficulties new promotions face when trying to enter the mixed martial arts scene. There is often many great ideas which unfortunately cost lots of money and a number of promoters trying to make a quick buck and get out before the going gets tough.
So let’s take a look at a few promotions who have tried but ultimately failed to take off in the big bad world of UKMMA.
Macto Fighting Championship
To Glorify, To Honour, To Fight. That was the statement for Macto Championship. The promotion put on its debut show in June 2015 which was headlined by Nick Osipczak taking on Kyle Redfearn. Elsewhere on the card we saw the likes of Dean Amasinger and David Round that provided a solid card for the promotion. The production values were great but with high costs and big name fighters comes exponential costs. Since landing their debut show the promotion has fallen off a cliff and were due to have a show at the start of September which was announced but subsequently cancelled. It has since emerged that Too Much Talent will be making their return in November which ultimately sees promoters James Lutman and Brad Burnell, an integral part of Macto, wipe their hands clean of the promotion and go back to a model which was previously working for them. As Macto said often in the run up to their first show “The game has evolved” but it seems for Macto that they haven’t.
Kudegra
England Vs Scotland was the idea behind Kudegra Championship Fighting’s inaugural event back in September 2010. The promotion had Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman as match maker and spokesman and certainly helped in promoting their brand. Also they offered an insane amount of £30k for the winner of the tournament but that wasn’t to be. We were supposed to see 12 of England’s top MMA fighters take on 12 of Scotland’s top fighters (including the UFC’s Stevie Ray) but instead we didn’t even get one show from the promotion who had promised 10 shows in 10 months. What’s that well known phrase? Walk before you can run isn’t it?
Europa MMA
Set up by Sean Sinclair, Essex based Europa MMA hosted a talent stacked opening show in Brentwood, Essex in March 2014. Top European fighters including Niklas Backstrom, Max Coga, Andre Winner & Jeremy Petley were just a handful of names to compete on the first and last show for the promotion. The show hosted a seven fight card, with all but one fight going to decision. But unfortunately for the promotion like we have seen on so many occasions it seems that the cost associated with pulling in bigger named fighters had a negative impact to the promotion and without being able to bring in the type of crowds they had envisaged, the promotion shut up shop and has not been seen since.
World Fighting Championship
Created in 2011 the Hertfordshire based promotion World Fighting Championship was set up by recording artist Wessley “2 Play” Johnson. The promotion put on two shows in early 2011 hosting a good number of well known names across the UKMMA scene. Those names included Jack Hermansson, Claudio da Silva, Robbie Olivier & Leeroy Barnes to name but a few. But following dismal ticket sales Johnson ran out of money to fund the promotion and unfortunately WFC would be no more.