There are several interesting MMA organizations that have gained notice in the past 15 or so years.
MMA Organizations with TV Shows in no particular order :
Maximum Fighting Championship : A cool organization out of Canada. Smart enough to coexist with UFC rather than trying to take them on directly. Pretty good fights, sadly, it takes place in a ring instead of a cage.
King of the Cage is the organization where a lot of the big names currently in other organizations got their start. If you want to get a head start on who the next great thing will be, this is the place to watch. If you look at Sherdog and some of the other places that keep fight records on-line, you will quickly realize most everyone who is anyone now used to fight here.
Zuffa, LLC Owned MMA organizations:
Great show! The shows I have seen have been awesome! They feature a lot of the lighter fighters. Always exciting. Takes place in the cage, and seems to be the same rules as the UFC. Worth watching. They run shows on a newer channel called Versus. There is much speculation on what will become of the WEC since Zuffa purchased them. To me, looking at different MMA forums, it is obvious Zuffa did a good job of buying it up and keeping the organizations separate, so Kit Copes guess in that article I linked seems accurate.
Pride was bought by Zuffa and closed after being unable to get a TV deal in Japan.
These are my favorite shows! Emmy and I have both gotten hooked on these shows! I love the cage fights, I love the rules, and I like the camera work done by these guys! They put on a first class show and have first class fighters! A lot of their shows run on Spike TV. They also run PPV’s and are trying to get some of their shows on to HBO. Lots of chances to watch, and well worth watching! I highly recommend them!
Watch for an organization being started by the founder of HDnet Mark Cuban called HDNet FiGHTS. We will see how it goes! It will be joining Friday Fight Nights on HDnet as soon as October 13th. HDnet also has an interesting show called “Inside MMA”. Might be worth the cost of admission. Bas Rutten is one of the hosts.
Affliction - New promotion from the Affliction Clothing line. Their first event on July 19th was pretty awesome! Might get another one on pay per view.
MMA Info Sources:
Big John McCarthy : The best ref in the business has a website. Great stuff here too! He is not retired anymore.
MMANews : News of all sorts in MMA and even a bit in boxing.
Sherdog : A great source of info and pictures on MMA.
UFCMania : A lot of UFC info, such as Rankings in each weight division, schedules, results etc.
UFCJunkie : UFC blog for MMA news, rumors, gossip, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps.
MMA Ranking : A ranking of the top 10 in each weight class in all of MMA.
ProElite : A decent site for streaming and news.
MMA News Rankings : Another ranking of the top 10 in each weight class compiled by the MMANews.com web team.
MMA on TV Calendar : An awesome Calendar showing what is on when for MMA on TV!
Gofish MMA : Cool link with Videos and such.
ESPN : Really good, and has MMA Live which is really good.
Team Pages:
Xtreme Couture : Randy Couture started his own school! Worth checking out!
MFS Temp Page : One of the best trainers around. Started by Pat Miletich.
MFSElite : Miletich Fight Systems Home page(still under construction). Home to some of the best fighters in all organizations.
The Pit : This is where Chuck “The Iceman” Liddel Trains.
America Top Team : Association of Jeff “The Snowman” Monson.
Team Quest : Association of Matt “The Law” Lindland and many other good fighters.
Favorite Fighters :
Frank Mir - I really like Frank Mir. He is awesome on the ground, and if he gets a hold of something, he will rip it off. It is nice to see him making a come back after his almost career ending Bike accident a few years ago.
Anderson “The Spider” Silva - This guy is devastating! His clinch is impressive, his BJJ is awesome, in combination, he is one of the most awesome fighters I have seen in MMA. Current 185lbs. Champ in UFC.
Urijah “The California Kid” Faber - His fights have been very impressive. He has really dominated the couple of fights I seen him in. Awesome wrestling, good striker, brought together to make a well rounded 145lbs champ over in the WEC.
Brandon “The Truth” Vera - Usually a very exciting fighter. Fights light-heavy weight in the UFC now! Was a very light heavy weight. Is very well rounded. Hopefully will move to LHW and stay there and dominate. I would love to see him find a solid gym to work with.
Georges “Rush” St. Pierre - Very well rounded fighter out of Canada. When he is on, he is totally awesome. There is no reason he should not be dominating the UFC 170lbs division. He lost the belt to Matt Serra for some unknown reason. He put on a totally horrible performance, totally different from the performance he put on when taking the belt from long time champion Matt Hughes. Is now the champion again, and will hopefully hold it for a very long time.
Houston “The Nebraskan Assassin” Alexander - This guy can hit, but his jaw is starting to be questionable. He has come out and totally been devastating. I have no idea how well rounded he is as he has just come out and stopped everyone I seen him fight or be stopped by them in very short order. Fights in UFC. His ground game seems to be lacking so far.. We will see.. I would love to see him go past the first round.
Brian “All American” Stann - Another knock out guy at 205 lbs. He is in the WEC. He is relentless, and you have to love it. I would really like to see him up against some better opponents though. So far, he has made short work of everyone with devastating knock out punches, completely overwhelming the competition they have fed to him. Impressive! Former champ at 205 in WEC.
Gina Carano - For some one who is supposed to be a striker, she did a great job of submitting a ground opponent in and EliteXC event I saw on Showtime. I was very impressed, even if I am not thrilled with the 3 minute rounds and such for women in EliteXC. Also plays Crush on American Gladiators.
Carina “MMA Barbie” Damm - She always puts on a heck of a show. Win lose or draw, she is just fun to watch. Good looking, talented, and full of energy. She has some cool moves! Worth watching over on BodogFights!
Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Santos -Totally awesome Kick Boxer! She was dominate against a solid Shayna Baszler. She has some major hitting power!