How are UFC, Elite XC, IFL battleground related? they are all mma competitions but are they interelated?

Question

Are these all different mma competitions? do they all employ their own fighters? is there an mma "season?" are there more mma competitions that are out there, and how are they related/or unrelated? should i even be calling them competitions? Thanks for any info you give me, im trying to get to know more about mma.

Answer 1

IFL no longer exists. I think that the UFC just bought the company. Elite XC is a competitor of the UFC.

Answer 2

There really is not a season.  Here are a few details:

UFC (All fights in a cage):

Fighters are exclusive and are not allowed to fight outside of the UFC until their contract is over.  When a contract is over, the fighters are free to sign with other MMA promotions such as Elite XC.

The UFC has at least 1 PPV event every month and they also have a about 4 free shows on Spike TV called "Fight Night Live".  They also have a reality show on Spike for up and coming fighters and the winners of the show get a UFC contract.  There are also two syndicated shows called "UFC Wired" and "UFC Unleashed" that show past fights and there is a new show on hispanic stations.

Elite XC (All Fights in a cage) is relatively new organization run by Showtime.  They are a conglomeration of several other shows like England's "King of the Cage" and California's "Strikeforce".  Elite XC is one of the few promotions with female fighters and they are also home to the urban legend of Kimbo Slice.  Most of their top notch fighters are former UFC fighters that are past their prime.  Elite XC fighters are usually exclusive, but there have been some exceptions.  

Pride Fighting Championships - (All fights in a ring) is now defunct, but used to be the main competition for the UFC and arguably had better fighters than the UFC at the time.  They were based in Japan and folded due to legal and financial trouble.  The UFC bought all of their assets and signed several of their top fighters to exclusive contracts. A new promotion called "DREAM" is trying to pick up where Pride left off in Japan.

IFL (International Fight League) is not defunct yet, but they are in serious trouble.  All of their fights are in a ring, and they are a team based competition.  For example, you would have "Chicago versus LA" and their would be 5 fights, if LA won 3 of 5, then they won the night.  Many of their top fighters were signed by the UFC last week, and it is expected that the UFC will buy their assets by the end of 2008.

Affliction - Affliction has had only one show last weekend.  They have the potential to be a serious threat to the UFC.  Their fighter contracts are not exclusive.  Their fights are in a ring.  They have partnered with a Russian based promotion "M1 Global" and "WAMMA" (World Alliance of MMA) to try and unify all the titles from all the organizations.

For my money, nothing compares to the UFC.  I did buy the Affliction premier PPV and they have some good fighters in the heavyweight division.  Too bad for them that the heavyweights are the most boring division in MMA.  The Light Heavyweights and middleweights are the better divisions and the UFC has those fighters.

James

Answer 3

elite XC UFC IFL are just "leagues" with in MMA there are thousands of them WEC king of the cage IFC and many many more yes for the most part they each sign fighter to contrcatys for certain number of fights eaxmple 4 fights over 18 months thype of contract...

some of the smaller shows will just find fighters for each show but no the promotion are not related in anyway juts like NFL arena and canadian football league

IFL does a "season" for the reason of there team" lineup but no MMA is like boxing its not a seasonal sport