2008 isn't over yet but it has already been one of the biggest years ever for MMA. In the United Stats, the year saw the creation of a new fight promotion featuring the biggest MMA card ever put together (Affliction: Banned). The debut cost the clothing company a loss in excess of $4-million USD, drawing catcalls from its rivals. Then the company was bullied out of Nevada and forced to postpone their next show until 2009--a show that is in no way guaranteed to take place. 2008 also saw the ugly demise of two North American MMA promotions due to massive, irreconcilable debt (The International Fight League and Elite Xtreme Combat). Smaller promotions owned by one of these companies, ProElite, including King of the Cage, Icon, SpiritMC and Cage Rage are also expected to fold in the coming months. More importantly, the sport of mixed martial arts found its way onto prime time network television for the first time in 2008. CBS, partnering with Showtime's MMA promotion EliteXC. "Primetime", which aired on May 31st, became the most watched MMA event of all time, its audience peaking at over 6.5-million viewers. In Japan, former PRIDE FC executives banded together to create DREAM, an eerily similar organization that has struggled to stay on television. PRIDE FC crowned its first two champions in 2008 and recently put on a show for an estimated crowd of 25,000 in Saitama. Also in Japan World Victory Road was created. Six shows and no champions later the other promotion from Saitama looks to become competition for DREAM, but old problems with MMA in Japan, including fight fixing allegations and a lack of drug testing, threaten to undermine the credibility of both companies. MMA's billion-dollar giant, The Ultimate Fighting Championship, broke records again and expanded into new territory including Canada and The United Kingdom, as well as gaining sanctioning in new areas of the US including Georgia and Illinois. The UFC's prodigal son Randy Couture returned to the company after an extended legal battle and is poised to defend his heavyweight title against former pro wrestling champion Brock Lesnar later this month. The UFC's feeder promotion, World Extreme Cagefighting, was retooled after several highly successful shows, sending fighters over the welterweight class (170-lbs) to the UFC. The WEC also announced plans to enter the pay-per-view market next year. UFC founder Bob Meyrowitz returned to the sport in 2008 with the creation of a new MMA tournament, the YAMMA (Russian for "pit"), in association with Live Nation. YAMMA held one tournament and crowned its first champion, but the show was poorly received and a second show may never occur. MMA also witnessed the creation of its first universal sanctioning, rankings and championship system, The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA). Critics claim WAMMA threatens to mimic professional boxing, a sport in which there are several sanctioning bodies and an abundance of paper champions seeking title unification. So far the major MMA promotions other than Affliction have ignored WAMMA, and in response WAMMA has only awarded one title--to the Affliction heavyweight champion, Russian sambo expert Fedor "The Experiment" Emelianenko--though they rank several UFC fighters at the top of their respective weight classes. To be continued.
