Aside from the UFC and PRIDE what organizations had the most impact????

[Lionheart7167]

Curious on people's thoughts.
Bellator has been a consistent number 2 for the longest period of time, but was it more important than Strikeforce?
Pancrase and Shooto were two of the MMA' earliest organizations and continue til this day, producing legendary fighters
You had organizations like EliteXC, Bodog, WEC and IFL that brought MMA to a mass cable audience, and now you have PFL leading that charge
And who can forgot Affliction- probably the most star studded two event series ever???

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

K1

 

[Gang Sign Luke]

Strikeforce was way more important than Bellator in the overall arc of MMA. Look at all the huge names that came from Strikeforce. Like 4 or 5 big names came from Bellator. Most of the name fighters in bellator went there after being in the UFC. WEC had more star power than Bellator.

 

[Chesten_Hesten]

+

Strikeforce

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Pancrace.

 

[kfighter]

One Championship

 

[Sweater of AV]

The premier MMA organization.

 

[Schoolboy Q]

I miss the strikeforce days.

 

[jitzmonkey]

WEC, IVC (early on,) there was Hook n shoot, KOTC, Cage Rage, Rings was a big one for the time…

Pancrace.

Was absolutely huge when it came to the development of talent early on!

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Powerslap

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

Curious on people's thoughts.
Bellator has been a consistent number 2 for the longest period of time, but was it more important than Strikeforce?
Pancrase and Shooto were two of the MMA' earliest organizations and continue til this day, producing legendary fighters
You had organizations like EliteXC, Bodog, WEC and IFL that brought MMA to a mass cable audience, and now you have PFL leading that charge
And who can forgot Affliction- probably the most star studded two event series ever???

It is impactful in terms of showing us how not to build a cage for fighting

 

[JoeRowe]

Strikeforce produced/rebuilt/sustained a tremendous amount of talent:

DC
Werdum
Bigfoot
Reem
Shields
Rockhold
Yoel
Jacare
Mousasi
Robbie
Woodley
Nick
Masvidal
Gilbert
Thomson
Bobby
Gina
Cyborg
Ronda
Nunes
Miesha

And I'm probably forgetting a few

 

[Cptn1NSAN0]

Not the most impactful but I had a hell of a time staying up all night to watch their events. Recaptured some of the magic from PRIDE.

 

[jeff7b9]

You'd be surprised how many fairly big name guys fought in Rings.

It's a lot.
Guys I recognized:


Netherlands

Gilbert Yvel,
Valentijn Overeem, Alistair Overeem,

Australia

Elvis Sinosic, Tony Bonello

Russia

Fedor Emelianenko

Brazil

Antonio Rodrigo Noguera
Ricardo Arona
Renato Sobral
Gustavo Machado
Renzo Gracie

United States

Randy Couture
Dan Henderson
Bobby Hoffman
Jeremy Horn

Japanese roster
(I remember about half these guys)

Akira Maeda
Mitsuya Nagai
Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Masayuki Naruse
Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Wataru Sakata
Kiyoshi Tamura
Kid Yamamoto
Hiromitsu Kanehara
Ryuki Ueyama
Hiroyuki Ito

 

[Mr Dilkington]

For me, outside of UFC and Pride, it was WEC and Strikeforce. I tend to be a UFC casual nowadays, but I'd always tune into WEC and Strikeforce cards. Especially to see those fighters come to the UFC and enjoy success was special.

 

[SuperNerd]

Probably Shooto or UWF

 

[jx820]

WEC introduced the world to the BW and Featherweight divisions with HD broadcasts which were uncommon at the time. They also introduced the MMA audience to the "small cage" where the action is much more high paced.

ProElite/Elite XC quietly made content library a big priority behind the scenes by acquiring a bunch of smaller orgs including KOTC and Cage Rage mostly for thier content rights. A model the UFC would eventually adopt and turn into Fight Pass.

 

[hoevan]

Strikeforce was way more important than Bellator in the overall arc of MMA. Look at all the huge names that came from Strikeforce. Like 4 or 5 big names came from Bellator. Most of the name fighters in bellator went there after being in the UFC. WEC had more star power than Bellator.

Strikeforce and WEC made stars, because they integrated into the ufc. If Bellator did they'd have more stars too.

 

[Brit_Brawler]

Strikeforce provided imensene talent.
Whoever was in charge of finding and signing talent there was something special.

 

[FrankDux]

Hespect.