Ranking the worlds global MMA and Combat Sports promotions

[Lionheart7167]

Out of curiousity, how would you rank the world's combat sports organizations (top 10) in terms of power, influence, and financial success, viability or promise. Obviously a lot of factors at play, so I'm just looking for opinions here.
Not counting the influence of the Turki, since Rhiyad Season is not really a proper organization.

Here's mine

1. UFC- the cream of the crop in MMA. Three of the most successful letters in sports
2. Top Rank- Most successful current roster of boxers and needle movers
3. PFL/Bellator- Since combining forces, I'd say they're number two (at least in the States. There's an argument to be made that ONE has more influence, despite being financially in the hole)
4. Matchroom- Bivol, Joshua and a host of others make it the number two boxing promotion for me
5. ONE FC- Not much of a presence in America, but huge in Asia
6. PBC (Al Haymon)- home of Canelo. Some great other boxers too
7. BKFC- The premier Bare Knuckle org
8. KSW- HUGE in Poland. A bevy of talent
9. ADCC- Premier grappling event/promotion in the world
10. Power Slap- I hate it, but it's popular

Honorables to Rizin, Golden Boy, Queensbury, and Mayweather. Those organizations didn't make the list because they were either inconsistent, or had limited amount of "impact" fighters

I left out any Kickboxing organizations, because I'm not too familiar anymore. Are K-1 and GLORY still around?
What do you think?

 

[TorontoTO]

5. ONE FC- Not much of a presence in America, but huge in Asia
10. Power Slap- I hate it, but it's popular

Honorables to Rizin

ONE is huge in Thailand, I think that's the only place they are popular nowadays. That and Hirata thirst post instagram pages.

Power Slap is not popular, no one is actually following it, they just see a slap on their Tik Tok feed, watch 5 seconds, and go on with their day.

Rizin should also be above half those promotions. They might not have many "impact" fighters, but they are hands down the funnest events to watch

 

[David Street]

UFC, ACA, TR, Matchroom, Queensberry, Golden Boy, PFL, PBC, ONE, BKFC, RIZIN, Glory, KSW, BYB Extreme Fighting, Boxxer.


ONE is starting to get better known here in Thailand, but still a long way to go in Asia.

 

[Lionheart7167]

ONE is huge in Thailand, I think that's the only place they are popular nowadays. That and Hirata thirst post instagram pages.

Power Slap is not popular, no one is actually following it, they just see a slap on their Tik Tok feed, watch 5 seconds, and go on with their day.

Rizin should also be above half those promotions. They might not have many "impact" fighters, but they are hands down the funnest events to watch

I think Power Slap is pretty popular based on metrics (and not those that Dana provides)
I would have placed Rizin higher but I think they're inconsistent with their events. No doubt though, they are fun to watch

 

[TheBrownRanger]

Gotta say, the rise of BKFC has been really unique to see. It's come a long way since being the retirement meme for declining fighters in the UFC back in the late 2010s. It truly is being seen as an alternative to the UFC, even if I don't care for the product too much. They may get to a point where they stop relying on ex-MMA guys but that won't be for the foreseeable future. Valor Bare Knuckle is a very distant second.

GLORY is still around but has no real following here in the United States. GLORY could have benefitted from bringing in popular MMA guys from Bellator back when they were on Spike TV but they rarely ever did it. Same exact thing with Bellator kickboxing, actually. I believe those were the only opportunites at kickboxing ever being truly popular in the US but ship sailed. Bellator/GLORY did the Dynamite thing in 2015 but it didn't gain any traction because of how tame the kickboxing was on that card and no actual crossover fights between both promotions.

It had some kind of a popularity revival during the Pereira-Adesanya rivalry in the UFC but fans only watched their highlights from their time there and quickly moved on. They don't like kickboxing, just kickboxers in the UFC.

ADCC/BJJ is too niche to be on that list tbh. Probably won't change any time soon.

 

[STAY GOLD]

I think Power Slap is pretty popular based on metrics (and not those that Dana provides)

What metric is this that you're using? I'm legit curious as the only person who claims they're hugely successful is Dana and he doesn't really provide proof as to how they're.

 

[kingmob6]

Kimbo Slice backyard brawl numba #1

 

[Pliny Pete]

Crazy to see how far Golden Boy has fallen, wasnt that long ago they were on top of the world, now they cant even make the top 10 on Sherdog

 

[Doctor Grudge]

ONE isn't as big as PBC.

ONE did make a good pivot to Thailand though. If they had done that way earlier they wouldn't have been in the hole.

KSW and Rizin are bigger than Bareknuckle probably.

I'm actually not sure how influential PFL is. Despite absorbing Bellator, they're still a non factor in the states. They're very smart to expand to Europe and the Middle East, but I don't think they're super big.

One, Rizin, and KSW are in less ambitious markets, but I think are more popular in their markets. If we are talking influence, being seen, etc, I think PFL isn't very high up still though it may have the assets to change that soon.


I could see Power Slap having success on shorts like Ig, YT and Tik Tok, but it's easier said than done to monetize shorts. DWCS is a more successful promotion than Power Slap.