Combat sports are in existence right since the beginning of human life on the planet. Over the years, the sports have evolved a lot. In recent times the World Wrestling Federation and later on the World Wrestling Entertainment have taken the world by storm. However, people know that these are stage-managed games. In case you wish to witness some real fighting you have to move towards the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) and the Affliction.

This is a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) market that we are referring to. Many professional companies have tried their hand in this market but could not succeed. Only one company, the Ultimate Fighting Championship managed to survive and hence had a monopoly over the MMA market.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

The UFC was founded in the year 1993. The first event was held at Denver, Colorado in the same year. At present the UFC comprises of seven different classes of weight ranging from Bantam weight to Heavy weight category. Head butts and hits below the groin area are considered as fouls in the UFC. The owner of UFC is Zuffa LLC.

Affliction:

Initially Affliction Clothing Inc. was the main sponsor of UFC. In 2008 they broke away to launch a MMA league of their own. Thus, Affliction was born in 2008 and has its headquarters at Signal Hill. They have two paid events namely, 1) Affliction: Banned and 2) Affliction: Day of Reckoning. There is another category called Affliction: Trilogy. A fight between Josh Bernett and Fedor Emelianenko was cancelled at the last minute as Bernett failed a dope test.

Differences between UFC and Affliction:

They two teams have a bitter rivalry down the years. UFC was already established as a front runner in the MMA market. Affliction had to prove its worth. It had to show the world that it was capable of standing up to the UFC. It arranged a match between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia (a former UFC champion). The match was held at Anaheim Honda Center in 2008 under the category “Banned.”

Affliction roped in Donald Trump as a major shareholder of the company with an aim of garnering more funds. They also managed to bring over one of UFC’s former referees, John McCarthy.

The main difference between the two is that the UFC uses a caged structure whereas the Affliction has gone for a ring styled structure. As far as announcers are concerned, Affliction has Michael Buffer on their ranks whereas UFC have his brother Bruce Buffer.

Summary:

1. Of the two, UFC is older as compared to the Affliction. UFC was founded in 1993 whereas Affliction saw the light of day in 2008.
2. The main sponsor of UFC is Zuffa Inc. Tom Atencio, Golden Boy Promotions along with Donald Trump are the major owners of Affliction.
3. UFC has seven categories of weights ranging from Bantamweight to Heavyweight. Affliction has two categories, Banned and Day of Reckoning.
4. UFC uses a cage structure to function as the sports arena. Affliction uses the conventional ring structure.
5. Michael Buffer is the announcer for Affliction whereas Bruce Buffer is the announcer for UFC.
6. Affliction is supposed to pay better than UFC.

Conclusion: Thus, you can see that combat sports have always caught the attention of man. Man somehow derives great pleasure in hurting one another in this MMA market. One thing is certain, the matches in UFC and Affliction are real and not stage-managed as in the WWE. The television patronage and viewership is also a factor for determining the popularity of the MMA market.