International MMA returns in force this weekend!

The Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy for the sports world and live events, aside from a few, essentially halted across the globe.

Months of inactivity lead to desperate and hard times for those in the combat sports world. While most major promotions had enough resources to survive and weather the calm storm of inactivity, it was the smaller promotions who were hit the hardest.

The larger promotions slowly came back and held events in studios for their TV and PPV audiences around the world. The smaller promotions, however, relied on ticket sales to form a large portion of their revenue. Due to restrictions globally, crowd gatherings and sporting events were drastically limited and banned in a lot of countries.

People are resilient and when faced with challenges they often adapt, adjust, and overcome. Covid-19 is still here but the combat sports world is slowly getting back on their feet.

We’ve seen UFC’s Fight Island, Eddie Hearn’s Fight Camp, and Bellator’s Fight Sphere but this weekend of events represent a major weekend for MMA globally.

KSW, largely recognized as the leading MMA promotion in Europe, started back with their events in July - a nearly eight month long break for the Polish powerhouse. They have two events under their belt now and this Saturday they host KSW 55 with an array of their top stars including Mamed Khalidov, Michal Materla, and Damian Janikowski, and a host of international talent like middleweight champ Scott Askham, undefeated Swede Andreas Gustafsson, and Serbia’s Aleksandar ‘The Joker’ Ilic.

The event will be staged in a small venue, a big change of the 10,000+ arenas the promotion usually sell out, and will be broadcasted globally through various TV partners and streamed via their online PPV platform www.KSWTV.com.

Heading westerly across Europe to sunny Spain and we have the return of AFL with a history-making all-female fight card. Spain largest MMA organisation operates in a market where the sport is not as popular and as a result the promotion plays an important role in promoting the sport and developing fighters in this region. Such fighters to go through the ranks of AFL include UFC trio of Joel Alvarez, Juan Espino, and Manuel Kape.

On Saturday at AFL VALKYRIES will see a modified fight card with a mix of five professional and a number of amateur contests. The modification of the card is due to the restrictions set in place by the local government and we will see a limited number of tickets on sale while the event will be broadcast globally on PPV via FITE.tv.

The fight card itself will consist of only female fighters making history to become the first major event in Europe to do so and will be headlined by two title fights featuring Italian model & fighter Micol Di Segni and Brazilian prospect Emily Mota, respectively.

Also making history this Saturday is Bellator. The world’s second largest MMA organisation will host the first major MMA event in France when they take their Bellator 248 card to the Accor Arena in Paris, France.

The promotion also broke new ground with this event as it will be broadcasted live in the UK on the BBC iPlayer, a huge step for MMA.