As of this writing, it’s early March. Around this time every year, brackets for college basketball’s conference tournaments are crystalized and the 68-team field for the NCAA Tournament, known by its alliterative alternate title, March Madness, begins to take shape. Over the coming days and weeks, productivity takes a backseat as crucial games on the hardwood take place.
While this is one of the best times of the entire year for sports fans, especially those of us who like filling out brackets, as you access ESPN+ (stateside) and dig into the many conference tournaments these next few weeks, remember that brackets aren’t just for the third month of the year.
Tournament playoffs in sports are great stuff to watch. The entire season hinges on these matchups. One side goes onto the next round, while the opposition is forced to pack it up, head home, and think what may have been had they been able to exit a winner.
Amazing Tournaments in MMA
Combat sports, including MMA, get into the fun and the excitement of tournaments, as well. Much like the brackets in college hoops every March, the world of competitive violence can have and has had its own road to the final four.
With conference tournaments in Division I already having begun as of this writing, there’s no better time than now to take the magic of bracketology and bring it over to the cage.
UFC’s Original Format Intensive on Tournaments
Early on in the UFC’s life, cards from what would eventually become MMA’s No. 1 promotion were exclusively of the single-night tournament variety. UFC began its run as a one-night only event in November of 1993 from Denver at the long-since closed McNichols Sports Arena with UFC 1 (an event retroactively retitled UFC 1: The Beginning.)
An estimated 86,000 viewers bought the event over pay-per-view on cable television. UFC 1 was an eight-man tournament won by Royce Gracie, who pocketed $50,000 (USD) in prize money upon submitting Gerard Gordeau by way of rear-naked choke in the final. The event was later released on videocassette.
Fast-forward to March 11, 1994 and UFC 2: (also known as UFC 2: No Way Out.) The bracket was doubled to 16 contenders, but Royce Gracie won again, this time besting Patrick Smith by way of knockout due to unanswered strikes.
UFC Moves Away From Brackets
As time marched on, the UFC would trim the tournament field to four contenders, with UFC 6 and UFC 9 not conducting a bracket for the event. By UFC 24, tournaments were a thing of the past.
Since 2000, the UFC has not held a tournament-style event. Currently, there are no plans to hold one in the promotion.
Tournaments Were Prominent Fixture in Bellator
Bellator MMA, which spent 16 years as MMA’s No. 2 organization, regularly held tournaments throughout its life. During the promotion’s first few years, tournament fights would take up entire seasons, played out over several months.
Even after the season format was dropped in favor of a more traditional schedule of events spread out on the calendar, Grand Prix tournaments took place over the course of a series of cards throughout a one-year period. Bellator’s final Grand Prix took place at lightweight throughout 2023, with an intended $1 million payout to the victor of the final.
While Alexander Shabily (24-4 MMA, 5-1 Bellator) and Usman Nurmagomedov (19-0, 1 NC MMA, 7-0, 1 NC Bellator) did eventually meet for the Bellator MMA Lightweight Championship in September of 2024 after a planned booking for Bellator Paris the previous May needed to be scrubbed, it was not advertised as the Bellator MMA Lightweight Grand Prix Final in the aftermath of the PFL acquiring Bellator in the fall of 2023. Subsequently, the promise of a $1 million prize for the winner went unfulfilled.
“As of now, it looks like we’re just fighting for the belt and the title,” Shabily said at the time of the original booking versus Nurmagomedov. “I’m not too confident of the prize money guarantee, and I think the PFL should follow through with the obligations that they acquired from the Bellator league. They try to compete with UFC and be a responsible league; I think they should follow through on that.”
PFL Restructures Tournament Ahead of 2025 Season
While tournaments have always been a part of the Professional Fighters League season, the promotion has made some changes before the upcoming season takes place. Originally, the PFL season was structured in the same way as a team-competitive sports operation with a regular season contested for points in the standings, postseason, and championship night.
Initially, tournament champions pocketed a $1 million payout. Effective with the 2025 season this spring and summer, this will no longer be the case.
This year, the PFL will conduct an eight-contender tournament in eight divisions, ranging from women’s flyweight to heavyweight. The new-look PFL World Tournament begins with the quarterfinals of the welterweight and featherweight brackets on April 3 on ESPN and ESPN+ inside the United States, with all four quarterfinal shows happening on Thursday or Friday nights over a five-week window from Stage 19 of Universal Orlando, taking the week after Easter off (April 24-25) due to ESPN’s NFL Draft coverage. At year’s end, $500,000 will be awarded to each weight class’ tournament champion.
Oktagon MMA Regularly Holds Tournaments
Finally, we fly out to the Czech Republic and the land of Gogi for Oktagon MMA. Although the promotion is only nine years old, tournaments are a constant. Oktagon holds events at least once monthly.
Throughout the year, Oktagon periodically sprinkles in tournament fights, with the tournament final taking place as the main event of the year-end card every December. In 2023, the Tipsport Gamechanger Welterweight Tournament was held, won by Bojan Velickovic, followed last year by the Tipsport Gamechanger Lightweight Tournament, taken by Losene Keita.
2025’s tournament is taking place at middleweight and will continue throughout the balance of this year’s slate of cards. If you have yet to watch an Oktagon MMA event and tournament, what are you waiting for?