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Viva Max- A Tale from the hurtbusiness

Sunday lunch time and I’m in the gym. A proper gym. An inner city gym. The only real kind of gym. It’s standing room only as me and a couple of hundred other fight fans wait for the fists, knees and shins to start flying.

The cream of the gym’s novices will be on show today, taking on their equivalents from across the country. All of them harbouring a dream of one day strapping a gaudy, ill fitting belt round their midriff. The first baby step on the road to glory.
 

IFL in the UK- Time to Celebrate

The International Fight League is coming. Next season, there will be an IFL team based here, coached by Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman, and there’s an outside chance there could be a home fixture.

The IFL is custom made to take the UK by storm and elevate the sport to the next level. Not convinced? Read on and find out why you should become a believer.

Cage Rage 24:Unbelievable or did you Feel the Pain?

As always after a Cage Rage- the MMA message boards are buzzing. The promotion divides opinion like no other. Is it the pinnacle of UK or a nightmarish post Guy Ritchie dystopia. Here- looking at the main areas of dispute, we’re going to try and get to the beef. Cage Rage- is it sweet as a nut guv, or a load of old pony?

get your freak on

Cage Rage have put on some of the greatest fights ever seen on these isles and have been at the forefront of promoting UK Mixed Martial Arts.
Unfortunately, they also love a freakshow.
Thing is- if you’re going to do it- you may as well go the whole hog. I accept that Francis was a ‘proper’ boxing champ in his day- so what? If you’re trying to attract newbies- you need REAL big names with star quality who will bring something new to the table.

decision time- can you really judge a fight?

CHEATS-BOLLOCKS-WHAT FIGHT WERE THEY WATCHING?-FIX
WHERE DO THEY FIND THESE CLOWNS?-BULLSHIT-WE WUZ ROBBED.
This is a small selection of the comments made whenever a fight goes to the judges’ cards. Are the rules fundamentally flawed?  Are the judges really the myopic set of corrupt piss artists that crowds claim they are? What can we learn from other sports?...
 

UFC 70- the view from the cheap seats

The UFC comes to Manchester to set up shop at the house that Ricky built. The mighty Yanks were going to march in and win our hearts and minds with a show like we’d never seen before. And you know what- they pretty much pulled it off...

do you love the UFC?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship- the original, but is it the best? One thing’s for certain, you can’t ignore the UFC. It's the 600lb gorilla of MMA. He's in your cage and he's eyeing up your banana. Many of us can’t quite make up our minds about the daddy of all promoters. Find out exactly where you stand by taking the hurtbusiness: do you love the UFC? test..

time for heroes

UK MMA is under attack. It's time to stand up and fight for your right to fight...

this is how it feels when your world means nothing at all

Are you a champion? I don’t mean in some metaphorical way. Are you literally a champion. You may be and not even know it. The proliferation of governing bodies mean that more people every day are being recognized as World Boxing Champions...