Related Research Articles
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA promotion in the world as of 2023. It produces events worldwide that showcase 11 weight divisions and abides by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. As of 2022, it had held over 600 events. Dana White has been its president since 2001 and CEO since 2023. Under White's stewardship, it has grown into a global multi-billion-dollar enterprise.
Cung Le is an American actor, retired mixed martial artist, Sanshou fighter and kickboxer. He competed as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), holding a record of 2–2 with the organization. In kickboxing and sanshou, he is a former International Kickboxing Federation Light Heavyweight World Champion, having a professional kickboxing record of 17–0 before moving to mixed martial arts. He defeated Frank Shamrock to become the second Strikeforce Middleweight Champion before vacating the title to further pursue his acting career. Le is perhaps best known in mixed martial arts for competing in Strikeforce, holding a record of 7–1 with the organization before its demise.
Alistair Overeem is a Dutch former professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He is a former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Dream Heavyweight Champion, K-1 World Grand Prix Champion, and was the first fighter to hold world titles in MMA and K-1 kickboxing at the same time. Overeem is also a one-time challenger for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
Strikeforce was an American mixed martial arts and kickboxing organization based in San Jose, California that operated from 1985 to 2013. It was headed by CEO Scott Coker.
The Professional Karate Association (PKA), later Professional Karate & Kickboxing Association, now—effective March 1, 2022 PKA Worldwide--was originally a martial arts sanctioning organization, now transformed into a martial arts promotion company.
Zuffa was an American sports promotion company specializing in mixed martial arts. It was founded in January 2001 in Las Vegas, Nevada, by Station Casinos executives Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta to be the parent entity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) after they purchased it from the Semaphore Entertainment Group.
World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) was an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion founded in 2001. It was purchased by Zuffa, LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), in 2006. In its final incarnation, it was made up of 3 weight classes: 135 lb (61 kg), 145 lb (66 kg) and 155 lb (70 kg). To accommodate the smaller fighters, WEC's cage was 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter—5 feet (1.5 m) smaller than the standard UFC cage. The smaller cage is now used by UFC for selected events.
Frank Joseph Fertitta III is an American businessman. He is the CEO of Station Casinos. He is also a founder of Zuffa LLC, formerly the parent entity of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Golden Glory was a Muay Thai, kickboxing and mixed martial arts camp and management team, based in the Netherlands.
Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. is an American holding company for talent and media agencies with its primary offices in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The company was founded in April 2009 after the merger of the William Morris Agency and Endeavor Talent Agency. Endeavor represents artists in film, television, music, theater, digital media, and publishing. It also represents the NFL and NHL. Endeavor owns Professional Bull Riders (PBR) and is majority owner of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) through TKO Group. In collegiate athletics Endeavor-Learfield IMG represents The American, A10, Big 12, Conference USA, Horizon League, MAC, MEAC, OVC, SEC and WCC.
Lorenzo Joseph Fertitta is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is chairman of Fertitta Capital, director of Red Rock Resorts Inc, and former CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Marc Ratner is an American entrepreneur who is the current Vice President of Regulatory Affairs with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Formerly, he was the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Garry Cook is a British sports executive. He is the current CEO of Birmingham City F.C., the club he supported as a child. He worked for Manchester City between 2008 and 2011 and Nike between 1996 and 2008 and for UFC between 2012 and 2016.
Scott Coker is an American mixed martial artist, Taekwondoin, former movie stuntman, and combat sports promoter. He is the founder and former CEO of MMA promotion Strikeforce, former president of Bellator MMA, and founder of Fight Night at the Tech.
Glory, formerly ‘Glory World Series’ is an international combat sports league based in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Pierre Andurand, Yao Capital, Scott Rudmann and other investors.
Carlos Augusto "Guto" Inocente Filho is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. A professional MMA competitor since 2005, Inocente formerly competed for the UFC and Strikeforce in MMA.
Alex Sandro Silva Pereira is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and former kickboxer. He currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and a former UFC Middleweight Champion. He is the ninth fighter in UFC history to become champion in two different weight divisions and the first to become champion in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions of the organization. In kickboxing, he is a former Glory middleweight and light heavyweight champion, and is the first and only fighter to have held Glory titles in two weight classes simultaneously. Pereira also competed in promotions such as It's Showtime and SUPERKOMBAT Fighting Championship in kickboxing, and for Jungle Fight and Legacy Fighting Alliance in MMA. As of 20 February 2024, he is #4 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings. Pereira is the only known fighter to be a two-division world champion in MMA and kickboxing and is regarded as one of the greatest combat athletes of all time.
Jon J Franklin is a sports marketing and sports television business executive who is currently Chief Executive Officer of the revitalized World Pro Ski Tour and Chief Executive Officer of a now re-surging "Ski Racing Media", the worlds leading digital publication focused on alpine ski racing. The World Pro Ski Tour, begun in 1968, is the world's number one professional head to head dual format ski race tour. Ski Racing Media has for over 50 years been known as the "Bible of the Sport" for Alpine ski racing news. Through the start of 2018, Franklin was CEO of Glory Sports International, the parent company of Glory Kickboxing that was seen on ESPN in the USA along with UFC Fightpass and Veronica/SBS Holland and others in more than 170 countries. Franklin began working with Glory in 2012 and joined full time as CEO in 2014. Under Franklin's leadership in 2017 Glory was named the World's leading Kickboxing promotion by Combat Press and one of the World's most influential combat sports promotions by Fox Sports that same year. Franklin continued at Glory as USA Promoter and Chief Development Officer in 2018 and early 2019. In this role he secured Monster Energy as Glory's first Global sponsor. From 1999 through 2002 Franklin was President of Golden Gloves boxing. To be noted, Jon J Franklin has been a strong supporter of women's sports at the highest levels, having brought female fighters into Golden Gloves during his tenure as President, started a women's division of Glory Kickboxing while he was CEO and in 2022 brought women's ski racing into the World Pro Ski Tour with equal pay racing the same courses as the men.
The year 2019 was the eighth year in the history of Glory, an international kickboxing promotion. The first event of the year, Glory 63: Houston, would also be the first to be broadcast on UFC Fight Pass as part of a new agreement with the UFC that saw their Fight Pass streaming service become the exclusive carrier of Glory events in the United States. Glory events were also broadcast through television agreements with Veronica TV, and other regional channels around the world.
References
- ↑ Shpigel, Ben (March 28, 2019). "Conor McGregor's Retirement and the U.F.C.'s Plan to Survive It". The New York Times– via NYTimes.com.
- ↑ "What I Like: Marshall Zelaznik, UFC". www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.
- ↑ Staff, Multi Channel News (11 August 2006). "In Demand's Zelaznik Jumps to UFC". Multichannel.
- ↑ Davies, Gareth A. (December 4, 2012). "Marshall Zelaznik: UFC in expert hands with new CEO Garry Cook" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
- ↑ Carroll, Peter (January 23, 2018). "Former UFC executive vice president Marshall Zelaznik appointed as GLORY CEO". MMA Fighting.
- ↑ Heitner, Darren (February 28, 2017). "How a Former UFC Executive Found a New Role in E-Sports". Inc.com.
- ↑ Merced, Michael J. de la (July 11, 2016). "U.F.C. Sells Itself for $4 Billion". The New York Times– via NYTimes.com.
- ↑ "UFC layoffs include executives Garry Cook, Marshall Zelaznik and UFC Asia chief Ken Berger". October 18, 2016.
- ↑ "Marshall Zelaznik named CEO of Glory Sports International". www.sportspromedia.com. 25 January 2018.
- ↑ "Vindex Appoints Marshall Zelaznik to Esports Engine CEO, Adam Apicella as Esports Engine President/Vindex CXO". 21 December 2020.
- ↑ https://sports.yahoo.com/former-ufc-exec-marshall-zelaznik-163019866.html
