For the longest, all fight fans had was boxing.

Then, boxing and kickboxing.

Then, in the early '90s, UFC 1 happened and changed the game. Before they came along, the term “fight night” belonged to boxing. Now, we have fight weeks for UFC numbered events.

But it's human nature to get bored, right?

The UFC has grown so large that its cards are either praised or trashed before they even take place. So, the combat sports universe is looking to correct itself.

But how?

By giving us crazy shit.

When I say “crazy shit”, I mean stuff that makes the older MMA fan curious enough to get into. This weekend, we had the Dirty Boxing Championships third event live from Miami and free on YouTube.

It was good.

So what else can they come up with?

What else tickles the fancy of fight fans?

Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships (BKFC)

BKFC has been around long enough and grown to be the frontrunner in the bare-knuckle options. Mike Perry is a competitor there and is also part of the founding team for Dirty Boxing, so maybe his knack for fighting goes a little deeper than just competing. Who knows?

Karate Combat

Another founding member of Dirty Boxing is Adam Kovacs, who also cofounded Karate Combat. They’re more of a kickboxing organization now that allows a few seconds of ground-and-pound when an opponent gets dropped. They seem to be having some success, too; maybe Kovacs knows what makes fight fans tick.

BJJ

As someone who holds a black belt in the art, I love it, love watching it, and I hope UFC BJJ takes off. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen since competitive grappling has been around longer than MMA, and still gets groans from the average fight fan when fights hit the ground. Even though grappling events are getting more popular, I think it’ll still take a while.
​

I’m writing all this to say, it’s probably never been a better time to be a fight fan.

With all these fights going on, folks who create content in the space probably need a way to track outcomes and results. That’s why I made that Fight Night Card Companion in Notion, so I hope it’s helping you.

If you need the PDF version, you can grab that here.

I’m working on expanding a better version for content creators, too, so if you have any ideas, reply and let me know what you think would help.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Ed

​
➡Follow me on 𝕏: @Carbazel​

​

🎥 My YouTube channel: The Blogboard Jungle​

​

📘 My book: Bow and Arrow Mysteries (my fiction writing)

​

📸 IG: @Carbeerzel​

​

📃 Fight Night Card Companion: on Gumroad​

​

📩 Mixed Martial Answers on Substack​

​