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Fight week has its own rhythm: the medical paperwork checked by the commission, the official weigh-in in a hotel conference room, the drug test that can come any morning of the year for a top pro. Behind every card, from a regional show to a UFC pay-per-view, is a web of MMA organizations: promotions that sign fighters and put on events, state athletic commissions that license them and enforce the rules, testing programs, and an international federation for amateurs. Here’s who does what, from the first UFC in 1993 to the MMA leagues and associations of the 2026 season.
Promotions are not leagues
MMA works differently from team sports. There’s no single league or governing body for professionals. Promotions (the UFC, PFL, ONE and hundreds of regional ones) sign fighters, make matchups, crown their own champions and sell the broadcasts. Athletic commissions, run by states and tribes, decide who is fit to fight and enforce the rules. A fighter can hold a title in one promotion and never face the champion of another.
UFC
The Ultimate Fighting Championship began with UFC 1 at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver on November 12, 1993, an eight-man tournament won by Royce Gracie, who submitted all three of his opponents. Colorado was chosen partly because it had no athletic commission at the time; after the Unified Rules and the first state sanctioning in 2001, it grew into the sport’s biggest promotion. The UFC calls itself the largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. On September 12, 2023, Endeavor and WWE closed the deal that combined UFC and WWE into a new public company, TKO Group Holdings.
On the health side, the UFC opened its 30,000-square-foot UFC Performance Institute in May 2017, offering strength and conditioning, nutrition and physical therapy to its athletes at no cost, and in 2016 it committed to a five-year, $1 million partnership with the Cleveland Clinic’s Professional Fighters Brain Health Study, which follows about 600 participants, including active and retired fighters.
Drug testing: from USADA to CSAD
In 2015 the UFC hired the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to run its anti-doping program. That partnership ended on January 1, 2024, after a public dispute: USADA said the relationship had become “untenable” over whether Conor McGregor should spend six months in the testing pool before fighting again. Since 2024, the UFC program has been run by Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD), led by former federal law enforcement officer George Piro, with samples collected around the world by Drug Free Sport International, the company that also collects for the NCAA, NFL, MLB and NBA. The UFC says its athletes face no-notice testing year-round, anywhere in the world. Reports at the time noted that cannabis was taken off the banned list when the program changed.
Promotion programs sit on top of commission testing. Commissions can test fighters at events and suspend them for a positive result; in Rhode Island, for example, a suspension for a prohibited substance runs from 30 days to six months, and a win can be changed to a no contest.
PFL and Bellator
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) built its brand on a sports-season format: a regular season, playoffs and a championship each year. On November 20, 2023, the PFL bought Bellator MMA from Paramount Global. The PFL said Bellator would become its “one-off” event product, relaunched in 2024 as the Bellator International Champions Series, and it planned a champion-versus-champion event between the two rosters. As of the 2026 season, the PFL runs its main season alongside the Champions Series (formerly Bellator) and regional leagues, PFL Europe, PFL MENA and PFL Africa.
ONE Championship
ONE Championship is a Singapore-based promotion founded in 2011 that stages MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing and submission grappling, mostly in Asia. It’s best known in the health world for its weight rules. In December 2015, after the death of a fighter from complications of cutting weight, ONE banned weight cutting by dehydration. From 2016 its fighters are weighed regularly during fight week and must pass urine specific gravity (hydration) tests as well as the scale, or they’re pulled from the event.
State athletic commissions and the ABC
In the US, professional MMA is regulated state by state (and by some tribal commissions). The commission licenses fighters, referees, judges and promoters, sets the medical rules, assigns ringside doctors, runs weigh-ins and hands out medical suspensions. Rhode Island’s rules are a good example of what a pro license takes: a physical exam, a dilated eye exam and an EKG within a year, a brain MRI or CT scan within three years (with a neurological exam if it’s over a year old), blood tests for HIV and hepatitis B and C within six months, a pregnancy test for women, and a doctor’s sign-off on fight day. Results and suspensions are reported to the national MMA registries within 48 business hours.
The commissions work together through the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC). The ABC keeps the official Unified Rules of MMA, trains and certifies referees and judges, publishes medical guidance and holds an annual conference. Its members are grouped into regions across the US and Canada.
Amateur MMA and IMMAF
Two international bodies for amateur MMA, the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) and the World Mixed Martial Arts Association (WMMAA), were both founded in 2012 and later unified under the IMMAF name. IMMAF held its first World Championships of amateur MMA in Las Vegas in 2014. Today it has more than 120 national federations, about 50 of them recognized by their National Olympic Committee or national sports authority. Its amateur rules use 6 to 8 oz gloves, mandatory shin guards and rash guards, and ban elbows, heel hooks and knees to the head; its youth championships use a round-robin format and rank submissions above knockouts to favor technical grappling.
In the US, amateur bouts are regulated differently from state to state, so the safest first step for a new fighter is the state athletic commission’s website: it will say whether the commission oversees amateur events itself or approves outside sanctioning bodies, and what medical tests you need.
College, Olympic and youth pathways
There’s no NCAA, high school or Olympic MMA. Fighters build their base in sports that have all three: wrestling (NFHS, NCAA, NAIA and the Olympics), boxing (USA Boxing, with youth divisions from age 8), judo and taekwondo, plus Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai through clubs and their own federations. Our youth MMA page explains how kids usually start.
Gear for the gym
Whatever promotion you watch, training looks the same: gloves, a lot of sweat and a shower straight after. Three things worth owning: the Venum Challenger MMA Gloves, which Venum aims at beginner to intermediate athletes training three or four times a week (about $54); the Hypervolt Go 3, a 1.6 lb massage gun with five speeds (about $149); and a pack of Defense Soap tea tree bars for after training (about $31 for five). See our MMA gear page and MMA recovery gear for more.
Venum Challenger MMA Gloves
- Synthetic leather, multi-density foam
- Hook-and-loop wrist closure
- About $54
Hypervolt Go 3
- 1.6 lb, 5 speeds
- Up to 4 hr battery, USB-C
- About $149
Defense Soap Tea Tree Bar (5-pack)
- Tea tree and eucalyptus oils
- No SLS or added fragrance
- Five bars
MMA organizations: questions
Who governs MMA?
For pros in the US, state and tribal athletic commissions do, most using the ABC’s Unified Rules. Promotions such as the UFC run their own events and titles. For amateurs worldwide, IMMAF is the international federation.
Does USADA still test UFC fighters?
No. USADA ran the UFC program from 2015 until January 1, 2024. Since then, Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) runs it, with Drug Free Sport International collecting samples. Commissions still do their own testing at events.
What happened to Bellator?
The PFL bought Bellator from Paramount Global in November 2023. Bellator’s events became the PFL’s Champions Series.
Is MMA an Olympic sport?
No. IMMAF is the international federation for amateur MMA, and about 50 of its national federations are recognized by their National Olympic Committee or sports authority. Several of MMA’s base sports, including wrestling, boxing, judo and taekwondo, are Olympic.
What medical tests do pro MMA fighters need?
It depends on the state. A typical list, from Rhode Island’s rules: a physical, a dilated eye exam and an EKG within a year, a brain MRI or CT within three years, and HIV and hepatitis B and C blood tests within six months, plus a doctor’s check on fight day.
Promotions come and go; the commission, the doctor and your own body stay with you for the whole career. Keep learning on our MMA guide, the MMA injuries page and our HRV for athletes guide to training load.