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For the past few years, the International Fight League brought a new concept into the American MMA scene, which was team based fighting. The IFL took this concept and wisely marketed the entire promotion around it, with well known MMA names as the team coaches and less traveled MMA fighters rounding out the competitors for each team.
Established MMA personalities like Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Don Frye, Renzo Gracie, Carlos Newton, Pat Miletech and many others lead teams into combat in a “best of five” format that culminated with the IFL World Team Championships. The company also had super fights at each event with top independent fighters like Jens Pulver, Carlos Newton, Pat Miletech, Renzo Gracie, Mark Kerr, Robbie Lawler, Jeremy Horn, Matt Lindland, Maurice Smith and Marco Ruas.
Prior to their first live event in company history in 2006, the IFL scored a national TV deal with Fox Sports Net that aired one hour programs similar to those of PRIDE On FSN and UFC On FSN. The promotion started off with such promise when they had their first event in 2006 at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Then things would start to take a turn for the worse a little over a year later when the IFL signed a TV deal with My Network TV.
The first ever episode didn’t focus on individual fighters or fight teams, but on a severe injury a fighter suffered in the feature fight. That’s right, an MMA promotion with an excellent TV deal did not put the best fights and fighters to be featured on a national scene, but instead attempted to turn a serious injury into a ratings grabber.
I bring this up as the beginning of the end for the IFL for one specific reason and it has to do with the difference between Fox Sports Net and My Network TV. The IFL On FSN broadcast would feature top fights and fighters highlighting the best the promotion has to offer, but the FSN broadcast had a lot less total viewers than My Network TV did. With that being said, the first broadcast and subsequent broadcast’s on My Network TV weren’t built around the quality of the IFL, but seemingly the stupid and insidious side of the growing promotion.
When you present an inferior television product to the largest viewing audience you have had at this point in the companies existence, you start losing your potential fans who could have paid to see your events when the time came.
The IFL then attempted to corner the DVD market by releasing two DVD’s in as many years with one DVD highlighting the best fights in IFL history and the second highlighting the 2007 IFL season. The DVD’s inevitably failed because there was a lack of marketing and in my opinion, the prices for each DVD were to high. In my local mall in New Jersey, the IFL was selling their DVD’s for around twenty dollars each, while a UFC DVD was selling for nearly sixteen dollars. Why would a casual fan spend more money on a promotion they heard very little about instead of saving money by buying the DVD from a promotion that every MMA fans knows about.
Also, look at how the events from each year vary as the IFL ran six events in 2006, ten events in 2007 and only two events in 2008. After an event in New Jersey on April 2008, the IFL cancelled all upcoming events and the floodgates opened as to the rumors of the companies demise.
Soon after, IFL fighters and personalities were being released from their contracts and becoming free to sign with other promotions. Fighters signed elsewhere like Ben Roth well (Affliction), Rory Markham (UFC), Bart Palaszecki (WEC), Roy Nelson (Affliction), Jay Hieron (Affliction), Vladimir Matyushenko (Affliction), Chris Horodecki (Affliction), Dan Miller (UFC), Ryan Schultz (Affliction) and even IFL staffer and color commentator Bas Rutten was released.
Before ending this column, I want to make clear that the IFL has not officially closed its doors for good, but with no events being announced for the remainder of 2008 and by releasing most of the talent and staff, it looks as if its just a matter of time before the IFL joins PRIDE, WFA and other MMA organizations in the MMA graveyard.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
