United Fight League Creates More Opportunities For Female Grapplers, Fighters
fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetititor.com grapplingstars.com, YES-Market-Media-Shutterstock-photo-Editorial-use
March 12, 2023,
The popularity of female MMA is at an all-time high with no ceiling in sight.
The female freestyle wrestling world has taken decades to become accepted and respected with the men’s programs.
Primarily the women’s wrestling programs were in the WCWA and NAIA, smaller organizations compared to the nationwide and powerful NCAA.
Once Iowa University, a power 5 school, announced they would field a women’s wrestling program; that opened the door for other Division One schools to follow.
What many did not see coming, including us, was the wrestling program could secure a major sponsor like the UFC.
As reported by hawkeyesports.com, “The University of Iowa Athletics Department and its multimedia rightsholder, LEARFIELD’s Hawkeye Sports Properties, today announced that UFC®, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization, will serve as a proud sponsor of the men’s and women’s wrestling programs.
This marks the first college sports sponsorship for UFC, which chose Iowa for its longtime tradition of wrestling excellence within the men’s program and for support of the university’s newest intercollegiate program, women’s wrestling. Iowa is the first NCAA Division I Power Five institution to offer the sport, as announced Sept. 23, 2021, with Clarissa Chun serving as the team’s first head coach.”
Once the sponsorship money starts flowing, most likely other Division One schools, just like in football, will want to secure some large sponsorship money as well.
Expect more women’s wrestling programs to emerge at other Division One schools.
The opportunities for scholarships continue to increase as more colleges are adding women wrestling programs to their athletic departments.
Opportunities continue to expand for Female Submission Wrestlers and MMA Fighters at the professional level as well.
MMA female fighters Zurina Turrey and Veronika Smolkova drew a standing ovation after going the full three rounds after their battle in Mesa, Arizona, on February 18, 2023.
They owe that opportunity to the United Fight League.
Who are they?
Let’s take a closer look.
At their home unitedfightleague.com they educate, “The United Fight League officially launches it’s inaugural event, the opening round of the UFL 2023 Grand Prix. Doors open at 5pm MST. Prelims stream for free on Rumble at 7pm MST and the Pay Per View streaming on Locals begins at 8:30pm MST.
UNITED FIGHT LEAGUE ANNOUNCES FIRST-EVER GRAND PRIX QUARTERFINAL 1 MMA EVENT IN MESA ARIZONA
News provided by
Feb 02, 2023, 11:00 ET
Saturday’s card kicks off the 2023 tour
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — United Fight League (UFL) today announced the first-ever Grand-Prix Quarterfinal 1 card with 48 individual top fighters across six weight classes from 6 countries. The event will take place at Bell Bank Park in Mesa, Arizona, on February 18, 2023, and kicks off the four-city tour with stops in Memphis, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City later this year.
United Fight League, founded by entrepreneur Harrison Rogers, is reinventing the wheel of combat sports putting fighters’ future first with an innovative compensation and benefits structure that gives men and women an opportunity to ensure their futures post-career.
“As a fan of combat sports, I wanted to create a promotion that not only allows fighters to compete in the sport they love but also offers benefits and additional resources to ensure they are taken care of every step of the way,” said Harrison Rogers, Founder, and CEO of UFL. “It was important for the UFL to offer these benefits to all fighters on our roster so they could focus on their careers while we took care of everything else.”
Joining Harrison as part of the UFL are MMA legends and Hall of Famers Frank Mir, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Tito Ortiz, who serve as the promotion’s brand ambassadors. “With a career spanning over twenty years, I know first-hand how important it is for the UFL to offer these benefits to fighters,” said former 2X UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir. “I will continue to advocate for fighters and hope other promotions follow our lead in offering more to the men and women that have made combat sports so successful,” he added.
In addition to medical and life insurance, fighters are offered a stake in the company through various stock options as part of their compensation package.
The UFL Grand Prix Quarterfinals 1 will stream free LIVE on Rumble beginning at 9:00 pm EST/7:00 pm MST.
Main Event
Bobby Moffet (16-6) vs. TBD
Co-Main Event
170Ib Grand Prix
Nikolay Veretennikov (9-4) vs. Demarcus Jackson (13-6)
Featured Bout
135Ib Grand Prix
Phil Caracappa (9-2) vs. Valodia Aivazian (10-3)
145Ib Grand Prix
Jose Delgado (3-0) vs. Chris Mecate (5-2)
170Ib Grand Prix
Ivey Nixon (6-3) vs. Luis Iniguez (5-2)
185Ib Grand Prix
Dan Huber (4-5) vs. Ty Gwerder (5-4)
135Ib Grand Prix
Jackson Santa Cruz (6-3) vs. Amun Cosme (4-1)
135Ib Grand Prix
Zurina Turrey (1-0) vs. Veronika Smolkova (1-0)
125Ib
Cicero Livio (1-0) vs. Braden Goodwin (9-5)
155Ib
Quinten Culpepper (5-1) vs. John Simon (5-3)
*Card subject to change
Tickets are on sale now. To purchase tickets, please visit www.tixr.com.
UFL’s Rumble channel can be found here.
United Fight League Locals Community can be found here.
About United Fight Network
United together, Harrison J Rogers, Frank Mir, Quinton Jackson, Tito Ortiz, and Sophia Magana bring the United Fight League to the world of mixed martial arts. The UFL is the first promotion in combat sports to take a stance with fighters, not against fighters, providing proper health and life insurance, a stake in the company, and education for financial security. For more information, please visit www.unitedfightleague.com or @unitedfightleague.
About Rumble
Rumble is a high-growth neutral video platform creating the rails and independent infrastructure designed to be immune to cancel culture. Rumble’s mission is to restore the Internet to its roots by making it free and open again. In 2022 Rumble merged with Locals.com to build subscription-based communities aligned to restore power from platforms to creators and their audiences.
SOURCE United Fight League
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO YES-Market-Media-Shutterstock-photo-Editorial-use fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetititor.com grapplingstars.com
https://unitedfightleague.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
