The International Fight League was an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion billed as the world's first MMA league. It was founded on January 7, 2006, and closed on July 31, 2008.[1] Instead of the established norm for MMA events, where matchups are strictly one-on-one affairs, each IFL card was a showdown between two camps of at least three fighters, each fighter fighting one match against another in the opposing camps.
History
The IFL was founded on January 7, 2006, by real estate developer Kurt Otto and Wizard magazine founder Gareb Shamus, two well-financed devotees of mixed martial arts who were inspired by the Mark Kerr documentary The Smashing Machine. With the IFL, they intended to create a system not only to showcase mixed martial arts action but also provide a business plan that would allow fighters a greater share of profits. In marked contrast to the rest of the industry, instead of paying fighters only purses after fights, the IFL paid them a salary and health benefits while they trained and fought. The team concept was intended to be conducive for television, where episodes could be regularly produced.
It had been widely speculated that the IFL, with the deep pockets of its founders, a television deal and an innovative business plan, would become a major circuit for MMA in North America, directly competing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The UFC and IFL had a hostile relationship, as the UFC accused the IFL of and sued them for illegally using proprietary information obtained by hiring executives from the UFC organization.