Cage Rage

Cage Rage was founded by Dave O’Donnel and Andy Geer in September of 2002. Cage Rage is a United Kingdom based mixed martial arts promotion with a relatively large following in England. Cage Rage events are televised on cable television channel Sky Sports.

The history of Cage Rage started when the current owner Andy Geer and Dave O’Donnell needed money to buy mats for their Gym.  Therefore they promoted a small mixed martial arts tournament in London. The initial Cage rage event was a huge success and thus led to the establishment of the Cage Rage Championships. The first Cage Rage event was held in London In Elephant and Castle venue in 2002.

The growth of the sport of mixed martial arts helped increased the popularity of Cage Rage. Audiences in the United Kingdom grew astronomically in 2006.Beginning of the year, the Cage Rage Championship attendance was in the region of 2,500. By the end of the year the promotion moved to the Wembley Arena filling up its capacity of 12,000, though the arena was configured for a smaller crowd. In addition to the latter the last event, which was held at Earls Court Exhibition Centre saw Cage Rage filling over 12,000 seats.

The Cage Rage promotion rules are in accordance with the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. These are the same rules that are integrated within the Ultimate Fighting Championships as well as other large US based mixed martial arts competitions. The rules are designed to protect the fighter from serious injury or harm. The 4oz gloves are mandatory as are many other rules designed for the fighter’s safety such as no head butting and no fish hooking.

From Cage Rage 13, changes to the Unified Rules have been carried out; most noticeable are the "Open Guard" rule and the stopping the use of elbow strikes to a downed opponent.
Similarly to the UFC, the Cage rage Championship promotion has also launched a secondary show referred to as Cage Rage Contenders. This show allows up and coming fighters to compete and showcase their skills. This show is designed to allow new fighters to have a platform to go into the main Cage Rage show. This show is designed to emulate the early shows where the cage is surrounded by VIP tables and is held in venues like the night club. Cage Rage also attempted to franchise the Contenders name to other promotions across the country in order to further popularize the tournament.

In summation, Cage rage is the largest UK based mixed martial arts events. With the UFC expanding it shows internationally it will be interesting to see if people will prefer the UFC over Cage Rage. However there is absolutely no reason why both organizations can run successfully alongside each other.