International Combat Federation

International Combat Federation

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Mixed martial arts promotion
Founded	1989 (1989)
Founders	Rick Axelrod Johan Andersen Karl Thyge Klausen John Hickson Richard Bernhard Sorensen Olav H. Lind Oleksandr Melnyk
Headquarters	Regnhavn, Lyngaard , Lyngaard
Key people	Stefan Karlsen (president)
Owner	Global Athletics Holdings (via Davidson & CO.)

the International Combat Federation (ICF) is a Lynsk based mixed martial arts promotion company based in Regnhavn, Lyngaard. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Athletics Holdings which itself owns multiple other sports promotions and sports teams. the ICF has been one of the biggest and oldest MMA promotions still in operation. It produces events worldwide that showcase 12 weight divisions under a unified rule set.

ICF was founded by Lynsk-Arcadian buisnessman Rick Axelrod, and Boxing Promotor and former Heavyweight World Champion Oleksandr Melnyk in 1989. The initial format of the ICF was a 12-man tournament with limited rules and no weight classes. Intended to determine which style of martial art is best. Their first event was held at Holodome Stadium in Regnhavn. Subsaquent events would implament more rules and weight classes, with the Unified Rules being adopted in 1994. Fighters also begain to develope techniques outside of their initial martial arts background, leading the the creation of modern day mixed martial arts as a seperate style entirely. In 2003 the ICF was bought by Davidson & Co. at $7.9 Million. Davidson & Co. would bring in Stefan Karlsen to head the company. Under his stewardship the company has become a multi-billion dollar enterprise. The company made roughly $718 Million in earnings in 2022, and in late 2022 renewed its exclusive broadcasting right with GSBN for $1.9 Billion.

History

precursors and early MMA

Mixed martial arts as an organized sport began in the late 70's as "Mixed Rules events became popular exhibition sports at international competitions. Minotauro FC, a Kickboxing promotion from Tramontia would expand to host Tramonti Ju-Jitsu events in the mid 80's as the sport was catching on in its home country. AMAL in Arcadia would go from a purely Karate focused youth organization into an organization which would hold Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, and Judo tournaments for all age and skill levels. Paolo della Costa, and Junichi Kadohata would help to formulate the first organized Shootfighting promotion with Uoria FC in 1985.

Uoria FC would become the first major Mixed Martial Arts promotion globally and would attract competitors from around the world.

Rules

Initially, the ICF was established with a limited rule set. ICF 1 was help with only the "three no's" rule set which barred bitting, groin strikes, and eye pokes. As the sport grew from its initial tournament style it became clear to leadership that a unified rule set was needed. The promotion faced stiff legal challenges if it was not able to offer a complete rule set, as the Royal Athletics Commission set out to investigate the sport for illegal conduct. In 1994 the first official set of unified rules was produced and accepted by the RAC. The rules have evolved over the years.

Fighters are required to wear the official open figured glove, which uses 40mm of foam cushioning and has separate finger holes for better articulation of the fingers. Beginning in 2015 all gloves were replaced with ones using the KtypTech system, which would more naturally place a fighter's hands into a semi-closed resting position. This was done to lower incidents of accidental eye poking in the aftermath of the Shane Milly vs Ali Magtymguly fight. where an accidental eye poke during a strike attempt would leave Milly with a open globe rupture injury in his left eye. Fighters are allowed a broad range of attire. While tops are only allowed in female competition, male fighters have the ability to choose between loose fit shorts or tighter compression shorts. These shorts may also have a variety of cuts and fits. So long as they do not go passed the fighters knee, or come up to high in a "speedo" style. Between 1991 and 2009 fighters were allowed to have advertisements displayed on their shorts. However this was amended after the ICF signed a multi-million dollar deal with Proachs which barred other advertisements in the promotion.

There are multiple possible outcomes for a fight. The unified rule set out criteria for when and how referees stop matches. The goal being to allow fighters to compete within their abilities while keeping them as safe as possible. Referees may stop a match for four reasons.

• Knockout: A fighter has been struck such that they are rendered unconscious and unable to continue.
• Technical Knockout: A fighter is conscious and still moving, but is being struck and is unable to defend themselves intelligently. A doctor on staff deems it unsafe for one fighter to continue fighting. A corner stoppage occurs when one fighter's cornermen decide that their fighter is unable to continue.
• Submission: A fighter physically taps on the mat or their opponent, or verbally submits.
• Technical Submission: When a fighter is in a submission hold, and while said fighter does not physically or verbally submit, either the referee deems the submission locked-in to escape, that continued submission will harm the fighter, or the fighter is rendered unconscious by the hold.

If a fight does not result in a referee stoppage, the judges are then able to decide who won based on a categorical point system. where a fighter earns a point for outperforming their opponent in striking, strike defense, significant strikes, knockdowns, takedowns, takedown defense, ground time, ground control, Submission attempts, submission defenses, and fouls. A judges outcome may result in

• unanimous decision (all three judges score a win for fighter A)
• majority decision (two judges score a win for fighter A, one judge scores a draw)
• split decision (two judges score a win for fighter A, one judge scores a win for fighter B)
• technical decision (a fighter is rendered unable to continue as a result of an unintentional illegal element or move, resulting in a decision based on the finished and unfinished rounds if the number of rounds to be judged is sufficient)
• unanimous draw (all three judges score a draw)
• majority draw (two judges score a draw, one judge scoring a win)
• split draw (one judge scores a win for fighter A, one judge scores a win for fighter B, and one judge scores a draw)
• technical draw (the bout ends in a manner similar to that of a technical decision, with the judges' scores resulting in a draw)
• Disqualification: a fighter intentionally executes an illegal move that is considered by the referee or opponent to be injurious or significant enough to negatively alter the opponent's performance should the fight continue, resulting in the opponent's victory.
• No Contest: a fighter is rendered unable to continue or compete effectively as a result of an unintentional illegal element or move and there is not a sufficient number of finished rounds to be judged to make a technical decision viable, or both fighters are rendered unable to continue or compete effectively. Also, a fight may be ruled a no-contest if the original outcome of the bout is changed due to unsatisfactory or illegal circumstances, such as a premature stoppage or a fighter's testing positive for banned substances.

There are a number of fouls that can be committed in competition. The severity and outcome of these fouls is ultimately up to the referee and judges. The types of fouls include

• Head-butting
• Eye Gouging
• Groin strikes
• Hair pulling
• Putting a finger into any orifice, natural or from injury during competition.
• Biting
• Spine and Back of Head strikes
• Oblique kicks to the knees
• Small joint manipulation
• grabbing or striking any portion of the throat
• Clawing, pinching or twisting the flesh
• Grabbing the clavicle
• Throwing an opponent to the mat on their head or neck
• Forcing an opponent out of the cage
• Holding onto the cage
• Holding opponents shorts or gloves
• Attacking an opponent while during break, after the bell has signaled an end to the round, under the care of the referee or medical staff, or while visibly unconscious (with or without the referee signaling an end to competition)
• Disregard for referee instructions
• Timidity
• Faking injury or intentionally spitting out mouthpiece.
• Applying a foreign substance to your person upon exiting the prepping area on your way to the cage.
• Kick or knee to the head of a grounded opponent
• Stomping on a grounded opponent.

Code of Conduct

Fighters are held to a Code of Conduct while in the cage with their opponents. Fighters are not to demine or insult their opponents during the course of the fight. Fighters may celebrate a victory as they see fit so long as it does not break the spirit of sportsmanship. Fighters are meant to touch gloves before a bout, if one fighter is in need of medical aid, the other fighter is not permitted to leave the cage until their opponent is back on their feet or escorted off the mat. Fighters are to shake hands after the announcement of the match results. Fighters may exchange words before and after a match, but abusive language is prohibited during active competition.

Anti-Doping Policy

Starting in 2009, ICF partnered with the Royal Athletics Anti-Doping Agency (RAADA) in order to routinely test fighters in order to ensure fairness in competition. This change was brought on after the 2007 match between David Bainbridge and Renato Miata, where Miata would throw a head kick that would detach Bainbridges retina, causing permanent blindness in his left eye. It would later come out from a whistleblower that Miata had tested positive for Turinabol during a routine doctor's check up, a common steroid for horses, prior to his fight with Bainbridge. While the ICF was unaware of this testing data. It quickly looked to weed out PED's from the organization. Current RAADA tests ICF fighters for nearly 40 different performance enhancing substances. These include all anabolic–androgenic steroids, human growth hormone, synthetic adaptogens, erythropoietin, along with others.

Since the introduction of routine RAADA testing there has been a near 200% increase in fines and suspensions related to failed doping tests from athletes. Notable cases include Javier Abdalá's four year suspension after failing to to enter the testing pool and then testing positive for Oxymetholone, William Bacher's 2 year suspension and $5,000 fine after testing positive for Androstanolone three different times in 2016, and Paolo Regonesi's 3 year suspension after testing positive for Prasterone, which also turned his Championship victory over Xu Deng into a No Contest.

There has been criticism of RAADA testing since its implementation. Many critics note that it is relatively easy to drop out of the testing pool prior to competition. RAADA testing cycles are not uniform, with some athletes going untested for year long periods while others get tested multiple times in the months leading up to competition. RAADA has also been criticized because of notable examples where fighters were only tested after competition and tested positive, some of these incidents like in the case of Jake Uy vs Soren Christiansen resulted in serious injury for one fighter while facing an opponent illegally doping. The ICF has downplayed these complaints and has maintained that it is working carefully with RAADA to maintain a safe and fair environment of competition.

Overall Preformance Rank

The Overall Performance Rank (OPR) is a ranking system introduced into the ICF in 2005. Inspired by the Elo rating system used for Chess, the goal of the OPR system is to better match up potential fighters and avoid more effectively and easily figure out potential championship matchups based on OPR scores. OPR is from a scale of 0 to 100, with each fighter having a 0 Base upon entering the promotion. Fighters can gain and or lose rank based on how they perform in their matches. Score is dependent on multiple criteria including, Rank of the opponent, how a bout ended, and what type and how fast a stoppage was performed by a fighter. OPR score is weight division specific and is how the promotion determines who is eligible for title contention, with the non-champion with the highest OPR score being given the interim champion belt. If a fighter loses a championship bout they are removed from the top contender pool for a total of 3 fights at which time, if their OPR ranking is high enough, they may retry for the belt.

The OPR system has been successful in accomplishing what it has set out to do. It prevents fighters from premature development, allowing fighters to develop naturally through the system which increases the longevity of their careers, it also creates a fair and equitable path for fighters to compete for the championship belt. However it has been criticized for keeping some fighters suck in the mid level of competition, it also has been criticized for making less robust weight division stagnant, as was the case between 2006 and 2010 where Julio Morea, John Evrin, and Raymond Tiller were the only contenders for the belt in the Featherweight division against champion Cao Qizhi leading to multiple trilogy fights between Qizhi and the others as they failed to dethrone him. Another criticism is that the strict adherence to the system prevents very lucrative fights from happening often, and it lessens the theatrical nature of the sport which is a major audience draw.

Weight Divisions

The ICF offers 12 different weight classes for fighters to compete in. Initially the ICF did not have weight classes, starting at ICF 9 the classes of Heavyweight (Fighters over 90kg) and Lightweight (Fighters under 90kg) were introduced, and at ICF 15 the promotion added more weight classes with Flyweight (upper limit 55kg), Lightweight (upper limit 70kg), Middleweight (upper limit 85kg), and Heavyweight (no upper limit). Following the adoption of the Unified Rules the weight classes were further standardized. Atomweight would be added as female only weight classes in 2009 as part of the promotions move into female fighting. Light Middleweight and Cruiserweight would be added in 2010 and 2012 respectively, initially to broaden the upper weight classes and to alleviate issues of weight bullying and extreme weight cuts. Catchweight was added in 2005, this was so that fighters who missed weight could agree to competition within specific eight parameters. Usually used for Heavyweights who miss the 105kg cutoff, and has also been used for exhibition matches between two fighters from different weight classes so that weight cutting is not as extreme.

Weight Class	Upper Weight Limit	Introduced	First Match
ICF Weight Divisions
Atomweight	50kg	2009	Lola Emerry vs. Maria Tretiak
Strawweight	55kg	2005 (male) 2009 (female)	Keith Mehmoudi vs Qasim Hassan (Male) Alex Tinhga vs Jada George (Female)
Flyweight	60kg	1994 (male) 2009 (female)	Dan Hickerson vs Georg Brendtberg (Male) Maci Klein vs Josie Banzet (Female)
Bantamweight	65kg	1994 (male) 2009 (female)	Moricio Telghati vs Jacob Bjornsen (Male) Jessica Flevre vs Yves Bréhier (Female)
Featherweight	70kg	1994	Jake Preen vs Oscar Arceneaux
Lightweight	75kg	1994	Pepe Checcucci vs Nick Mohler
Welterweight	80kg	1994	Mitchell Perry vs Edward Bossa
Light Middleweight	85kg	2010	Danny Dahlsen vs Tim Bollins
Middleweight	90kg	1994	Andrej Stefanik vs Kimbal Asher
Cruiserweight	95kg	2012	Mo Jorgen vs Ribat Sallah
Light Heavyweight	100kg	1994	Figaroa Davies vs Jake Umbridge
Heavyweight	115kg	1994	Jason Ferhatovic vs Hassan Tabrizi
Catchweight	N/A	2005	Eli Sanderson vs Didi Morris

Current Champions

Fighter	Image	Record	Weight Class	Interim Champion	Notes
ICF Champtions
Basilissa Rambaudi		17-8	Atomweight (Female)	Angela Goddard	Defeated Naomi Reed via split decision at ICF 289 for the vaccant title, has 5 title defenses.
Caroline Edwards		16-4	Strawweight (Female)	Greta Holst	Defeated Mia Sage at ICF 316 via TKO (doctor stopage) for the title, has 1 title defense.
Ba Junli		15-6 (1)	Strawweight (Male)	Ebrahim Deghati	Defeated Justin Persner at ICF 319 via submission (mounted gogoplata neck crank) for the title, no title defenses.
Meeri Erkko		13-1	Flyweight (Female)	Khertek Choodu	Defeated Melissa Moony at ICF 302 via KO (Punches) for the title, has 2 title defenses.
Dustin Blumsted		13-4	Flyweight (Male)	Max Till	Defeated Xu Deng at ICF 307 via TKO (punches and elbows) for the title, has 2 title defenses.
Minèvre Béhibleh		23-9 (2)	Bantamweight (Female)	Eleni Koutoufides	Deafeted Eleni Koutoufides via Knockout (Head Kick) at ICF 318 for the title, no title defenses.
Alesso Trussardi		32-14	Bantamweight (Male)	Qiu Zongliang	Defeated Jack Jardine at ICF 281 via submission (suloev stretch) for the title, has 8 title defenses, tied with Jaco Catsimatidis for most title defenses in the ICF.
Erik Christensen		14-5	Featherweight	Urijah Kilpatrick	Defeated Valentyn Isaev at ICF 313 via TKO (knees) for the title, has 1 title defense.
Abdurrahman al-Ghazi		21-2	Lightweight	Karl Hantzsch	Defeated Lorenzo Lunati at ICF 298 via submission (kimura) for the title, has 3 title defences.
Ghaith Abdulatif		20-0 (1)	Welterweight	Jackson Purdy	Defeated Illya Chichua via TKO (punches) at ICF 302 for the title, has 4 title defenses.
Ghaith Abdulatif		20-0 (1)	Light Middleweight	Eddson Alberghetti	Defeated Alex Glasauer via Submission (kneebar) at ICF 320 for the title. Current Double Champion, no title defenses.
Eddy Soghomonyan		15-3	Middleweight	Drew Cimber	Deafeted Emil Mendelssohn at ICF 314 via major decision for the title, has 1 title defense.
Mikkel Lütken		19-6	Cruiserweight	Mo Jorgen	Defeated Derick DuPont via split decision at ICF 312 for the title, has 3 title defenses.
Derick DuPont		12-2	Light Heavyweight	Tobias Carey	Defeated Yoel Zoccarato via unanimous decision at ICF 319 for the title, no title defenses.
Dennis Lejeune		19-3	Heavyweight	Behrouz Tabatabaei	Defeated Sadallah Jenyat at ICF 300 via unanimous desicion for the title, has 3 title defenses.

Controversy

Rank	ISO	Fighter	Record	Win Streak	Weight class	Status	Next fight
							Event	Opponent
1		Ghaith Abdulatif	20-0 (1)	20	Light Middleweight	Light Middleweight Champion Welterweight Champion	ICF 328	Jackson Purdy
2		Abdurrahman al-Ghazi	21-2	12	Lightweight	Lightweight Champion
3		Dennis Lejeune	19-3	9	Heavyweight	Heavyweight Champion	ICF 327	Behrouz Tabatabaei
5		Alesso Trussardi	32-14	10	Bantamweight	Bantamweight Champion	ICF 329	Qiu Zongliang
6		Jakob Daccord	24-3	1	Middleweight	#1 in Middleweight Rankings