Private company

TKO Major League MMA

Defunct Canadian MMA promotion broadcast on UFC Fightpass

TKO Major League MMA was a Canadian mixed martial arts promotion established in 2000, it was originally broadcast on RDS and later on Fight Network. Formerly known as the Universal Combat Challenge (UCC), it was the first mixed martial arts promotion in Canada, before eventually rebranding to TKO Major League MMA in 2003. For years it was the largest MMA promotion in Canada, before eventually going on hiatus for 8 years.² It was founded by Stéphane Patry.¹ Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2000Founded¹

HeadquartersMontreal¹

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

TKO Major League MMA was a Canadian mixed martial arts promotion established in 2000, it was originally broadcast on RDS and later on Fight Network. Formerly known as the Universal Combat Challenge (UCC), it was the first mixed martial arts promotion in Canada, before eventually rebranding to TKO Major League MMA in 2003. For years it was the largest MMA promotion in Canada, before eventually going on hiatus for 8 years. Returning in 2016, since then it has signed a deal with the UFC to be broadcast on the promotion's streaming service UFC Fight Pass. The promotion was dissolved, as per Quebec Enterprise Register concluding fiscal year 2019.²

The story

Founded by Stéphane Patry in 2000.¹

History

Founded in early 2000 by Stephane Patry and Universal Combat Challenge (UCC) would allow wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, grappling, their bouts consisted of two 10 minute rounds. The rules at the beginning also allowed for knee's and kick's(soccer kick) to the head of a downed opponent. Following the success of the first event they would announce that the promotion would

be instituting Canadian Championship titles as well as the World Championship titles beginning at UCC 2 due to international interest, this would last until 2005 when the promotion unified the titles. TKO/UCC started off with 6 weight classes, 265 lb, formerly unlimited), Light Heavyweight (205 lb), Middleweight(185 lb), Welterweight(170 lb), Lightweight(155 lb) and Super Lightweight(now known as Featherweight 145 lb). Bantamweight would be added in 2007 and following the promotions return from hiatus, Flyweight(125 lb) and 2 female weight classes were introduced, Woman's Flyweight and Woman's Straw-weight (125 lb and 115 lb).

TKO/UCC was the first promotion of its kind in Canada and was host to an abundance of Canada's top MMA talent for close to two decades, in 2003 the organization would be rebranded as TKO Major League MMA. In the promotions early days they used a boxing-style ring for their contests, before eventually being one of the first to adopt the UFC-spec octagon. The promotion has organized 62 events involving over 620 matches.

Universal Combat Challenge

On June 2, 2000, UCC would hold their first event in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The promotion ran 21 events under the UCC banner before rebranding to TKO Major League MMA in 2003.