History
Cage Rage started when Alex Jones and Tom Bell set out to raise money by promoting a small mixed martial arts show, to provide new mats for their martial arts school. The first Cage Rage event in Elephant and Castle, London was a success, which led to fans and fighters asking for a follow up show, leading to further shows and promotion as it exists today.
In March 2007, after the purchase of PRIDE Fighting Championships by Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta from Dream Stage Entertainment, Cage Rage were announced as members of a promotional alliance instigated by ProElite and FEG, the parent companies of EliteXC and Hero's respectively, along with Strikeforce, BodogFight K-1 and Spirit MC.
However, this working relationship barely lasted a month. When Cage Rage signed K-1 star Bob Sapp to a main event in London for their 21 April 2007, show K-1 stopped Sapp from fighting on the card. This left a desperate Geer and O'Donnell scrambling for a new main event on just days notice with aged veteran Tank Abbott eventually stepping in.
Due to the closeness of the two promotions, ProElite purchased the majority shareholding in Cage Rage in September 2007 from Cage Rage's silent partner John Faraday.
Andy Geer Left the group he founded in April 2008, and was replaced by former King of the Cage boss Christopher Cordeiro.
In May 2008, Sky Sports said in a statement they would no longer be airing Cage Rage events on their channels. The official line was that they could not continue with Cage Rage as a fighter (Paul Daley) had sworn on live TV on a previous show. However, this was thought to be an excuse as the incident (where Daley used several sexual cursewords) took place well after the 9pm "watershed". Much more likely Sky was disappointed with the average 19,000 viewers Cage Rage was getting.
Since the closure of Cage Rage, Dave O'Donnell created Cage Rage UK, the parent company of another Mixed Martial Arts promotion, Ultimate Challenge MMA (UCMMA).
Read more about this topic: Cage Rage Championships
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