Many feel that the Electronic Arts announcement of their new MMA title would be a difficult and uphill battle for the company since THQ’s with UFC encompasses the majority of the best known MMA fighters. This puts EA in the position of having to work hard to get image rights of well-known MMA fighters for their title.

Zuffa, which is the holding company that controls UFC, also has rights to both WEC and PRIDE, which is no longer operating actively. According to our sources THQ does have a deal with Zuffa which runs at least another two years; Zuffa controls the marketing rights for the largest stable of MMA fighters.

According to reports, EA is actively looking at every possible MMA fighter who currently has control of their image rights. From what we understand, it is quite commonplace for the majority of MMA fighters to sign their image rights over to Zuffa as part of their contract.

Some well-known MMA talent do, however, control their image rights, and sources tell us that EA has already been able to sign MMA superstars Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture, who will be part of the EA MMA title. As we reported previously, EA is being aggressive in their attempt to secure MMA fighters and it does look that they will be able to land at least some recognizable names for their MMA title, which we believe is very important if the title is to be successful and able to challenge the THQ UFC titles in the future.