The world’s first MMA lifestyle social network has been launched with an aim to attract one million users in its first year.

The Fight Factory has been created by Irish-based MMA lifestyle fans Patrick Mooney and Chris Kelly to bring scores of MMA fans from all over the globe together to share news and views on the sport and other areas of interest in their daily lives.

Patrick said: “MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world with millions of fans and social networks are one of the biggest phenomena of recent times, so it made perfect sense to bring the two together and we are delighted to be the first to offer this.

“Many MMA fans use the standard social networks but find little in common with most of the other members; this is like-minded people reaching out to other fans through their own dedicated network.

“The MMA community is very diverse but we all have a common love – the sport.  This is a niche social network for everything the MMA fan is interested in, such as movies, games, news, gadgets, and of course cars and dream items we all want to own.

“It is great for MMA as a sport that the community is brought together in one place and that talking about MMA is part of people’s daily lives.”

The network is targeting men aged 16 to 45, but Patrick knows that with the sport’s ever-growing popularity among women there will be plenty of female influence in its content.

It works in a similar way to other social networks such as Facebook or Bebo with each member having a profile page which contains pictures, videos, blogs and anything else they want to share.

Videos from mobile phones, pictures and links to other sites can be uploaded onto the main page which each member has access to.

The site will also contain information on upcoming MMA fights and events, social events and anything that might be of interest to the network members, as well as hosting forums and blogs and displaying fight pictures and videos.

There will be reviews on gadgets, cars, hotels, holidays, gyms, events, interesting products.

It will take on a life of its own with members connecting with each other and creating content and ultimately taking control of the network with like-minded members.

Patrick added: “We are confident that attracting our first million members is a realistic goal and with the MMA fan base we think we can achieve that in a year.

“This is an open door network where all promoters and fans can promote and reach out to the fans and competitors through this medium – all are welcome and we look forward to creating something special with this network.

“The popularity of MMA is absolutely soaring as more and more people switch on to what a highly-disciplined and exciting sport it is. This lifestyle social network is a major step into bringing MMA further into the mainstream.”