Alliance MMA continues to make noteworthy moves in the space of U.S.-based regional promotions, this time with the acquisition of one of the sport’s most reputable pipelines for talent.

Victory FC and all its assets have been purchased by Alliance MMA, which is currently the largest publicly traded entity in MMA.

MMAjunkie learned of the move from Alliance MMAPresident Rob Haydak and Victory FC General Manager Ryan Stoddard. A formal announcement is expected to be made today, as well.

“There’s always a moment that we strive for as a business owner, and that’s to build it up to the point where you feel in a very good position to sell the company and continue to grow,” Stoddard told MMAjunkie. “This was as great a time as ever. Alliance is a young company, so it’s great to get in with them early on. It provides a lot of infrastructure that a company like ours really needs, as we’ve really grown faster than we can keep up with in the last 20 months.

“For us to come along and achieve a checkmark and a life goal, which is to build a business and sell it, and on top of everything else, have the opportunity to grow even bigger and be a part of something bigger is a very unique opportunity I really couldn’t pass up.”

Victory FC has hosted more than 50 events since its inaugural fight card on June 16, 2002. Since then, the organization has served a platform for the careers of such names as former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, Jake Ellenberger, Tecia Torres, Travis Browne, Anthony Smith, Josh Neer and many others.

The promotion has hosted events across Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, but company executives plan to make moves into new territories in the future, beginning with Texas. Victory FC’s exposure on a global scale has risen in recent years, too, after the organization signed a deal to stream on UFC Fight Pass in November 2015.

The partnership with UFC Fight Pass will remain despite the transfer in ownership, with eight to 10 live events planned per year.

“Our contract (with UFC Fight Pass) runs for another three or four years,” Stoddard said. “We’re in deep with them. We don’t plan on going anywhere. They don’t plan on us going anywhere, and the future for Victory is truly and really brighter than ever. I’m excited to be a part of something bigger, as well as have the opportunity to see where we can take this thing.

“Having those resources is super important. This will allow me to operate Victory as best and as efficiently as possible, which is something I really haven’t been able to do in the past 20 months since we’ve grown so fast.”

With the acquisition, Victory FC pushes the number of Alliance MMA-owned fight organization up to a dozen. It joins the likes of Cage Fury Fighting Championship, Combat Games MMA, Hoosier Fight Club, V3Fights, Shogun Fights and more.

With the experience of the Alliance MMA team now behind him, Stoddard is anticipating tremendous growth for his promotion.

“When you talk about that infrastructure, having a full-time marketing staff, having that many people who help you with sponsorship capabilities, as well as medicals and the financial pieces – that’s also a massive part of it,” Stoddard said. “We’ve always wanted to go into bigger markets. Looking into 2018, we plan to expand heavily behind Omaha and Nebraska, all the way into Dallas, Texas. None of that would be possible without Alliance. This is a total game changer for us and our ability to really increase our footprint.”

As for the Alliance MMA side, company president Haydak expects big things from what he considers one of the top up-and-comping fight promoters in the sport.

“Ryan, without question, is young, he’s aggressive and he’s got a great awareness for talent and attentions to details, especially in production quality,” Haydak said. “What we bring to the table for Ryan is an infrastructure. We have in-house graphic designers, we have writers, we have a social media team. A whole network that he’s going to be able to tap into so that Ryan can continue to grow the scale of Victory. We’re going to give him the tools necessary in our partnership to grow the Victory brand.”