Some of Australia's biggest footy stars are targeted by brutal new sport that aims to outdo the UFC for violence

Several rugby league stars are reportedly being tapped up to join forces with the world’s newest and fastest-growing combat sports league.

The revolutionary and ambitious International Brawling Championship (IBC), which held its first event in August this year, was founded by Melbourne-born entrepreneur Daniel Mac, who hopes his new fight league can compete with the combat sports behemoth, the UFC.

While both sports are fought inside a metal cage, with fighters wearing similar protective gloves, the IBC differs from MMA fighting as it bans competitors from wrestling.

And after the league was officially launched during an event on the Gold Coast, it has exploded among fans, and impressively, The Courier Mail has revealed that the IBC has locked in a major television rights deal with Fox Sports, a mere eight months after it was first established.

The IBC will host its next event on November 28, at the Nissan Arena in Brisbane, with Issac Hardman set to go up against Jordan Towns in the main event. The event is due to be shown to fans around the world through a network of 14 global streaming partners.

Under the rules of the sport, two men enter a metal cage and slug it out over four two-minute rounds.

But there’s a catch. Both players can call for what’s being dubbed as ‘The Final Stand’. This can be initiated once per round and sees both fighters clash in a winner-takes-all battle inside a tiny diamond that is printed in the middle of the ring.

‘It’s chaos with control,’ Mac told The Courier Mail. ‘There’s the spectacle of a brawl, but the structure of a sport.’

The Courier Mail reports that the league is hoping to lure in some big names from the world of Aussie sport to compete, including none other than Parramatta prop Junior Paulo and ex-Melbourne Nelson Asofa-Solomona.

The former Storm enforcer, Asofa-Solomona, had reportedly been weighing up a career switch since the 29-year-old requested a release from his playing contract with the club at the end of the 2025 campaign.

While he has been linked with several new opportunities, including a partnership with the Run It League, bosses at the IBC are looking to sign him up as one of their main fighters.

It comes after Aussie boxing sensation Hardman, who was so enamoured by the project, put pen to paper on a five-fight deal with the league.

Meanwhile, UFC star Tai ‘Bam Bam’ `, whose last fight came in August last year, is another name on the list of IBC targets, with Mac having revealed that he has already opened discussions with the MMA fighter to join the IBC.

Now, though, Mac, who funnelled $400,000 to get the fighting championship off the ground, believes Asofa-Solomona would be one star that not many other fighters could beat.

‘Nelson Asofa-Solomona is looking at going to combat sports and he’s one guy on our hit list,’ Mac told The Courier Mail.

'Reagan Campbell-Gillard (former Titans prop) and Junior Paulo have boxed before and are other guys I will be reaching out to.

‘There aren’t many in the world who could compete with Nelson Asofa-Solomona. In boxing, he might struggle against a heavyweight with real technical skill, but in the IBC, his size and power would be hard to stop.’

‘My inbox has been flooded with interest from fighters. I’ve already had talks with ‘Bam Bam’ (Tuivasa), he is absolutely keen once he has finished up with the UFC,’ Mac adds.

‘The money has to be right of course, but he loves the IBC concept.

‘So many MMA and UFC athletes don’t want to roll around on the floor, they want to stand up face-to-face and punch on... IBC is the answer for them.’

But in a hugely exciting revelation, Mac has managed to get Fox on board, an incredible coup for the fighting league which will see the IBC broaden its exposure to millions.

‘They are the greatest Australian sports network taking a leap of faith in what I believe will become the world’s greatest combat sport,’ he added.

‘No-one else in Australian combat sports history has achieved global television deals so quickly.

‘There is no other sport like this in the world.’