Renowned sports publishers THQ have announced their intentions to strip off and step in to the Octagon to deliver games based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

THQ seem a natural choice for the Las Vegas based UFC, given their experience with big, sweaty men in their WWE and WCW wrestling title, and the deal will give them license to publish on consoles, handhelds and PCs through to 2011. It is understood that THQ also retains certain wireless rights.

The UFC has already made an outing in the virtual world in the form of Crave’s Ultimate Fighting Championship for the Dreamcast, but though it was critically lauded the subsequent games didn’t sell well.

Ever since 1993 the UFC has been airing on Pay-Per-View but has been gaining popularity in recent years with cable deals and even its own reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter”.

>> Link - Official Site/THQ
>> Link - Official Site/UFC