Why do you call them franchises?
How do I know the answers you want? I don't but when the question is vague how do WE know what answers you want?
There are no governing bodies for MMA as there are in TMA, there aren't any organisations than oversee or run MMA. There is the UFC which is a business (not a governing body) which because it's in America gets overseen by State bodies. Elsewhere there is nothing, when you say MMA how are we to know which promotions you mean. I can give you more than a dozen different promotions just off the top of my head which will all have different rules, that's in England, I can give you half a dozen more in Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland, it's illegal. In Europe I can cite as many as a hundred maybe more, all with different rules, many are on mainstream television.
If I posted up and said 'is this move legal in martial arts' would you see the difficulty in answering? As for reputable, that's subjective, many think that the UFC is disreputable in the way it treats fighters, it's attitude to the drug cheats etc. The UFC is the subject of a good many debates but it is a business, making money for it's owners and if it has any stockholders. The rules on their fights will be those which they hope will produce the most entertaining fights to sell tickets, it has little to do with actual MMA, it's business.