Ultimate Fighting Championship - Wikipedia. This article is about the UFC organization itself. For the inaugural event which went by the same name, see UFC 1. Ultimate Fighting Championship. Subsidiary. Industry. Mixed martial artspromotion. Founded. November 1. Founder. Art Davie, Campbell Mc. Laren, John Milius, Rorion Gracie, Bob Meyrowitz. It is the largest MMA promoter in the world and features most of the top- ranked fighters in the sport. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present- day mixed martial arts. As of 2. 01. 6, viewers can access live UFC fights and fight replays on their subscription network UFC Fight Pass at a cost of $7. On network TV, UFC content is available on Fox, Fox Sports 1, and Fox Sports 2. The UFC plans to continue expanding internationally, running shows regularly in Canada, Brazil and the UK, with an office established in the UK aimed at expanding the European audience. The tournament was inspired by the Gracies in Action video- series produced by the Gracie family of Brazil which featured Gracie Jiu- Jitsu students defeating martial- arts masters of various disciplines such as karate, kung fu, and kickboxing. The tournament would also feature martial artists from different disciplines facing each other in no- holds- barred combat to determine the best martial art and would aim to replicate the excitement of the matches Davie saw on the videos. EFC - The Ultimate Mixed Martial Arts Championship. Unlike anything that has gone before, the Extreme Fighting Championship matches the continent's ultimate fighters in 12. Ultimate Fighting Championship is the first video game based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts tournament. It was first developed by Anchor Inc. Davie drafted the business plan and twenty- eight investors contributed the initial capital to start WOW Promotions with the intent to develop the tournament into a television franchise. Both TVKO and SET declined, but SEG . Cusson remained the Production Designer through UFC 2. Art Davie functioned as the show's booker and matchmaker. Royce Gracie's submission skills proved the most effective in the inaugural tournament, earning him the first ever UFC tournament championship. The show proved extremely successful with 8. It's disputed whether the promoters intended for the event to become a precursor to a series of future events. Never in a million years did these guys think they were creating a sport. With the 1. 75 lb (7. Royce Gracie winning three of the first four events, the UFC quickly proved that size does not always determine the outcome of the fight. During this early part of the organization, the UFC would showcase a bevy of different styles and fighters. Aside from the aforementioned Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Patrick Smith, the competitions also featured competitors such as Hall of Famer. Dan Severn, Marco Ruas, Gary Goodridge, Don Frye, Kimo Leopoldo, Oleg Taktarov, and Tank Abbott. Although the first events were dominated by jiu- jitsu, other fighting styles became successful: first wrestling, then ground and pound, kickboxing, boxing, and dirty boxing, which eventually melded into modern mixed martial arts. In April 1. 99. 5, following UFC 5 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Davie and Gracie sold their interest in the franchise to SEG and disbanded WOW Promotions. Davie continued with SEG as the show's booker and matchmaker, as well as the commissioner of Ultimate Fighting, until December 1. Emergence of stricter rules. It banned biting and eye- gouging, and frowned on (but allowed) techniques such as hair pulling, headbutting, groin strikes, and fish- hooking. In fact, in a UFC 4 qualifying match, competitors Jason Fairn and Guy Mezger agreed not to pull hair. Additionally, that same event saw a matchup between Keith Hackney and Joe Son in which Hackney unleashed a series of groin shots against Son while on the ground. The UFC had a reputation, especially in the early days, as an extremely violent event, as evidenced by a disclaimer in the beginning of the UFC 5 broadcast which warned audiences of the violent nature of the sport. UFC 5 also introduced the first singles match, a rematch from the inaugural UFC featuring three- time champion Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, called . This proved an important development, because singles matches would feature fighters who suffered no prior damage from a previous fight in the same event, unlike tournament matches. Singles matches would become a staple in the UFC for years to come. UFC 6 was the first event to feature the crowning of the first non- tournament UFC Champion, Ken Shamrock. Controversy and reform . Mc. Cain himself led a campaign to ban UFC, calling it . UFC 1. 2 saw the introduction of weight classes and the banning of fish- hooking. For UFC 1. 4, gloves became mandatory, while kicks to the head of a downed opponent were banned. UFC 1. 5 saw limitations on hair pulling, and the banning of strikes to the back of the neck and head, headbutting, small- joint manipulations, and groin strikes. With five- minute rounds introduced at UFC 2. UFC gradually re- branded itself as a sport rather than a spectacle. The markets included places more in the South, such as Iowa, Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Alabama. SEG could not secure home- video releases for UFC 2. UFC 2. 9. With other mixed martial arts promotions working towards U. S. Just two months later, the UFC held its first sanctioned event, UFC 2. New Jersey State Athletic Control Board's . Notable UFC fighters to emerge in this era include Hall of Famers Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, Pat Miletich, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, and Tito Ortiz, as well as notables Vitor Belfort, Mark Kerr, Pedro Rizzo, Murilo Bustamante, Frank Shamrock, Mikey Burnett, Jeremy Horn, Pete Williams, Jens Pulver, Evan Tanner, Andrei Arlovski, and Wanderlei Silva, among others. The Zuffa era . A month later, in January 2. Fertittas bought the UFC for $2 million and created Zuffa, LLC as the parent entity controlling the UFC. I was paying $2 million and they were saying 'What are you getting?'. That is what's going to make this thing work. Everybody knows that brand, whether they like it or they don't like it, they react to it.'. Shortly thereafter, the UFC returned to pay- per- view cable television with UFC 3. Struggle for survival and turnaround. The Best Damn Sports Show Period aired the first mixed martial arts match on American cable television in June 2. Chuck Liddell vs. Vitor Belfort at UFC 3. The event was a near sellout of 1. MGM Grand Arena and sold 1. Zuffa events. The event featured a card headlined by a highly anticipated championship grudge match between then- current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Tito Ortiz and former UFC Superfight Champion Ken Shamrock, who had previously left to professional wrestling in the WWE before returning to MMA. It was the first time the UFC hit such a high mark since being forced . Shamrock saved the UFC from bankruptcy; the buyrates of the previous Zuffa shows averaged a mere 4. Throughout the years, things were happening, and everything always looked bleak. It always looked like, this is it, this is going to be the last time. This is going to be the last year. But, when I was standing in the Octagon at UFC 4. I remember standing there before the Ortiz/Shamrock fight and looking around. The energy of that fight, it was phenomenal, and it was the first time I honestly said, it's going to make it. By 2. 00. 4, Zuffa had $3. UFC. Penn, Sean Sherk, Matt Serra, Ricco Rodriguez, Robbie Lawler, Frank Mir, Karo Parisyan, and Nick Diaz. The Ultimate Fighter and rise in popularity. After being featured in a reality television series, American Casino. Not until they approached Spike TV, with an offer to pay the $1. The show became an instant success, culminating with a notable season finale brawl featuring finalists Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar going toe- to- toe for the right to earn the six- figure contract, an event that Dana White credits for saving the UFC. Spike and the UFC continued to create and air new seasons until the show moved to FX in 2. Spike also signed on to broadcast live UFC Fight Night, a series of fight events debuting in August 2. Countdown specials to promote upcoming UFC pay- per- view cards. After a very successful run on Spike and with the upcoming announcement of the UFC's new relationship with Fox, Spike officials made a statement regarding the end of their partnership with the UFC, . Our 6- year partnership with the UFC has been incredibly beneficial in building both our brands, and we wish them all the best in the future. Along with the network change, episodes are now edited and broadcast within a week of recording instead of a several- month delay, and elimination fights are aired live. UFC 5. 2, the first event after the first season of The Ultimate Fighter featuring eventual- UFC Hall of Famer Chuck . Following the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC's much- hyped match between Liddell and Couture drew an estimated 4. UFC 5. 7. For the rest of 2. UFC 6. 0: Hughes vs. In March 2. 00. 6, the UFC announced that it had hired Marc Ratner, former Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. Ratner, once an ally of Senator Mc. Cain's campaign against no holds barred fighting, became a catalyst for the emergence of sanctioned mixed martial arts in the United States. Ratner continues to lobby numerous athletic commissions. At the time, the UFC had an exclusive deal with Spike, so the purchase of the WEC allowed Zuffa to block the IFL from Versus without violating their contract. In acquiring the WFA, they acquired the contracts of notable fighters including Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida, and Martin Kampmann. The sport's popularity was also noticed by the sports betting community as Bodog. Life. com, an online gambling site, stated in July 2. UFC would surpass boxing for the first time in terms of betting revenues. However, after purchasing Pride, Dana White felt that the Pride model was not sustainable.
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