A Quick History Of The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

The Coveted UFC Belt
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Most sports fans, regardless of their chosen sporting preferences, will almost certainly of heard of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), or more specifically the leading competition the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). It is thought that the name Mixed Martial Arts can actually be partly attributed to John McCarthy, one of the most high-profile martial arts referees, also formerly an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). “Big John” as he became known, required the LAPD to grant him leave to referee at an event, he was asked what kind of event he was participating in, to which his reply was “martial arts”, he was asked then, specifically what kind of martial arts to which he replied, after some thought, “mixed martial arts”. However, there is also some evidence that Howard Rosenburg of the LA Times also used the term MMA, in an article he wrote.

Early Days of the UFC

As mentioned, the name most synonymous with the sport of MMA is the UFC. The name was coined by Michael Abramson a Vice President of sales for Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) who were the main original owners of the UFC promotion, alongside Rorion Gracie and Art Davie of WOW Promotions. Ownership was split approximately 50% to SEG, and roughly 25% each to Gracie and Davie, however, there were a number of small investors also involved on WOW’s side of the equation.

Art Davie, a business executive and entrepreneur, had the original idea to produce a televised martial arts contest, on the scale of what was to become the UFC, however the UFC 1 event was not the first-time opponents (fighters) from two different disciplines were to test their skills in a televised contest in the United States. “Judo” Gene Lebell and a boxer Milo Savage fought in such a contest on December 2nd 1963 in Salt Lake City. Lebell took the victory with ease, utilising a rear naked choke.

The Gracie family have a history of fighting martial arts from different disciplines, these contests were known as Gracie Challenge contests. The Gracie’s are widely recognised as world leaders in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Rorion was taught by his father Helio in their native Brazil and moved to Southern California in 1978. He was then joined by his younger brother Royce in 1985. Rorion lived in Hermosa Beach and taught BJJ out of his garage before he and his brothers Royce, Rickson and Royler opened the first Jiu-Jitsu academy in Torrance, California.

Art Davie and Rorion Gracie founded War of the Worlds (WOW) Promotions with the intention of putting on a televised, 8-man single elimination tournament – you win, you continue to the next round on that same night. Martial artists from different disciplines would compete to determine which art was the best. As mentioned, the Gracie’s had already competed in this kind of contest, as demonstrated in the Gracie In Action series, where Gracie students utilised their BJJ skills to fight opponents from different disciplines, such as boxing, karate and kung fu. Art Davie has stated that Rorion Gracie did not appear to be particularly interested initially. Art had read an article about Rorion Gracie in the September 1989 Playboy magazine and contacted the Gracie Academy, it took a few meetings before Art was able to convince Rorion, but eventually, Rorian was satisfied and WOW promotions were established.

WOW Promotions did run into difficulties early on, with establishing a TV partnership proving to be problematic, having approached both HBO and Showtime without any success. WOW then approached the Vice President of Original Programming at Semaphore Entertainment Group, Campbell Mclaren. SEG was one of the first organisations to arrange content for TV Pay Per View events. Bob Meyrowitz was the CEO of SEG and he agreed to partner with WOW in May 1993. Campbell Mclaren, as Head of Programming for SEG, immediately put the concept into development

With approximately $750,000 of investment UFC 1 was born, with the first event to be held at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver on November 12th 1993

UFC 1 The Begining

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Fought in an Octagonal Ring UFC 1 was staged in Colorado as they legally still allowed Bare Knuckle fighting. It was literally no holds barred and extremely brutal as the video below shows.
The competitors were as follows:

Gerard Gordeu (Savate)
• Born March 30 1959, Savate and Karate fighter from Holland and 8 times World Kyokushin champion

Teila Tuli (Sumo)
• Born July 14 1969, Sumo fighter from Hawaii. Teila weighted in at 440 lb’s and was undefeated in his first 14 fights

Zane Frazier (American Kenpo)
• Born July 16, 1966, in California. He was an American Kenpo Karate and Kickboxing practitioner and the winner of many international karate titles. He became the United States and North American champion and won the World Kickboxing Federation title in 1993 prior to his fight at UFC 1

Royce Gracie (Gracie BJJ)
• Born December 12, 1966, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is a BJJ fighter and currently holds the rank of 7th Degree Red/Black belt within Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. He took the top place in UFC 1, 2 and 4 and fought to a draw with Ken Shamrock in UFC 5. Royce was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, with Ken Shamrock, in November 2003 – the first two to be inducted.

Art Jimmerson (Boxing)
• Born August 4, 1963, in Los Angeles. He is a boxer with a professional record of 33 – 18. He is now the head boxing coach at the UFC gym in Torrance California. He was the amateur national Golden Gloves middleweight champion in 1983

Ken Shamrock (Shoot Fighting)
• Born February 11, 1964, in Macon Georgia. He was a Pancrase hybrid wrestling champion and a favourite to win at UFC 1, due to his devastating submission wrestling. Later inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame

Patrick Smith (Kick Boxing, Taekwondo)
• Born August 28, 1963, in Coalgate, Oklahoma. He holds multiple black belts in Taekwondo, Hapkido, American Kenpo and Tang Soo Do. In the year of the first UFC event, he was ranked No 1 as a super-heavyweight kickboxer in the US

Kevin Rosier (Kick Boxing)
• Born January 6 1962, a Kickboxer born in Buffalo, New York. Rosier managed 66 wins with only 8 losses and was 3 times World Kickboxing Association super-heavyweight champion

Royce Gracie, somewhat to the surprise of onlookers took the inaugural title and in doing so set the tone for MMA going forward, showing that all-round skills and not just punching ability were needed to be the best.

SEG and WOW promotions produced the first 5 UFC events, SEG eventually acquiring WOW Promotions shares, and went on to produce all UFC events until it was sold to Zuffa in 2001. Brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, whose background was in casino management, purchased the UFC for $2 million. Their close friend Dana White, then a sports manager/agent for fighters Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell had urged them to purchase the business, following a meeting he had with Bob Meyerowitz of SEG where he learned of his intention to sell. The Fertitta’s subsequently purchased the UFC and installed Dana White as the company’s president.

Prior to 2005, the Ultimate Fighting Championship struggled financially but a stroke of genius changed this dramatically. In an experimental move, a reality show was produced – “The Ultimate Fighter”. The aim of the series was to gain mainstream exposure for MMA and it worked. On January 17, 2005, Ultimate Fighter 1 premiered, with a group of 8 light heavyweight fighters, weighing between 186 and 205 lbs, and 8 middleweight fighters, weighing between 171 and 185 lbs. All were invited to enter the Ultimate Fighter house. They would live together, train collectively and then compete for a place in the finals. The first season’s competitors trained under the coaching of Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. The final fights would take place on April 9, 2005, and were streamed live as pay-per-view events. The Light Heavyweight Final featured Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin and this battle has been widely recognised as one of the best and most significant contests in UFC history. Overall the whole season is credited with saving the UFC, such was its success. The Ultimate Fighter drew millions of viewers and suddenly MMA was mainstream. Although it was clear that Griffin was the victor in this main fight such was the intensity, both received the coveted UFC contract and both went on to have successful careers with the UFC.

The UFC really made it to the big time when in 2011, they struck a deal with FOX, who is reported to have paid $120 million per year for UFC rights. Again, this has further exposed MMA, and UFC, to a much wider and diverse audience.

Introducing Ronda Rousey

Dana White famously stated that women would never fight in the UFC, however, in November 2012 Dana could no longer deny women like Ronda Rousey, an Olympic medallist in Judo, the opportunity to fight in the cage. On February 23, 2013, Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche fought in the headline event which proved to be a huge success, Ronda winning with her trademark armbar.

Rhonda Rousey at UFC 190
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Going From Strength To Strength

The UFC has continued to produce regular “numbered” events – most recently UFC 230, as well as other Fight Nights, and has become staple sports viewing for millions of fight fans. Four UFC events feature in the top 10 pay per view events of all time (US audiences). Today UFC fighters such as Ronda Rousey and Conor Macgregor have become household names.

In July 2016 it was reported that Zuffa sold the UFC to WHE-IHG (William Morris Endeavour & International Management Group) for $4 billion and considering the Fertitta brothers bought the company for $2 million in 2001, this sounds like a sound investment. Although the Fertittas now have no involvement in the UFC, Dana White remains its president. The UFC continues to go from strength to strength and the sport of MMA remains one of the fastest growing sports on the planet.