The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in the United States that hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the world and produces numerous events worldwide. The UFC has five weight-divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC; Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control its parent company, Zuffa, LLC.
Inspired by vale tudo tournaments in Brazil, the UFC and the sport of MMA have roots in the ancient Olympic combat sport of Pankration in 648 B.C. The UFC held its first competition in Denver, Colorado in 1993. Showcasing fighters of different disciplines—including boxing, Brazilian jiu jitsu, wrestling, Muay Thai and other styles—the UFC sought to identify the most effective martial art in a real fight. After a period of political backlash, the UFC gradually underwent reform by embracing stricter rules and achieving sanctioning with State Athletic Commissions.
With a cable-television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Asia and new markets within the United States, the UFC as of 2010[update] has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage. As of 2010 [update] viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Italy. UFC programming can also be found on Spike and Versus in the U.S., in the United Kingdom and Ireland on ESPN, as well as in over 130 countries and 20 different languages worldwide.
Early competition
Businessman Art Davie met Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pioneer Rorion Gracie in 1991 while researching martial arts for a marketing client. Gracie operated a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Torrance, California and the Gracie family had a long history of vale tudo matches - a precursor of modern mixed martial arts - in Brazil. Davie became Gracie's student.
In 1992, inspired by the Gracies in Action video-series produced by the Gracies and featuring Gracie jiu-jitsu defeating various martial-arts masters, Davie proposed to Rorion Gracie and John Milius an eight-man, single-elimination tournament with a title of War of the Worlds. The tournament would 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 had seen on the videos. Milius, a noted film director and screenwriter, as well as a Gracie student, agreed to be the event's creative director. 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.
In 1993 WOW Promotions sought a television partner and approached pay-per-view producers TVKO (HBO), SET (Showtime) and the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). Both TVKO and SET declined, but SEG – a pioneer in pay-per-view television which had produced such off-beat events as a mixed-gender tennis match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova – became WOW's partner in May 1993. SEG contacted video and film art-director, Jason Cusson, in order to design the trademarked "Octagon," a signature piece for the event. Cusson remained the Production Designer through UFC 27. SEG devised the name for the show as The Ultimate Fighting Championship.
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