Founders: Art Davie, Rorion Gracie, Robert Meyrowitz

Chairman/CEO: Lorenzo Fertitta

President: Dana White

Owner: Zuffa, LLC

History

Founded in 1993, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is a professional mixed martial arts organization, which is currently largest MMA promotion company in the world offering the premier series of MMA sports events.

UFC 1: The Beginning

The UFC originated from a man named Art Davie. Davie worked as an advertising executive in Southern California and he co-created Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC with someone from the infamous Gracie family. Art Davie also is responsible for later bringing K-1 kickboxing from Japan to the US in 1998.

When they first came out, the Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC proclaimed itself as a “no holds bar” competition and the tagline was “There are no rules!” It was somewhat misleading because there were some rules such as no biting and eye gouging, but there was some truth behind that tag line. Everything else that is a rule today in the UFC used to be just frowned upon. For example, hair pulling and groin strikes were merely frowned upon. It wasn’t until later in the evolution of the Ultimate Fighting Championship where those fouls and others were stated as rules.

The Gracie family are known as the founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It is this combat sport that focuses on grappling and ground fighting, which is very widely used today in fighting organizations such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC. Rorion Gracie became a teacher of Art Davie in 1991. In the following year, Davie was inspired by a video series that showed the Gracies’ defeating martial arts masters who have mastered their niche of martial arts. This video showed members of the Gracie family defeating, for example, karate masters and tae kwan do masters. Davie proposed a tournament with 8 people in a single-elimination type bracket. First UFC concept was to have a tournament of the best athletes skilled in the various disciplines of all martial arts, including karate, jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, grappling, wrestling, sumo and other combat sports. The winner of the tournament would be crowned the champion.

In January 2001, under the new ownership of Zuffa, LLC, the UFC brand completely restructured MMA into a highly organized and controlled combat sport. As a result, the UFC organization now offers live pay-per-view events.

Response to the UFC brand of MMA has been tremendous, resulting in a growing fan base that has grown exponentially through the years.

Under the strong leadership of owners Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, and expertise of President Dana White, the UFC brand continues to thrive across a spectrum of live event sports, television production and ancillary business development.

On March 27, 2007, the UFC and their Japan-based rival the Pride Fighting Championships announced an agreement in which the majority owners of the UFC, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, would purchase the Pride brand.

Initial intentions were for both organizations to be run separately but aligned together with plans to co-promote supercards featuring the champions and top contenders from both organizations. However, Dana White felt that the Pride model wasn’t sustainable and the organization would likely fold with many former Pride fighters such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva and others already being realigned under the UFC brand. On October 4, 2007, Pride Worldwide closed its Japanese office, laying off 20 people who were working there since the closing of its parent company Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).

Octagon UFC

This tournament was called War of the Worlds. It eventually became the Ultimate Fighting Championship UFC and the birth of the “Octagon” was created. The “Octagan” is the ring in which the fighters fight which is in the shape of an octagon, which is a polygon with 8 sides.

Rules

The current rules for the Ultimate Fighting Championship were originally established by the New Jersey Athletic Control Board. The “Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts” that New Jersey established has been adopted in other states that regulate mixed martial arts, including Nevada, Louisiana, and California. These rules are also used by many other promotions within the United States, becoming mandatory for those states that have adopted the rules, and so have become the standard de facto set of rules for professional mixed martial arts across the country.

UFC Rounds

There are five rounds for title matches at 5 minutes each. Non-title matches are also 5 minutes each but only last three rounds.

UFC Weight Divisions

There are five weight classes: Lightweight (145 – 155 lbs.), Welterweight (156 – 170 lbs), Middleweight (171 – 185 lbs), Light Heavyweight (186 – 205 lbs), and Heavyweight (206 – 265 lbs).

Match outcome

A UFC match can end usually 4 ways: Submission, Knockout, Technical Knockout (TKO), or Judges Decision.

- A submission is usually done using a jiu-jitsu move and the other opponent has to tap out

- A knockout happens when the fighter is unconscious and not able to continue the fight

- A TKO or Technical Knockout is when the referee, doctor, or cornerman has to stop the fight

- The fight is also scored by the judges and it may end as an unanimous decision, majority decision, split decision, unanimous draw, majority draw, or split draw

- Unanimous decision is where all three judges score a win for one fighter.

- A majority decision is with 2 judges scoring for one fighter to win and the third judge scoring a draw

- A split decision is where 2 judges score a win for one fighter and 1 judge scoring a win for the other fighter

- Unanimous draw is with all 3 judges scoring a draw.

- Majority draw is with 2 judges scoring a draw and 1 judge scoring a win for one of the fighters

- A split draw is with 1 judge scoring a win for one fighter, the 2nd judge scoring a win for the other fighter, and the 3rd judge scoring a draw.