The origin of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)

Once portrayed as “human cockfighting” by Senator John McCain during the 90s, mixed martial arts have come a long way to become organized, legalized and suitable for the broad audience! The reason for its stunning rise lays deep down in its history and difficulties the companies such as the UFC have had to face over this short period!

1900s: The events that shaped the modern-MMA

Establishment of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

At this point in history, we already had many hand-to-hand combat sports such as the Chinese Shuai Jiao and many others. But, the birth of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in the 1920s has led to many events that will eventually see the official establishment of MMA as a sport on its own. In 1914, the famous Gracie family adopted the Judo (Kano Jiu-Jitsu) technique from the legendary Japanese judoka Mitsuyo Maeda and they've immediately changed its emphasis from grappling to ground fighting. By implementing various joint locks and chokes, they founded the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu! At that time, other martial arts like Luta Livre followed and so was the legendary rivalry between the two sports! The first-ever form of MMA organization called Vale Tudo was the place in which BJJ and Luta Livre fighters were continuously challenging themselves.

The “Gracie Challenge”

For some reason, the Gracie family members have possessed the obsessive desire to prove that BJJ is the most effective fighting technique in the world! Right from the start, they issued the “Gracie Challenge” which allowed any martial artist, from any background and part of the world to come in one of their gyms and experience the relentlessness of grappling. Due to the simple lack of grappling experience, most of them would leave the gym defeated and embarrassed.

1980-90s: Establishment of first MMA organizations

The Japanese Shooto promotion (1985) was the first-ever founded MMA organization that incorporated the fighting techniques that we’re witnessing today. In the beginning, it was composed of mostly wrestling competitions. However, the rules have evolved in the following years and adopt many other martial arts styles.

On the other side of the ocean, the Americans saw the huge potential of this new sport and they’ve established their own version called Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The promotion had an immediate impact on the fighting game and their first event held on November 12, 1993, is often portrayed as the birth of modern-day MMA! Although the beginnings were pure freak shows, the sport quickly generated massive popularity!

1993-2010: Evolution of UFC rules and Fighting styles

Early dominance of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

Since the early beginnings, one fighting style began to emerge as the most dominant one! The newly established sport represented the perfect opportunity for a previously mentioned Gracie family to come and introduce BJJ to the US audience! Royce Gracie completely dominated over the opposition from UFC 1 to UFC 5 by displaying incredible grappling techniques and submitting every single opponent inside the first round! Like a true martial artist, Gracie “came, saw and conquered” and has left the UFC in 1995.

Adaptation of new rules

In 1995, the general public began interrogating the legal issues of UFC and its shortage of rules and safety of the fighters. After ignoring the critics for a couple of years, things got critical and hit the breaking point when Sen. John McCain went on a campaign against the UFC and publicly advocating their ban. The UFC responded with the introduction of the first set of rules from 1996 to 2000 which included the following: the establishment of the eight weight divisions, adopting the boxing 10 point scoring system, instituting the official MMA referees and adding the necessary rounds and time limits.
In 2001, Dana White and his business associates Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta bought the UFC for $2 million dollars and founded the Zuffa as a parent company. With the days of head butting, hair pulling and groin strikes already gone, the new owners began working on a new set of rules which will change the face of the sport completely. Lorenzo Fertitta wisely used his previous connections with Nevada Athletic Commission to legalize the sport in many US states and force them to adopt the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.

Evolution of fighting styles

With the new rules rapidly improving the public image of the sport, many fighters from wrestling backgrounds started joining the promotion. The legends like Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell introduced the relentless mixture of wrestling and jiu-jitsu with the elements of ground punches known as “ground and pound.” Straight away, this style began taking over the sport and shaping the first forms of well-rounded styles that will follow in the future.

However, the evolution of MMA never stops, and a new generation of fighters literally exploded during the mid-2000s! The elite Muay Thai strikers that already had the grappling game added began overwhelming the old-school way of fighting! Anderson Silva and George St. Pierre are considered as the first well-rounded fighters and true game-changers in terms of technique! Everything they performed was many years ahead of what competition had to offer and it would take years for the others to adapt and learn how to deal with their game! This forced the MMA gyms all over the world to develop a new method of training which was built around four fundamental styles: Boxing, Muay Thay, BJJ and Wrestling

2010-Present: Mainstream rise of the sport

It’s fair to say that UFC hit the mainstream rise from 2010 and there are three key reasons for it. The first one came in 2011 when Zuffa set a $700 million deal with the Fox television network! This helped the sport getting more recognized and for the first time, expands all over the world! However, the UFC needed a few more changes before finally becoming legalized in all US states. On July 3, 2015, the UFC began cooperating with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). This immediately helped the game becoming safer and competition more equal! Considering the massive changes, it's not a surprise that the birth of the first UFC superstars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey began attracting fresh new audiences all around the globe!

With the pay-per-view numbers skyrocketing, UFC set a deal of the lifetime with the biggest sporting network ESPN earlier in 2019! The deal represents the greatest achievement of modern MMA, and we just can’t wait to see what the future will bring us!

Tomislav Zivanovic by Bushu.ch

Bild: Symbol image by Pixabay.com

References: Wikipedia.org & ufc.com