Ultimate Fighting Championship: Creating a New Breed of Sport

Mixed martial arts has become a popular extreme sports nowadays because of the hosting of the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotions company, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). UFC is based in the US. It is controlled by brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. Zuffa, LLC is its parent company.

UFC promotes various mixed martial arts disciplines such as Boxing, Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, Judo, Sambo, Muay Thai, and many other disciplines. As the fights evolved through the years, fighters use combinations of different disciplines to be more effective in fighting, giving the fights entirely different flavors each time.

As cable TV services are expanded to many areas worldwide, the coverage of UFC has also expanded and consequently gained popularity. In 2011, UFC is accessible in pay-per-view in Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Brazil and the US. Further expansions were initiated by UF as its programming is also found in Fuel TV, Fox and FX in the US and on ESPN in UK and Ireland. UFC is viewed in 130 countries and is presented in 22 different languages.

In the early 1900s, a single elimination mixed martial arts tournament called “War of the Worlds” was proposed by Art Davie, Rorion Gracie and John Milius. The tournament would feature various mixed martial arts disciplines in no-holds-barred fights. Milius was the creative director while Davie wrote the business plan. The event was covered by WOW Promotions as the TV partner.

WOW began scouting for a pay-per-view partner. Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG), a pioneer in pay-per-view, became WOW’s partner. It was SEG that popularized “Octagon” to become the event’s icon. It was also SEG who devised the name The Ultimate Fighting Championship.

“Can a boxer defeat a wrestler?” UFC tried to find the answer to this question and sponsored a one-time event. However, the event did well in pay-per-view that UFC decided to do another event; and another, and another. Never in its wildest dreams did UFC think it was birthing a sport that would be popular worldwide today.