Lorenzo Fertitta, Chairman/CEO Dana White, President Marc Ratner, VP Regulatory Affairs Joe Silva, VP Talent Relations/Matchmaker Parent Zuffa, LLC Website http://www.ufc.com/ The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world,[3] which hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport[4][5] and produces events worldwide.[6] Based in the United States, the UFC has eight weight divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.[7] Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.[8][9][10] The first UFC event was held in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the event was to identify the most effective martial art in a real fight between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Karate and other styles. In subsequent com! petitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.[11] With a cable-television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe, Australia[12] the Middle East,[13] Asia[14] and new markets within the United States, the UFC as of 2011[update] has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage . As of 2001[update] viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television in the U.S., Brazil, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Italy. UFC programming can also be found on FX, Fuel TV, and Fox[15] in the U.S., on ESPN in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, as well as in 150 countries and 22 different languages worldwide. UFC also carries a mobile site for on-the-go users and a Sports Bars page for fans to find places showing the pay-per-view.[16] It is also available on the Roku streaming player.[17] C! ontents 1 History 1.1 Early competition – early 1990s 1.1.1 ! Emergence of stricter rules 1.2 Controversy and reform – late 1990s 1.3 The Zuffa era – early 2000s 1.3.1 Struggle for survival and turnaround 1.3.2 The Ultimate Fighter and mainstream emergence 1.4 Surging popularity and growth – mid 2000s 1.4.1 Pride acquisition and integration 1.5 UFC 100 – late 2000s-present 1.5.1 WEC merger 1.5.2 Strikeforce purchase 1.5.3 Fox partnership 2 Rules 2.1 Rounds 2.2 Weight divisions 2.3 Cage 2.4 Attire 2.5 Match outcome 2.6 Judging criteria 2.7 Fouls 2.8 Match conduct 2.9 Evolution of the rules 3 The Ultimate Fighter 4 UFC events 4.1 Production team 4.2 Fighter salaries and contracts 5 Current champions 6 UFC Hall of Fame 7 Media 7.1 Music 7.2 Video games 7.3 Action figures 7.4 DVD 7.5 Xbox Live 8 See also 9 References 10 External links [edit] History [edit] Early competition – early 1990s Royce Gracie used Brazilian jiu jitsu in the early years of UFC to defeat opponents of greater size and strength. Art Davie proposed to Rorion ! Gracie and John Milius an eight-man single-elimination tournament with a title of War of the Worlds. The tournament was inspired by the Gracies in Action video-series produced by the Gracie family of Brazil which featured Gracie Jiu-Jitsu students defeating martial-arts masters of various disciplines such as karate, kung fu and kickboxing. 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.[18] John 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.[19] In 1993 WOW Promotions sought a television partner and approached pay-per-view producers ! TVKO (HBO), SET (Showtime) and Campbell McLaren at the Semaphore Entert! ainment 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 gender tennis match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova–became WOW's partner in May 1993.[20] 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.[18] SEG devised the name for the show as The Ultimate Fighting Championship.[21] WOW Promotions and SEG produced the first event, later called UFC 1, at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado on November 12, 1993. Art Davie functioned as the show's booker and matchmaker.[22] The television broadcast featured kickboxers Patrick Smith and Kevin Rosier, savate fighter Gerard Gordeau, karate expert Zane Frazier, shootfighter Ken Shamrock, sumo wrestler Teila Tuli, boxer Art Jimmerson and 175 lb (79 kg) Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Ro! yce Gracie—younger brother of UFC co-founder Rorion who was hand-picked by Rorion himself to represent his family in the competition. Royce Gracie won the event, submitting Art Jimmerson, Ken Shamrock, and Gerard Gordeu in the process. The UFC 1 show was extremely successful with 86,592 television subscribers on pay-per-view. The show was proposed to find an answer for sports fans to questions such as: "Can a wrestler beat a boxer?"[23] As with most martial arts at the time, fighters typically had skills in just one discipline and had little experience against opponents with different skills.[24] Royce Gracie's submission skills proved the most effective in the inaugural tournament, earning him the first ever UFC tournament championship.[25] However, the promoters did not intend for the event to become a precursor to a series. "That show was only supposed to be a one-off," eventual UFC president Dana White said. "It did so well on pay-per-view they decided to do another, ! and another. Never in a million years did these guys think they were cr! eating a sport."[26] With no weight classes, fighters often faced significantly larger or taller opponents. For example, Josh Croft took on a man twice his size but still came out the winner. Keith "The Giant Killer" Hackney faced Emmanuel Yarborough at UFC 3 with a 9 in (23 cm) height and 400 pounds (180 kg) weight disadvantage.[27] Many martial artists believed that technique could overcome these size disadvantages, and that a skilled fighter could use an opponent's size and strength against him. With the 175 lb (79 kg) Royce Gracie winning three of the first four events, the UFC quickly proved that size does not always determine the outcome of the fight. During this early part of the organization, the UFC would showcase a bevy of different styles and fighters. Aside from the aforementioned Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock and Patrick Smith, the competitions also featured competitors such as Hall of Famer Dan Severn, Marco Ruas, Gary Goodridge, Don Frye! , Kimo Leopoldo, Oleg Taktarov and Tank Abbott. In April 1995, following UFC 5 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Davie and Gracie sold their interest in the franchise to SEG and disbanded WOW Promotions. Davie continued with SEG as the show's booker and matchmaker, as well as the commissioner of Ultimate Fighting, until December 1997. [edit] Emergence of stricter rules "Big" John McCarthy referees as Tank Abbott puts Cal Worsham against the cage at Ultimate Ultimate 1996. Although UFC used the tagline "There are no rules!" in the early 1990s, the UFC did in fact operate with limited rules. There was no biting, no eye gouging, and the system frowned on (but allowed) techniques such as hair pulling, headbutting, groin strikes and fish-hooking. In fact, in a UFC 4 qualifying match, competitors Jason Fairn and Guy Mezger agreed not to pull hair—as they both wore pony tails tied back for the match. Additionally, that same event saw a matchup between Keith Hackney and Joe Son in wh! ich Hackney unleashed a series of groin shots against Son while on the ! ground. The UFC had a reputation, especially in the early days, as an extremely violent event, as evidenced by a disclaimer in the beginning of the UFC 5 broadcast which warned audiences of the violent nature of the sport. UFC 5 also introduced the first singles match, a rematch from the inaugural UFC featuring three time champion Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, called "The Superfight." This was an important development because singles matches would feature fighters who suffered no prior damage from a previous fight in the same event, unlike tournament matches. Singles matches would also become a staple in the UFC for years to come. "The Superfight" began as a non-tournament match that would determine the first reigning UFC Champion for tournament winners to face;[28] it later evolved into a match that could feature either title matches or non-title matches. The "Superfight" would eventually completely phase out tournament matches; by UFC Brazil, the UFC abandoned the tourna! ment format for an entire card of singles matches (aside from a one time UFC Japan tournament featuring Japanese fighters). UFC 6 was the first event to feature the crowning of the first non-tournament UFC Champion, Ken Shamrock. [edit] Controversy and reform – late 1990s The violent nature of the burgeoning sport quickly drew the attention of the U.S. authorities.[29] Before reform, Senator John McCain prominently opposed the UFC. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) saw a tape of the first UFC events and immediately found it abhorrent. McCain himself led a campaign to ban UFC, calling it "human cockfighting," and sending letters to the governors of all fifty US states asking them to ban the event.[30] Thirty-six states enacted laws that banned "no-hold-barred" fighting, including New York, which enacted the ban on t
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