Ultimate Fighting championship

In 1991, Rorion Gracie met with a guy by the name of Art Davie. Davie was a advertising executive who was researching martial arts for a client. Later Davie became a Gracie student. In 1992 Davie talked to Rorion Gracie and John Milius about a tournament he had been thinking about. It would be an eight man, single elimination tournament. The idea was to have a martial artist from different styles to see which was really the best. WOW promotions was conceived and the tournament was underway.

The tournament was held in 1993 as a pay-per-view event, with Rorion's younger brother Gracie being the winner using their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu style and the show was a hit. WOW promotions continued on till 1995 when it was sold to SEG with Davie continuing on with them till 1997.

The premise of the show was to find which fighting style was the best. There were no weight classes so fighters sizes were not matched. It was proved that large size did not mean you will win as some smaller fighters took out the larger man. Also there were no rules, some things were not allowed but if someone used them nothing was said.

SEG was purchased by Station Casinos after they were talking bankruptcy in 2001 and changed the name to Zuffa and obtained sanctioning in Nevada. The UFC as it was now known returned to pay-per-view. They continued to gain popularity till 2004 at the same time having financial problems. The UFC continued to grow in popularity through to the present time with many pay-per-view events, some outselling Boxing and WWE events. The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show became a hit which brought the UFC even more fans.

Senator John MacCain was the force behind getting the rules were they are today. He said from the early years that the sport was too violent and needs to be under more control.

Weight classes came into being along with submission holds. Head butts were prohibited and gloves were introduced to help prevent broken bones in the hand and to decrease damage to the face which might stop a fight due to cuts.

Time limits were established, and the Ref can stand the fighters up if he thinks they are resting.

The rounds go for 5 minutes each with title matches going five rounds and non-title matches going three.

The weight classes are lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.

The fighters must wear approved shorts. No shoes, shirts or long pants. Gloves must have at least one inch of padding at the knuckles.

When a fighter commits a foul the Ref may deduct one or more points as a penalty. If a foul prevents the fighter from continuing, then the fight is ended in disqualification.

Matches are won by submission, knockout, TKO or by score/judges decision. In addition the fight can end by technical decision, disqualification, forfeit, technical draw, or no contest

Royce Gracie
Ken Shamrock
Dan Severn
Randy Couture
Mark Coleman