You may have heard of it before – the octagon. It’s the place where warriors meet to battle each other into submission by knocking the opponent unconscious or forcing him to give up by imposing explosive pain on his body. It is the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The UFC is a mixed-martial arts organization that pits 2 opponents against each other, each using different styles of fighting. It was created to answer that age-old question: who is the better fighter, the boxer or the wrestler? It started as a sideshow and has since turned into a multi-million dollar sanctioned organization that grows in popularity year after year.
UFC – The Beginning
In the beginning it was just a tournament, the brainchild of Art Davie, a creative advertising executive who witnessed the energy-bursting excitement while watching a mixed-martial arts (or MMA) fight. He thought it had all the right ingredients that people find in hockey, boxing or karate. MMA, he thought, was the next level, a mixture of everything. He brought on board a Brazilian legend in MMA technique training, Rorion Gracie and a screenwriter, John Milius, who became the creative director. They brought in 27 investors and the Ultimate Fighting Championship was born.
Still in it infancy, the UFC had limited rules: no biting and no eye gouging. The result was mayhem. 400lb fighters fought 100lb fighters. Blood sprayed the octagon red like no other event had ever dared to allow. It did not go over well with the mainstream and the UFC quickly became an underground fighting spectacle. Some advocated against the existence of such extreme barbarism, including Senator John McCain of Arizona. It was a downward spiral that ended with the UFC being dropped by cable distributors and individual cable providers. The audience was reduced to almost nothing and the UFC itself was forced to submit.
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