- #MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS PROFESSIONAL#
- #MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS TV#
SEG devised the show's name as The Ultimate Fighting Championship. Cusson remained the group's production designer through UFC 27. Eventually Cusson designed an arena with eight sides surrounded by chain-link fence, the trademarked Octagon, which became the event's signature setting. Some ideas and suggestions included a traditional roped-ring surrounded by netting, a moat with alligators, a raised platform surrounded by razor-wire fence, electrified fencing, men in togas and netting that could be lowered from the ceiling by a pulley.
#MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS PROFESSIONAL#
SEG's executives agreed, and also wanted a way to visually differentiate their event from professional boxing and professional wrestling. Rorion and Davie didn't want a traditional roped ring, citing fears-by showing old Vale Tudo footage-that the fighters could escape through the ropes during grappling and use it as an advantage, or fall off and hurt themselves. SEG contacted video and film art director Jason Cusson to design a fighting arena for the event. Both TVKO and SET declined, but SEG-a pioneer in pay-per-view television that had produced such offbeat events as a tennis match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova-became WOW's partner in May 1993. In 1993, WOW Promotions sought a television partner and approached pay-per-view producers TVKO ( HBO) and SET ( Showtime), and Campbell McLaren and David Isaacs at Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). Davie drafted the business plan, and 28 investors contributed the initial capital to start WOW Promotions to develop the tournament into a television franchise. Milius, a noted film director/screenwriter and Gracie student, agreed to be the event's creative director. The tournament would also 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 saw on the videos. It was inspired by the "Gracies in Action" video-series produced by the Gracie family of Brazil which featured Gracie jiu-jitsu students defeating martial artists of various disciplines such as karate, kung fu, and kickboxing. Royce Gracie used Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the early years of UFC to defeat opponents of greater size and strength.Īrt Davie proposed to John Milius and Rorion Gracie an eight-man single-elimination tournament called "War of the Worlds".
#MIXED MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS TV#
With a TV deal and expansion in Australia, Asia, Europe, and new markets within the United States, the UFC has increased in popularity and achieved greater mainstream media coverage. In 2021, Endeavor bought out Zuffa's other owners at a valuation of $1.7 billion. In 2016, UFC's parent company, Zuffa, was sold to a group led by Endeavor, then known as William Morris Endeavor (WME–IMG), including Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and MSD Capital for US$4.025 billion. In subsequent events, more rigorous rules were created and fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create a separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts. The purpose of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a contest with minimal rules and no weight classes between competitors of different fighting disciplines.
The UFC was founded by business executive Art Davie and Brazilian martial artist Rorion Gracie, and the first event was held in 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. Under White's stewardship, it has grown into a globally popular multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Dana White has been its president since 2001. It produces events worldwide that showcase twelve weight divisions (eight men's and four women's) and abides by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. It is the largest MMA promotion company in the world and has some of the highest-level fighters in the sport on its roster. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. The Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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