The
largest mixed martial arts sponsorship company, UFC (ultimate fighting
championship) was started in the year 1993. The organization is largely seen as
Rorion Gracie’s brainchild. As history has it, Gracie desire was to promote his
martial art school which centered on techniques applicable in real fights as
opposed to show or style. Prior to the
establishment of UFC, Gracie’s family was renowned for the ‘Gracie Challenge’,
an open competition between experts in various techniques. These experts would
face one member of the family or a student from the school to showcase the
prowess of their techniques (Kim, Andrew & Greenwell, 2009). With the help
of Arthur Davie, an advertisement expert, the idea of a martial arts
competition/tournament was presented to SEG (Semaphore Entertainment Group).
In the competitions, experts in various
disciplines would compete against one another in a bid to determine which
technique was superior. These tournaments led to the formation of UFC with
Michael Abramson, an employee of SEG suggesting the name. The first event of
UFC (UFC 1) was held in Denver, Colorado in 1993 in the format of a tournament
(Bledsoe, Hsu, Grabowski, Brill, & Li, 2006). In the tournament, the winner
would move up to face another opponent. Some alternate fighters were designated
just in case a fighter was unable to continue fighting. Featured in the tournament
were experts in kickboxing, karate, sumo wrestling, jiu-jitsu and boxing. The
first winner of the tournament was Royce Gracie, a brother to Rorion.
Following
the success of UFC 1, SEG started to plan and organize other events and decided
to retain the ‘Ultimate Fighting Champion’ name. Subsequent events were named
in a sequential manner. At the beginning, most UFC events differed from the
modern ones in that they had no weight classes and fighters were allowed to
wear clothing traditional to their style such as the gi for jiu-jitsu. Furthermore, some of the earlier events had
no time limitation. Most of the fights in these earlier tournaments ended on
the ground, a disadvantage for many styles in that they had no training in
ground fighting. The first three rounds were won by Royce proving the necessity
for experience in ground fighting. In the subsequent events, contestants began
to adapt and expand their range of styles to encompass aspects of submission
and wrestling (Kim, Andrew & Greenwell, 2009). It’s important to note the fact that the events had fewer black belt
fighters as they were considered incompetent in regard to the tournament.
In
earlier events, UFC events were held in states that had no athletic commissions
in a bid to avoid regulations. Furthermore, these earlier events had no judges
and even after introduction, they lacked precise parameters in regard to how a
judge could judge a fight. Also, referees could not end a fight and their sole
responsibility was to ensure that existing rules were enforced and to act as
witnesses to submissions. It was not until later events that referees were
given the authority to end a fight in case of a severe injury. Save for UFC 9
which was characterized by a series of single fights, all other events followed
the tournament event until the UFC 18 (Bledsoe, et al. 2006). After the latter
event and with the exception of UFC 23, all other UFC events featured single
fights and fighters no longer worried about participating in multiple fights in
one particular day. New rules were gradually added including five-minutes round
and judges given a fair way of evaluating a match. Most of the new rules were
added to ward off critics and to legitimize martial arts as a sport. Fights in the
first tournaments were characterized by all forms of defense including hair
pulling, groin kicks, head butts among others. These were meant for making the
events as realistic as possible and critics and athletic commissions begun to
oppose it. Critics such as John McCain compared UFC events to human
cockfighting and argued for the banning of UFC (Spencer, 2013). Following this and with the
introduction of a new management, many more rules were introduced to make the
events/fights safer for the participants. By the time new rules were being
introduced in the game SEG itself faced the danger of being declared bankrupt.
For
a long time, UFC was opposed to any partnerships with athletic commissions as
this would bring about an overhaul in regard to existing rules. UFC for a long
time continued to be promoted as a primal sport creating more troubles and
attracting more criticism with some cables refusing to air the show. This
limited SEG options and by the time a partnership with New Jersey Athletic
Control Board was established, SEG had suffered enough damage to recover (Spencer,
2013).
Presently,
UFC matches take place in an octagon as opposed to a ring. Only three referees
and the fighters are allowed to enter into the octagon and gates are only
opened to let in corner men between the rounds. Strategic advice can then be
given by the corner men besides attending to any scrape or cut that a fighter
may have sustained during a particular round. There is no formal ranking system
despite the fact that there is a champion for each weight class. According to
the top management, ranking systems habitually invite corruption and inhibit
efforts to put together the best fights. On the contrary, the records and
styles of a fighter are analyzed in a bid to determine the most thrilling
fight. Once a fighter sufficiently proves himself, he has a chance to earn a
title shot against the existing or reigning champion.
References:
Bledsoe, G. H., Hsu, E. B.,
Grabowski, J. G., Brill, J. D., & Li, G. (2006). Incidence of injury in
professional mixed martial arts competitions. Journal of sports science
& medicine, 5(CSSI), 136.
Kim, S., Andrew, D. P., &
Greenwell, T. C. (2009). An analysis of spectator motives and media consumption
behavior in an individual combat sport: cross-national differences between
American and South Korean Mixed Martial Arts fans. International Journal of
Sports Marketing & Sponsorship, 10(2).
Spencer,
D. C. (2013). Ultimate fighting and embodiment: Violence, gender and mixed
martial arts (Vol. 11). Routledge.
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