The UFC Has Come a Long Way – Breaking MMA News

By JM “Shade” Daguio

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold it’s 200th pay-per-view event in Las Vegas in July 9, 2016. With this event expected to be one of the biggest in the promotions history, let’s take a look back to the company’s journey from “human cockfighting” to fastest growing sport.
November 12, 1993 – Royce Gracie becomes the first UFC tournament champion, he showed the world that his discipline of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu cannot be taken lightly, he also proved strength and size will not win against technique.

February 7, 1997 – UFC was banned in 36 states, stemming from a statement made by Sen. John McCain of Arizona calling it “human cockfighting”

1997 to 2001 – UFC together with its officials, instituted rules and regulations that promote safety, included weight classes and removed the one-night tournament format. January 2001 – The UFC was sold by then owners SEG to the Fertitta brothers (ZUFFA) for 2 million, marking the organizations biggest facelift.

During Zuffa’s takeover, the company was under the hole with millions of debt, Zuffa however did not falter but instead soldiered on to take the league into new heights by buying thre TV airtime to broadcast their reality show; The Ultimate Fighter.
The reality show proved to be a huge success, Zuffa always credits its creation to UFC being able to stay afloat despite all the debts.

Mid-2000’s – The UFC surged in popularity, churning out profitable pay-per-view buys by pay-per-view buys.

During this time, the UFC also hired Marc Ratner to oversee the regualtory affairs of the organization for it to be legalized to all states in the U.S.

July 11, 2009 – The UFC’s popularity was culminated in its first 100 pay-per-view event. The main event saw polarizing heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar defend his belt from interim champ Frank Mir.

UFC was able to get 1.6 million in pay-per-view buys, which was the largest at the time. August 28, 2011 – UFC signed a TV deal with media giant FOX for seven years, reportedly worth 100 million per year.

December 2, 2014 – UFC signed an exclusive partnership contract with the sports apparell Reebok, to be the sole outfitter of the UFC, worth 70 million dollars.

July 1, 2015 On July 1, 2015, the UFC Anti-Doping Program was put into place, ran by the U.S. Anti Doping Agency known as “USADA” to protect the rights of all clean athletes in the UFC, making the UFC the only sports organization to fully submit its athletes to USADA.
March 2016 – MMA was legalized in New York, the last and only state to ban the sport. After years of lobbying from Zuffa executives themselves, the hardwork finally came to fruition.

With all these milestones, the UFC is set to look forward to making the sport of MMA to be a worldwide beloved sport, in the short amount of time it was able to accomplish that, more can still be done in the future.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]