Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

The Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) was launched in 1993 to test various disciplines in martial arts to decide which martial arts discipline was the most effective. The goal of this tournament was to create an environment where different martial artists of all disciplines including wrestling, jujitsu, Boxing and several other styles, could compete with each other to find the “Ultimate Fighting Champion”. The winner of this tournement was usually representing their style of martial art and would be crowned the Ultimate Fighting Champion.

The initial Ultimate Fighting Championship shows were based on Brazilian Vale Tudo fighting. The lack of rules usually resulted in brutal knockouts as well as one sided fights often resulting in injury. It has been argued that the initial fights were more a spectacle rather than a sport and as such the UFC faced on going criticism and negative press. This inevitably resulted in disappearance of the UFC brand and its visibility.

The main problem with the Ultimate Fighting Championship was that it was branded as a “no holds barred” fighting rather than a sport. As a result of this it was difficult to attain exposure. This inevitably resulted in the event being unable to be get sanctioned and as such was banned from many states in the USA. When the UFC was bought my Zuffa LLC, they sought to make certain changes which resulted in the UFC brand becoming more popular and more appealing to both the audience as well the regulatory bodies. Some have argued that Zuffa LLC have single handedley popularised mixed martial arts.

In hind-sight due to the ongoing political pressure on the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the brand had no choice but to go through a serious reform. The introduction of more rules which included wearing gloves and introducing the UFC as a sport led it to be sanctioned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. These changes led to a broader acceptance and allowed the UFC to come out of isolation and become more acceptable. In addition, with a television deal and the legalisation of MMA in the state of California, has allowed unrivalled popularity surge unlike any other sport seen today. It can be argued that the UFC and its brand of mixed martial arts is now considered to be the fastest growing sport in the world.

If one is to analyse the growth of the UFC, it can clearly be measured by the Pay per View sales. UFC 40 sold a total of 150,000 PPV. After the television show The Ultimate Fighter drew a PPV of 280,000 almost double that of UFC 40. UFC 57 saw 410,000 and the recent match between Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell broke all records with sales over a the 1 million mark. In addition in the year 2006 the UFC broke the record for selling the most PPV in a single year superseding Boxing and WWE.

Nowadays the UFC and its brand of mixed martial arts is the fasts growing sport in the world today. Its demographic popularity is amongst the 18-40 year old men who are amongst the biggest spenders in the sports industry. In summation, event which almost disappeared years ago has become the most popular sporting brand in sports today.