The UFC was not always the gigantic organization that it is today. The ultimate fighting championship or mixed martial arts league started from fairly humble beginnings before it sold its very first pay-per-view.
The UFC is based out of Las Vegas Nevada is currently owned by Zuffa LLC. The league itself was first started by Art Davie who is an advertising executive. He partnered with Brazilian jujitsu master Rorion Cracie to of all disciplines to determine which type of martial arts was considered the best.
The first UFC championships had very little rules and this was one of the largest selling points for the earliest pay-per-view. The matches and some of the earliest paper views were considered some of the most brutal in UFC history. There wasn’t much in the way of weight classes or illegal blows.
Notable matches throughout history include UFC three in which Keith Hackney squared off against the sumo master Emmanuel Yarborough. With a difference of 400 pounds in weight and 9 inches in height, the smaller competitor, somehow managed to win.
The UFC began to face pressures in selling its specials eventually facing a need to introduce rules. Sen. John McCain at one time called the UFC “human cockfighting”. As the league continued to face more scrutiny it was difficult to actually sell some of their specials and for a while, there were only bootleg tapes or limited run distributions of the tapes available.
When Zuffa LLC took over in 2001 it introduced promoter Dana white and worked to market itself much more effectively. As stars began to emerge such as Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz, there were many celebrities that began showing up to matches. A peek behind the curtain in the UFC through the ultimate fighter program only lead to improvements to popularity in the league.
Today the UFC is one of the most popular forms of programming on North American television. The PPV events are some of the most widely purchased worldwide as well.
