The Ultimate Fighting Championship was initially conceived as a one-time sporting event created for pay-per-view in 1993 by Rorian Gracie, Art Davie and Bob Meyrowitz. It was formed with the goal to gather various martial arts and Olympic sport champions under a “unified” tournament setting to answer the age-old ultimate question, “Which is the most effective martial art?” Inspired by Brazil’s vale tudo, fighters fought in a ring called the octagon and had no weight divisions.
The UFC is also the successor to the age-old, no-holds barred Chinese lei tai fighting contests in which persons, regardless of style and weight, fought on raised platforms until one was defeated by any kind of empty-hand fighting style. Many matches ended in death.
Since 1993, the UFC has become a large mixed-martial arts fighting promotion company based in Las Vegas. The UFC’s current president is Dana White.
The initial UFC competitions taught black belts, kung fu fighters and traditional martial arts practitioners that their years of training were ineffective against grapplers and ground fighters. As a result of the UFC, more marital arts now include ground fighting and grappling as part of their training regimens.
– October 11, 2011
Chael Sonnen isn’t your typical politician. For one, he actually answered our questions. But more important, the All-American wrestler from Oregon taught us some of the best tricks from his playbook.
Despite his reputation as one of the UFC’s loudest stars, he doesn’t have a bad word to say about
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– July 10, 2011
For much of the world, MMA was born on November 12, 1993, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship debuted in Denver. Most martial artists know otherwise, however. They know the date was actually December 2, 1963, the day “Judo” Gene LeBell stepped into the ring to face boxer Milo Savage. Black
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– June 30, 2011
I had never seen anyone quite like Ken Shamrock, who at 6 feet 1 inch tall and 217 pounds handily dropped opponent after opponent in World Wrestling Entertainment (then World Wrestling Federation) matches. An Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran, Ken Shamrock brought a unique style to the pro-wrestling milieu in 1997,
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– June 28, 2011
November 2003 marked the end of an era for the Ultimate Fighting Championship—and by extension, the mixed martial arts in the United States. Over the course of those 10 years, the sport saw more evolution than Darwin’s notepad. And through it all, despite rumors of banishment, mortality rates, political machinations
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– June 7, 2011
They say no one has invented a time machine, but while watching the UFC 118 in Boston, I was hard-pressed to believe it. I say this because when that old question, “Can a boxer beat a mixed martial artist?” reared its ugly head again courtesy of the co-main event, it
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– May 31, 2011
B.J. Penn is a friend of mine. I gave him his very first Brazilian jiu-jitsu lessons, and for a year we trained together two to three days a week. Whenever B.J. Penn tells the story of how he got started in the martial arts, he’s always kind enough to mention
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– March 24, 2011
If you don’t know Gokor, you’re not really into grappling. Disagree all you want, but you can’t dispute the fact that Gokor Chivichyan is the go-to guy for submissions, especially leg locks. He was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame in 1997 as Judo Instructor of the Year,
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– March 24, 2011
UFC fighter Chael Sonnen demonstrates the ankle-pick technique during a photo shoot for Black Belt magazine!
– March 24, 2011
UFC fighter Chael Sonnen demonstrates the omo plata technique during a photo shoot for Black Belt magazine!
– March 24, 2011
UFC fighter Chael Sonnen demonstrates his ground-and-pound technique when in an opponent’s guard during a photo shoot for Black Belt magazine!
