UFC - One of the Most Popular Sports in the World

It is quite evident that martial arts has indeed come a long way over the years. Many years ago, Martial arts enjoyed an increased fan following when Bruce Lee created his style of Jeet Kune Do. He participated in several movies, and audience gasped watching his agility and elegance. Since that time, movies have been a popular method to demonstrate martial arts skills.

During the early 1990s, a mixed martial arts competition, known as the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), came along and took martial arts one step further. Despite the fact that there have been other competitions just like the UFC, none of them had the finesse and enthusiasm that UFC thrived in. When it first started, the UFC paired different styles and different weight classes.

This lead to interesting match ups with variable outcome. The first ever champion was a man from Brazil named Royce Gracie. Gracie was a pioneer in making Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu popular; people gasped in admiration when he fought. After the first UFC tournament, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was instantly considered as the greatest martial art. Weighing under 200 pounds, Royce totally dominated people virtually 3 times his size.

Gracie went on to win UFC 2 and 4 as well. He completely dominated his opponents and people across the world took notice. He faced a very tough fighter, who nearly beat him, in UFC 3; but Royce came up trumps eventually. Gracie had an evenly contested bout with Ken Shamrock in UFC 5 which resulted in a draw.

Over the years, many fighters have showcased their skills in the UFC arena, but Gracie has been a stand out player. Fighters like Matt Sylvia, Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, Matt Hughes, and Oleg Taktarov have also done exceedingly well. Matt Hughes is regarded as one of the best fighters the world has seen.

The UFC has had a great influence in the world of mixed martial arts. At first, the UFC had no rules or judges, only one on one fights until someone either tapped out, got knocked out, or the ref threw in the towel. The tournament style in UFC required fighters to win 3 fights to claim the championship.

Over the years, there were several changes in the UFC format. The UFC would start with judges after a few years, and the tournament style was removed. The UFC fans rejoiced as the fights were eventually changed to one on one bouts. Though the fights didn’t have time limits initially, they do now. Title fights have five 5 minute rounds, while non title fights have three 5 minute rounds.

The winner is decided by the judges in case there is no knockout or submission. There are usually 3 judges, but the number may change with each UFC. The ref is there to protect the fighters. He can stop a fight if a fighter is unable to defend himself.

The UFC has made a lot of progress and improvement over the years, and is now one of the most popular sports in the world. Check out our collection of UFC T Shirts for champions.