In November 1993, The Ultimate Fighting Championship was born, founded by Art Davie and S.E.G as they held their first event in Denver Colorado. The UFC in the beginnings was initially seen as “no holds barred” fighting with no gloves, no weight classes and no time limits, as the fight was only to be stopped by knockout, referee stoppage, tap-out or even death.
The early days of the UFC featured one night elimination tournaments where the winning fighter had to win 3 fights in one night to be crowned tournament champion. The early UFC landscape was dominated by Royce Gracie who won 3 of the first 4 tournaments. The UFC however under came heavy scrutiny from the media and politicians such as senator John McCain, who called the sport “human cockfighting”, leading to legal battles.
The tipping point would prove to be in January of 1997, The UFC had done a show in Buffalo New York with UFC 7 on September 8th 1995 at the Memorial Auditorium. The event was headlined by Ken Shamrock defending his UFC Superfight Championship against Oleg Taktarov as the fight ended in a 33 minute draw due to the UFC not having judges at the time. The event drew 9,000 fans and drew 190,000 PPV buys while the UFC Superfight Championship was eventually unified with the UFC Tournament Championship to crown the first UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 12. UFC 12 was going to take place in Buffalo New York, however the UFC would be denied sanctioning rights and effectively banned in New York on the eve of UFC 12 leading to the event being moved to Dothan Alabama.
The ban in New York led to dark times for the UFC, as despite bringing in stricter rules, adding weight classes, judges, rounds and 5 minute time limits, the UFC was forced to hold shows in southern states such as Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia while occasionally holding events in Brazil and Japan. SEG who owned the company since 1993, were eventually forced to sell the company to Zuffa LLC in January 2001 which was founded by the Fertitta brothers Lorenzo and Frank. They would name their friend Dana White as the new president of the UFC and they were able to get MMA legalized in Nevada. They held their first event in Nevada, UFC 33 in September that featured 3 championship fights and it also marked the UFC’s return to Pay Per View.
Zuffa would eventually resurrect the UFC as it would take almost 4 years but in 2005, Zuffa bought TV time on Spike TV to air a reality show called The Ultimate Fighter which aired after WWE Monday Night Raw. The show was very well received and at the finale in the Light Heavyweight Finale, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar would engage in an epic 3 round war that Dana White and many others have said “saved the UFC”. Had The Ultimate Fighter not worked the UFC would have gone out of business. The fight between Griffin and Bonnar saw Griffin win by Unanimous Decision earning him a UFC contract but Dana after talking with the Fertitta brothers inside the cage. announced that they would be also giving Bonnar a contract with the UFC. After The Ultimate Fighter, The UFC and MMA went into a boom peroid led by stars like Chuck Liddell, BJ Penn, George St Pierre, Anderson Silva and eventually Brock Lesnar as Zuffa would also buy other organizations such as the WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting), Strikeforce and their biggest rival in MMA for a long time, the Pride Fighting Championships.
Despite the UFC’s massive success the UFC was still unable to get legalized in New York as it looked like MMA would never be legalized in New York. In 2015, The UFC after a disastrous 2014 would start going through another boom period with stars like Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor and New Yorker native’s Chris Weidman and Jon Jones. This lead them to attempt to get MMA legalized in New York but the courts would dismiss their lawsuit meaning, MMA was still banned in New York for the rest of 2015. However in 2016, The UFC would take the ballsy step despite being banned in New York by booking UFC 197 to be in Madison Square Garden. The event would not take place in New York as a injunction was filed and upheld to keep the event from happening in New York as UFC 197 was moved to the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Nevada. On March 23rd, MMA finally won the long 20 year battle and was finally legalized in New York City as the New York State assembly passed a bill to make MMA legal as the UFC quickly booked its first event in New York to be in MSG in November. Although everyone was not thrilled about the idea with notables opposing it being Charles Barron, a Brooklyn democrat who called it “too violent to be legalized” and saying “this goes too far for your entertainment”. Among many other issues being brought up as despite the opposition the bill was passed by a total vote of 113-25.
The Card As Of Right Now
UFC Fight Pass Prelims
3 Round Womens Bantamweight Bout – Liz “Gorllia” Carmouche vs Katlyn Chookagain.
3 Round Middleweight Bout – Tim Boestch vs Rafael Natal.
3 Round Lightweight Bout – Jim Miller vs Thiago “Pitbull” Alves.
Fox Sports 1 Prelims
3 Round Welterweight Bout – Vicente Luque vs Balel Muhammad.
3 Round Middleweight Bout – Tim Kennedy vs New York’s “Suga” Rashad Evans.
3 Round UFC Lightweight Title Eliminatior Bout – Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov vs Michael “The menace” Johnson.
3 Round Featherweight Bout – New Jersey’s Frankie “The Answer” Edgar vs Jeremy “Lil Heathen” Stephens
Main PPV Card
3 Round Womens Bantamweight Bout – Miesha “Cupcake” Tate vs Raquel “Rocky” Pennington
3 Round Welterweight Bout -Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone vs Kelvin Gastelum
3 Round Middleweight Bout – New York’s Own “The All American” Chris Weidman vs “The Solider Of God” Yoel Romero
The First Ever All Poland Title Fight in UFC History, 5 Rounds For The UFC Womens Strawweight Championship Joanna Jedrzejczyk (c) defends against Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
Co Main Event 5 Rounds For The UFC Welterweight Championship “The Choosen One” Tyron Woodley (c) defends against Stephen “Wonder Boy” Thompson.
Main Event The Fight Everyone Has Been Waiting For Champion vs Champion 5 Rounds For The UFC Lightweight Championship – UFC Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez (c) defends against The UFC Featherweight Champion “The notorious” Conor McGregor