The Ultimate Fighting Championship is currently recognized as the largest MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) promotion in the world. Founded in 1993 in the U.S, the UFC has endured many criticisms from politicians to the general public. However, today it seems attitudes are changing towards this multi million pound industry.

In 1993 Art Davie, Rorion Gracie and Robert Meyrowitz started the UFC as a single-event tournament to find the world's best fighters irrespective of their style. There were few rules and the events were billed as 'no holds barred'; often contests were brutal and extremely bloody and deemed as gatherings where opponents tried to kill each other rather than a sporting event.

Political pressure pushed the UFC even further underground as the contests were accused of being barbaric, and even likened to "human cock fighting" by Senator John McCain and others. Today the UFC operates a stricter rules policy and promotes itself more as a sport and has removed the 'no holds barred' tag. Having generated more and more followers, this has lead to TV broadcasters bidding to gain the rights to broadcast the contest. As the popularity of UFC grows, the more acceptable it becomes and this shows in the number of people wanting to go into the sport as a career, just like a child saying he wants to be a footballer, now you have youngsters saying they want to be the 'Ultimate fighter'.

Although compared at times to the WWE wrestling, UFC is definitely real, not only is it real but it is also very serious, unlike the WWE there are no gimmicks, no 'goodies and baddies'; but like WWE it is just as entertaining , if not more, to its loyal fans.

The UFC is just one of many MMA contests around the world, many of these contests, still hold the 'no holds barred' tag and still hold contests in a gathering type of environment, rather than a sporting arena. Many are not willing to go down the path of the UFC and submit to political pressure, but with the UFC rapidly growing in terms of revenue from sales, sponsorship and broadcasting, many other contests may be forced to follow suit in order to survive and keep their fans.

www.uk.ufc.com

Written by Charlie