For a person that is thinking of starting MMA, I can understand that a question that can be rising on your mind is, who invented the MMA when the MMA was invented?
Being passionate and attending different martial arts, I find the history of martial arts a fascinating thing to know. It gives an additional boost, making you understand and imagine what was before and how become now.
So take a cup of tea or coffee, enjoy the MMA history timeline, discover why it was invented and how.
Who invented the MMA?
No one invented the MMA, but it can be considered an evolution of martial arts history.
In ancient times, martial arts was performed only to test the performance and warriors’ ability.
MMA HISTORY TIMELINE: Born of Pankration The Use of combined martial arts on Greece
If we want to compare the advent of martial arts with ancient times, perhaps the first and the most significant one is dated to the Olympic Games in ancient Greece.
It was the 648 b.c.e when on the Olympic Games in Greece, the warriors were usually to fight to determine who was the strongest.
At that time, the fighters were usual to combine elements of boxing and wrestling, giving birth to the pankration.
The information discovered during the years didnìt give any signal visible in the presence of any rules, with no limits and weight classes.
The matchs were bloody, and in the significant part of the case, the fighters ended up in the game with severe injuries as competition results.
A referee was present only to enforce the rules prevented bites, eye gouges, and groin blows.
These ancient Olympic pankration contests were practiced for approximately one thousand years,
The History of Mixed Martial Arts was stopped from 648 b.c.e. to 404 a.d. due to the abolished along with the gladiator events at the Roman Coliseum.
From Japan to Brazil: The history of MMA is Always nearer
As you probably well know, Jiujitsu is one of the MMA pillars, and without good practice, you can’t consider an MMA fighter.
Usually, people tend to attribute Jiujitsu to brazil, but it is not like this in reality.
The term jiu-jitu comes from the warrior art jujutsu that was practiced by the Japanese samurai.
Although the jujutsu was eliminated as soon as the samurai were disbanded, the jujutsu continued to expand, including some ground-fighting techniques.
The born of the first form of judo
Around the twentieth century, something new happened in japan, more precisely the Kodokan Judo’s birth. Founded by a man named Jigoro Kano, judo set out to merge the throwing, grappling, and striking techniques of various jujutsu styles.
The early 1900s: The voyage of martial arts practitioner named Mitsuyo Maeda in Brazil
In the early 1900s, a Japanese businessman and martial arts practitioner named Mitsuyo Maeda immigrated to Brazil.
Maeda was considered one of the top students of Jigoro Kano; he becomes very famous for his travel around the world, confronting and perfecting his judo with other fighters around the world.
After some time spent in Brazil, he married and established himself as a home town in Belem.
To be accepted by the Brazilian state and help to fast the process of obtaining the citizen, Maeda made some agreements with a Politian named Gastão Gracie. The contract was to teach his son Carlos the art of jujutsu.
1920 Gracie family moved to Rio de Janeiro
After some years and more precisely in 1925, Gracie Carlos opened his first gym, where he began teaching martial arts to his friends and his younger brother Helio.
Helio Gracie was not a healthy person, and for that reason, he helped him his Brother Carlos and doctors prescribe a specific rule of diet.
The born of the Brazilian Jiujitsu
Over the decades, the Gracie family expanded upon Maeda’s teachings, creating Brazilian Jiujitsu and pioneering a new art they refer to as Gracie Jiu-jitsu.
The Gracie family continues after years and years to teach the Brazilian citizen the new martial arts, but Meanwhile, something new was born, as a new form of evolution.
1950 The born of vale tudo
Vale Tudo is a Portuguese term that can be translated ad “everything is allowed “, and in particular, it refers to the minimal and almost absent rule of that martial art.
The first match of vale tudo was used to measure the best knowledge of martial arts knowledge.
To prove and to establish the art’s supremacy.
Although the competitions were open to any art, the three most common styles were capoeira, luta livre, and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
The apparition of vale tudo on tv
The vale tudo began to become more popular, particularly after the specific show called Ring Heroes.
Cancellation of vale tudo on tv
Due to the nature of and the competition’s violence, many disputes arose. In the mid of 1950s, the T.V. show Ring Heroes was officially canceled, bringing the vale tudo to a more of a sub-culture phenomenon.
FROM BRAZIL TO AMERICA
Around the 1970s, after passing some years, the sons of Helio and Carlo Gracie become more old and full of strength and energy, and they decide to move to the USA.
As soon as they arrive, they start to teach Brazilian Jiujitsu to the American people to expand and make known to the American this new fantastic martial arts.
The Helios and Carlo’son acted excellent strategic marketing to bring as many people as possible to their gym.
The strategy was to issue open challenges to other martial artists, inviting them to test their skills against Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
In that era, this type of Event was called Gracie Challenge.
At some point, something interesting happens, Rorion Gracie, Helio’s oldest son, met up with a man named Art Davie.
Art Davie, for the lucky of the Gracie brother, was a Character marketing advertising searching for new ideas to break the market.
In that era, Gracie had a successful idea, bringing his challenge in a videotape series.
Still, after having success with it, the new collaborator searching affair had the ambitions to bring the concept of the videotape to the next level and bring the idea of the Gracie challenge on the T.V. screen.
WOW PROMOTION BORN
All the three entrepreneurs made a great business plan to organize and try again with vale tudo.
This time, the fighters to get access to have to possessed the knowledge of at least one martial arts. While the event guaranteed a cash prize together with the notoriety of being proclaimed the best hand-to-hand fighter in the world.
After receiving import capital, they founded the WOW Promotions in late 1992, ensuring contracts for pay-per-view producers.
Born of UFC
After HBO and Showtime passed on the proposal, WOW Promotions found a willing partner in May 1993 when they sealed a deal with Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG).
The name for the Event was chosen, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was born.
The first UFC match
To make the first match of the newborn organization UFC possible, a location where there wasn’t a boxing commission to interfere with the event regulations was chosen.
As City after some alternative Denver was chosen.
Art Davie in search of fighters for the first ufc event
The total amount of money spent to organize the first ufc event was around $400,000 spent promoting the Event and searching for fighters.
The search for fighters was a hard job to do.
The total number of fighters predicted to complete the card of the UFC 1 was eight, considering as participant a family member of the Gracie family to represent the Brazilian Jiujitsu.
The name chosen for representing the Gracie’family was Rickson, one of the family’s best fighters, having won numerous jiujitsu tournaments and vale tudo matches in Brazil.
Thousands of dollars were spent on promoting the Event and searching fighters for the event art, Davie, succeed in the intent, and he found out all the fighters necessary to make the Event a success.
The card of UFC one with
The fighter that participated in the ufc one are :
- kickboxer Patrick Smith,
- Hawaiian sumo wrestler Teila Tuli,
- Pancrase fighter Ken Shamrock,
- boxer Arthur Jimmerson,
- Dutch savate fighter Gerard Gordeau,
- kickboxer Kevin Rosier,
- Kempo stylist Zane Frazier.
Regarding the commentators that Art Davie was able to find, the name is:
- Bill Wallace
- Kathy Long
Two referees were secured from the Jiu-Jitsu Federation to manage the action once the fights got underway.
RULES OF THE FIRST UFC EVENT
The way that the first ufc event manages the rule was not the minimum imaginable nowadays.
The rule was discussed in a Denver Hotel the day before the Event, précising that biting, eye-gouging, and groin strikes were prohibited.
Structure of the competition
The Event would be an elimination style tournament with each match’s winner advancing to the next round. As a result, the fighters would need endurance as well as their skills to capture the championship.
November 12, 1993 First match of UFC
The first match of the Ultimate Fighting Championship was held at the Michnicols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, On November 12, 1993.
It was an unexpected event full of adrenaline because nobody could imagine what can happen on that night; how would a boxer fair against Brazilian Jiujitsuu? Would a sumo wrestler defeat a savage fighter? This was the question everyone was asking.
The begins of the first UFC match.
Teila Tuli vs Gerard Gordeau
The night’s first fight begins with the sumo wrestler Teila Tuli vs. the savate fighter Gerard Gordeau.
Tuli has tried his mass to take advantage, but unfortunately, after some good punch and a challenging round kick to his head from Tuli, the referee stopped the match.
Bloodied and missing several teeth, Tuli had lost in less than thirty seconds.
Kevin Rosier faced against Zane Frazier.
Another awe-inspiring performance during he matches Kevin Rosier.
After a rough bout, Rosier suffered a broken jaw.
After the fight, Frazier was admitted to the hospital for a severe asthma attack.
Royce Gracie vs Arthur Jimmerson
In the third match Royce Gracie almost immediately took down his opponent Arthur Jimmerson, and Royce Gracie, win this match, but with the difference from the previous one match, both was Unharmed, without showing any particular injury.
Royce VS Ken Shamrock semifinal match
Other impressive performance by Royce Gracie where despite a forty-pound weight disadvantage, Royce secured a takedown and submitted Shamrock with a choke in just under sixty seconds.
Gerard Gordeau BS Royce Gracie the final
The finalist for the first Event organized by UFC was Gerard Gordeau Vs Royce Gracie.
Important congratulation for the true spirit of fighting is to attribute to Gerard because despite the injury suffering on a broken hand had beaten Kevin Rosier with a series of punches and elbows and had also advanced to the finals.
However, The match lasted only two minutes, as Royce executed another takedown, got to Gordeau’s back, choked him out, and became the first Ultimate Fighting Champion.
Royce Gracie become a star
At the beginning of the Event, nobody could imagine that Royce Gracie could become the new champion, considering his opponents’ size, healthier, bigger, and faster.
But on that night, Royce Gracie has shown his power, strength, and honor to the Gracie’s Family.
In only four minutes of competitions inside the octagon, Royce Gracie has defeated three opponents in front of a stadium full of spectators and almost 90.000 pay per view.
Interview Released after winning the Event
After the Event’s finish, the Interview is the expression of the importance that this win had for him.
More specific during the ceremony and the assignment of the $50,000 prize, an interviewer ask what are the plan after winning this important price; Gracie said “I’m not here for the money; I’m here for the honor of my family.”
Success of first Event of UFC
The show made an enormous success, the series of victories done, and the practicing of jiu jitsu for beating it, bring the demand of Gracie to an high level.
As consequence everyone want to learn the brazialin jiu jitsu as well.
For the WOW promotion, there wasn’t another solution other than organizing a new UFC event.
Ufc 2
On March 11, 1994, the second Event of ufc took place.
This time no problem regarding finding new fighters were encountered.
The applications received to make part of UFC 2 was 250, with a meaningful name as Pat Smith, Ken Shamrock.
A lot of news was brought with the second edition of UFC, as the entrance of the now considered the most famous referrer of mixed martial arts “Big”
John McCarthy.
UFC 2 and the impact on the media
The first UFC was undoubtedly a success and didn’t receive critics regarding the media side.
Regarding the UFC 2, something changed, and the media start to point to it, writing a hard title like “There Are No Rules” or “Each match will run until there is a designated winner, using knockout, surrender, doctor’s intervention, or death.”
Together with the remark that the Event was not practicable because banned in forty-nine states, these worlds were released by media and became a major threat to the UFC.
UFC 2 THE DAY OF THE EVENT
There were some exciting names on the card, but all the eyes were pointed to Gracie to see if he can continue to win and retain the title as the best fighter again.
Royal Gracie Matches of the night UFC 2
Royce vs Japanese karate contender Minoki Ichihara
The first match for Royal Gracie on ufc 2 was against the contender Minoki, where Gracie, thanks to a combination armbar and choke, made his first victory of the night.
Gracie jiu jitsu vs. Kung fu Jason Delucia
Next, he faced kung fu stylist Jason Delucia, defeating Delucia by armbar and bring another significant result.
Gracie vs Remco Pardoel
Despite the size of Pardoel that was over one hundred pounds heavier than Gracie, he was a victim of a gichoke in less than two minutes.
Pat Smith vs. Gracie
The final of UFC 2 was made of Pat Smith Vs Royce, the match ended with Gracie’s takedown against Pat and then started laying on some punches.
Royce was again named the Ultimate Fighting Champion.
With his second tournament win, Royce proved once and for all that Brazilian Jiujitsuu was here to stay.
Change of management of ufc and raising of challenging
As the organization grows, the two main big promotions begin to have some conflict problems: the WOW promotion and the SEG.
The main problem was due to internal change that was almost obliged to do to maintain the UFC.
The problem was solved by the bought of SEG promotion on the WOW promotion to become the UFC’s sole owner.
SEG president Bob Meyrowitz hired Davie as the matchmaker for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Politicians and Medicals against UFC
The Arizona’s Senator John McCain disagreed with the continuation of the UFC competitions, and he tries to destroy the influence of the UFC in all manner possible.
The senator was not the only one that tried to stop UFC, but even the president of the American Medical Associations released a statement denouncing the contests.
The defense of SEG
SEG countered the rising accusations by stating that the Ultimate Fighting Championship was safer than most major sports, including boxing.
The SEG promotion made present that even if it can seem that the Ufc competitions could appear more violent in reality is not valid.
The two main difference made present by SEG promotion was that:
- The Ufc fighters have to consider that he can throw a limited number of shots before the small bones in their hands break.
- Boxing doesn’t have this risk, and the boxers can throw an unlimited number of shots to the head without any injury.
Other reason that as a counter defense to the accusation done was that:
The boxers can hit the opponents only in two main parts of the body, as the head and the body, while on ufc, the fighters can win by submission reducing the risk and limiting it with soft.
The worst marketing done on UFC
While SEG was trying to avoid enormous disasters and made the UFC events possible to continue, the marketing department did the opposite.
They made advertising the future Event with the world “no rules “.
Unfortunately, this approach gave the media even more Ammunition, and the risk that all the parts went against ufc was high.
The Importance of wrestling on UFC
Until UFC IV, the presence of jiujitsu has dominated the competition.
All the fighters who had the idea to start this competition started to practice Jiujitsu to take advantage of the opponents.
As you can imagine, this is the main point where mixed martial arts start to born.
Despite all the fighters starting to learn and practice Jiujitsu, The presence of the wrestling during that night caused a sensation.
After the fight of Royce Gracie VS Dan Severn, despite the loss of Dan Severn in the final, he made very notable and dominated his wrestling during all the matches.
Mark Coleman and his mix of wrestling and striking
Mark Coleman was an NCAA Ohio State wrestling champ who made part of the U.S. Olympic wrestling team in 1992.
Although Coleman wasn’t the maximum on punches because missing professional boxing, he did a great job and emerged victorious on UFC X after the doctor stopped the match.
Mixing wrestling techniques and superior striking skills became the new recipe for success in the UFC.
NEW COMPETITORS FOR UFC- The born of Battlecade Extreme Fighting
The rising and exponential success of the ufc, in the years 1992-1994, had given space to new competitors to try this market.
In particular, the Battlecade Extreme Fighting had planned to enter the market with an organized event on November 18, 1995, in New York.
Despite the success and the important name present on the card, political and media opposition limited the first two Battlecade events’ success.
OTHER PROBLEM FOR UFC
The rising of competitors was not the only problem for the ufc at that time; elemental damage to a network cable compromised the normal distribution of the Event on the pay-per-view scale, with a significant revenue reduction.
The end of Battlecade extreme fighting
Due to this substantial damage to the cable network, the Battlecade was losing even more pay-per-view distribution. The company folded a couple of weeks after the fourth Extreme Fighting show in April 1997.
New implementation of rule for ufc 1997
To help mitigate the bad reputations that the media was doing on ufc and the mixed martial arts, the UFC decided to insert a new rule on the competition.
As:
- Head butts and groin shots became illegal, and all
- fighters were now required to wear four- to six-ounce gloves
They also changed things up within the Event by shifting to four-person tournaments With the lightweight and heavyweight divisions in UFC XII.
The following years until 1998, UFC XVI, all the other division was added, particularly the lightweight division.
1999 UFC implement 5 minutes round.
To pass on the athletics commission’s right side, the UFC decided to introduced five-minute rounds into the competition.
More specific Preliminary bouts would be two rounds, main event fights would be three rounds, and championship matches would be five rounds.
With one minute rest between the rounds.
DANA WHITE AND FERTILLA BROTHER AQUIRE UFC
In late of 2000, rumors surfaced that the president of SEG Robert Meyrowitz wanted to sell ufc.
The rumors arrived on the ears of Dana White that at the moment was the manager of two of the most famous fighters: Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell.
At that time, Dana White cannot be bought alone the ufc, so he contacted His olds friends Lorenzo Fertilla to buy the ufc.
Who is Lorenzo Fertilla ?
Fertitta was co-owner of Station Casinos Inc., one of the largest casino companies in the country.
He, together with his Brother, eradicated all the business that his father had founded.
The two Brother expanded their business until reaching the top with a total value of billions of dollars.
Dana White meet Fertilla
Lorenzo fertilla was a good friend of Dana white; they were together in high school.
Dana White knows that his friend Lorenzo was lovely of boxing, so he decides to bring him to an ufc event to assist and take a vision of the potential.
As soon as Lorenzo Fertilla and his Brother Frank had assisted the Event, they were shocked about the beauty and got in love immediately.
Plan and strategy to bring UFC to success
The 3 potential buyers of ufc, almost immediately, start to put some idea on making grow the ufc and share the strategy to use to bring the ufc to the net level.
Dana white and Fertilla realize ZUFFA LLC
The three friends formed Zuffa, LLC and approached Meyrowitz at SEG with an offer to buy the UFC.
In January 2001, the SEG promotion was sold to Zuffa LLC, founded by the three friends at a $2 million price.
With the casino to manage, the Fertilla brother decides to promote Dana White as president of UFC.
This can be considered the essential part for the evolution of the ufc on the world and mma. For the first time, the ufc competition started to have substantial capital and an excellent strategy to grow.
FIRST MMA MATCH ON TV 2002
The first real boost that ufc had received was in June 2002 when Fox sport decided to transmit an entire event of ufc on his channel for the first time.
The event was held at a smaller venue at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas but was broadcast to more than 50 million homes in the United States.
It was the first-ever MMA match on cable T.V.
As the Ufc was regaining popularity and credibility from Politian and the athletics commission, Dana white and Fertilla demanded the fighters to be more in relation with the fan to build franchising with a t-shirt and others stuff.
Others request done by Zuffa was to participate in autograph sessions for fans as well as pre-and post-event press conferences.
This further helped promote the image of a sport and maximized the exposure of the fighters.
New talent for ufc Chuck Liddell
Thanks to the rising of new talents as Chuck Liddell, the hearing was starting to increase until reaching on UFC 45 -10,000 people, and events regularly began to gross more than $1 million in gate sales.
Pay-per-view buys also began to increase, hovering around 100,000 per show.
ZUFFA LLC Search channel to transmit his Event
Thanks to the fantastic results received by transmitting the Event of Fox Sports, Zuffa LLC wanted to expand their product via free cable.
Zuffa had knocked on many doors, including MTV, CBS, ABC, ESPN, Spike, and the USA, attempting to get on cable television, but nobody accepted the request done by Zuffa LLC.
The Ultimate Fighter reality television show was born.
To overcome this problem, Dana white with Lorenzo fertilla decide to make a reality show Called The ultimate fighter, where a selected group of people was living tighter inside a Giant villa and was showing how they train and entrainment.
At the end of competed against one another, the winner Receiving a six-figure UFC contract.
The cost to make this T.V. series possible was very high with almost $10 million invested and had to spend nearly another $3 million to buy their billboard, radio, and T.V. advertising to hype the show’s release.
Anyway, in January 18, 2005, The Ultimate Fighter received excellent ratings.
The Ultimate Fighter final broadcast was a phenomenal success, receiving record ratings on Spike TV. As a result, the UFC secured a multi-year contract with Spike for the show.
The strategy adopted by ufc with the T.V. series brought tremendous results, in fact, just one week later, UFC 52 pulled more than 14,000 fans into the MGM Grand casino, generating more than $2.5 million in ticket sales.
2007 THE MOST IMPORTANT YEAR FOR THE MMA
The 2007 was an impressive year for the future of the mma, a lot of good things happened as the new launch of the ufc game, on March 2007,where the UFC announced that it was purchasing its major international competitor, PRIDE Fighting Championships, in a buyout that was rumored to be close to $70 million.
Owned by Dream Stage Entertainment, PRIDE had been the predominant mixed martial arts promotion in Japan.
As a consequence of PRIDE’s bought, most talented fighters moved to the UFC, including Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson, Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
RECORD OF SALE FOR UFC 2007
The Ultimate Fighting Championship ended the year with an impressive record on December 29, 2007.
UFC 79: Nemesis featured Matt Hughes against Georges St-Pierre and Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva in an action-packed event.
The show pulled in an estimated $5 million in tickets sales and close to 700,000 pay-per-view buys.
First match of Womans on UFC
On February 10, 2007, the promotion EliteXC broadcast their first Event on Showtime, which featured a prelim match between Gina Carano and Julie Kedzi.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS TODAY
Today’s mixed martial arts is considered one of the most famous fighting sport, together with boxing.
As we saw during this article, the thanks are due to the proper management and strategy adopted by ufc, particularly by Dana White.
During the passing of the years, new fighters are always presented and made become more popular the MMA, as the Conor McGregor effect, thanks to his trash talking and unique fighting style, brought an enormous number of fans on the last period.
Conclusion
This is all for this article; I hope that you enjoy the read, by having a reasonable timeline of the essential facts that happened from the origin of the MMA, until nowadays.