15 January 2009 (Profile)

April 9th, 2005 - Las Vegas, Nevada. The most important day in modern Mixed Martial Arts history. Two Light Heavyweight fighters stand opposite each other in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's eight-sided cage, The Octagon. It's the finals of a reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter, an elimination tournament in which 16 of the most promising Mixed Martial Artists in the United States compete against each other, train with one another and live together for 6 weeks, all of them hoping to make it to this night, to fight for the chance of a six figure multi-fight contract with the UFC. As the opening bell rang on the first Mixed Martial Arts event to be broadcast live on national television and Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar approached each other, no one was aware that the next 15 minutes of action would do more to popularise the sport than anything in the previous 15 years.

The UFC comes to the O2 in Dublin on Saturday 17th January, for their first show in the Republic of Ireland. The Dublin show has sold out quicker than any event ever held outside of North America, and will feature 20 year old Kildare man Tom Egan's debut for the UFC.

The sport of Mixed Martial Arts combines elements of Boxing, Kick Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling and Jiu Jitsu (and some others) into one hybrid style. The best fighters are able to transition from a wrestling takedown to a jiu jitsu submission with ease. The UFC is now a global brand, selling out shows wherever they go. Their fighters have gained national prominence, with Welterweight Champion Georges St Pierre recently being awarded the title of Canada's Athlete of the Year, with a staggering 89% of the public vote and former champions Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture are household names in the US. It was anything but an easy fight getting to this stage though.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship held its first event in 1993 as a way to answer a question that had long been discussed by combat sports fans through the years - who wins in a fight, a boxer or a karate practitioner? Can a kick boxer beat a Greco Roman wrestler in a real fight? The common perception among the public at this time was that Mike Tyson was "the baddest man on the planet" but a skinny and thoroughly unthreatening-looking fighter called Royce Gracie was about to challenge that.

This tournament was devised by Rorion Gracie, Royce's older brother, as a way of showcasing a style of submission fighting devised by their father Helio Gracie. Gracie Jiu Jitsu was an extremely effective self-defence martial art which actually favoured the smaller fighter against larger, more aggressive fighters by way of using their own momentum and strength against them. Royce Gracie easily won the tournament, submitting three opponents in one night in a combined time of less than six minutes. The first ever UFC star was born.

However, the UFC of the early 90's bears little resemblance to the multinational company that it has evolved into today. There were no gloves worn and few rules. You weren't allowed to bite your opponent, or attack his eyes or groin. For the second UFC, the rules were modified. You were allowed to attack the groin.

These early shows were relatively successful with Pay-Per-View audiences, with the UFC's third show garnering over 240,000 buys.  It was this success that brought the UFC to mainstream attention and this is where the trouble started. Senator John McCain was particularly vocal in his opinions on the Ultimate Fighting Championship, branding it as "human cock-fighting" and leading a campaign to get it banned in every state in the US and it was this high-profile criticism which led to the UFC being dropped by its cable distributor and seemingly destined to go out of business.

The UFC's management recognised that in order to be a commercially viable product that they would have to implement some drastic changes. These took places in ebbs and flows over the course of the next few years. First, weight classes were introduced. Then gloves became mandatory and five minute rounds became the norm. A comprehensive list of rules was designed to remove the elements of the sport that were too undesirable for the general public and to increase the levels of fairness in the bouts. It was during this time that the UFC re-branded itself from a spectacle to a sport.

The UFC continued to promote shows in the smaller US markets, such as Iowa and Alabama for the next few years. In 2000, things were about to change. The UFC had cleaned up it's product to such an extent that John McCain was quoted as saying "The sport has grown up. The rules have been adopted to give its athletes better protections and to ensure fairer competition".



The sport of mixed martial arts was developing at this point, but the UFC wasn't. It was losing money at an astonishing rate. In 2001 the UFC was bought for $2 million by a company called Zuffa, and former boxing promoter Dana White was installed as president and stated that he wanted to take this sport into the mainstream. Shortly thereafter, UFC returned to cable television. An effective media campaign was launched as the UFC promoted their fighters as athletes of the highest skill and dedication. The marquee matchup of Tito Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock received 150,000 pay-per-view buys, making it the most successful event in several years. Despite this success, the UFC was still losing money and in 2004 they announced losses of $34 million since Zuffa acquired the company.  

The UFC were once again close to going out of business and they knew it. But everyone has a puncher's chance and Dana White realised that the last round was about to begin and he had to start swinging.

The idea was simple. A reality television show. Put 16 fighters in a house and have them live together, train together and slowly eliminate them from the house. It was like Survivor. But in Survivor, you didn't get to fight the other contestants. The Ultimate Fighter was born. The UFC put $10 million into the production of the show because none of the television networks were confident enough in the show to put the money up themselves.

The final of the show between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar is often considered the most important fight in Mixed Martial Arts history. It was 15 minutes of back and forth action, neither fighter ever having a big advantage over the other. The only time that either of the fighters was knocked from their feet was when Stephan Bonnar collapsed to the mat in disappointment after Forrest Griffin was awarded victory by the judges. So impressive was this fight that, when the viewing figures were announced, they showed a stready increase as the fight went on. Basically, people were ringing their friends saying "you have to see this!" By the end of the fight, over ten million people were watching, most of them for the first time. Before long, the UFC was getting up to one million buys for Pay-Per-View events and making in excess of $200 million per year.

Just how far can this sport go? Some are pushing for it to be included in The Olympics. Others are pointing to how it is vastly more popular than boxing amongst its key demographics and if it can KO the "sweet science", then who knows how far it can go. This sport is only going to improve. It used to be that the fighters were excellent at one aspect of the sport. For example, you'd have a world class wrestler but he'd have to train in striking and learn submission defense. Today's youngsters in the sport, like Kildare's Tom Egan, have trained in "Mixed Martial Arts" from the onset, learning every element of the game. Fighters, and the fights, continue to improve. Viewing figures are on the rise and the UFC is aggressively expanding their product into Europe and Asia.  Dana White says that, next to soccer, this will be the most popular sport in the world in ten years. That's a lofty target to set for oneself, but who'd be willing to say he's wrong?

-John Balfe

****

UFC 93: Franklin v Henderson is taking place in The O2, Dublin on Saturday 17th January. Tickets are sold out but the event can be seen live on Setanta Sports 1 from 8pm.
Back to Other Exclusives