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Jacob Eldridge Professor Caruso English 1102 26 July 2012 The Rise of UFC in America Within the past ten years the sport of professional cage fighting went from a strictly underground scene in the United States, to one of the fastest growing, most popular sports in America. The UFC is the dominant cause for this newly found acceptance and allegiance of the sport many people would still like to compare to cock fighting or gladiator fighting. One cannot deny the ever ready danger of stepping into a cage with another man/woman who has been training rigorously to do nothing but defeat an opponent in hand to hand combat. Mixed martial arts is without a doubt the most dangerous fighting sport because it takes all of these elements from various forms of fighting and combines them into one usually 15 by 15 cage, however despite the danger of this sport Americans have decided to stop looking down on it and embrace it as a major form of entertainment in the states. The sport of mixed martial arts has completely destroyed the world of professional boxing, not only is it more entertaining with unique styles of hand to hand combat ranging anywhere from the still mysterious form of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the brutal version of western dirty boxing. It is also far less corrupt then the companies promoting professional boxing (Wertheim, 102). Boxers are amazing athletes and boxing matches take extreme tolls on the body, in fact such a toll that boxers are only able to take at the most three professional cards a year, where a professional mixed martial arts fighter can do roughly six (Fernandez 1).

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The UFC owned and operated by Dana White and Zuffa organization is the unmatched kingpin in fighting sports now not only for North America but also for the entire world. In the last decade it was barely thriving, and the company hadnt been founded until 1993. There are many reasons as to why this company was able to do what a surplus of others couldnt. A few of those reasons are their recruiting tactics, their implementing of new rules to keep it slightly safer for their athletes, but the most important thing is the fights they are able to set up. The UFC made its rise when they started getting fighters like the earlier Gracies, Genki Sudo, Randy Couture, Chuck Lidell, etc. These fighters helped pave the way for the blowing up of the UFC not only in America but across the globe. This first wave of amazing fighters was only the tip of the pyramid however you go through the next few generations with fighters such as Jon Fitch, Matt Serra, George St. Pierre, Sean Sherk, Quinton Jackson, and Chael Sonnen just to name a few. One thing the UFC did differently is they make sure viewers know that their fighters are people with real stories, one of my personal favorite background stories is of Quinton Rampage Jackson previous UFC belt holder at Light Heavyweight. One look at this man would have any normal person scared to death a large over muscular trained killer that howls in a cage, but being the UFC they let viewers know that this isnt who Rampage always is. Growing up in Memphis Tennessee completely broke Rampage had to learn how to fend for himself at a young age, forced to learn how to fight or be robbed growing up he chose the first of the two scenarios. Now that hes fought his way out of a terrible scenario as a child he is a father of two, a born again Christian, and one of the funniest yet still most intimidating people you will ever meet (Samuels 2). Having met Rampage Jackson two years ago at a striking clinic and seeing how great and hilarious he is in person with his famous quotes such as Im the best fighter in the

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world and Im the ugliest fighter in the world, cant nobody hurt me, its absolutely no surprise seeing how fighters like this can propel the UFC at such a fast rate. The UFC started out close to rule less. Like every other fight organization at this time there were no weight classes making it possible to set up fights where one man is 155 lbs and the other is close to 300. Another major difference in the original years of the UFC is the equiptment that fighters are allowed to use in their fights. Today in the UFC one must wear competition fight shorts or competition spandex shorts, 4 oz gloves, a custom fit mouth piece, a protective cup, and if the choose so knee sleeves and ankle wraps. This can prove to be very different if we were to look at a fight within the UFC a decade ago when you would see fighters wearing the attire of their respective martial art. The wrestlers often wore singlets and wrestling shoes, boxers would wear boxing gloves that weighed roughly 16 ounces; jiu-jitsu trained fighters would often wear their gi and belt. This freedom of attire would either give a fighter an advantage or a disadvantage, wrestlers wearing shoes would be able to cut their opponents with head and body kicks, jiu-jitsu fighters could use their gis in unique chokes that they couldnt do without it, boxers were given a better defense with the larger gloves. Despite the 90s UFC slogan being There are no rules, and these copious amounts of advantages with gear and weight making a better indicator of who was the actual ultimate fighter, America forced the league to have more rules, be safer, and be fairer. Having politicians from around America, including previous presidential candidate John McCain leading crusades to ban the sports existence and make this type of sport illegal caused these rule changes (Martin 5). The reason so many people, especially politicians went to war with the new sport was the unknown more than the injuries themselves. With the majority of fights ending in a knock out a choke out or leaving someone a bit beat up it is important that there is a ringside physician at

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every fight (Seidberg 2). A fighters body and mind both take a beating in their training and fighting, common injuries can be but are not limited to heart problems, muscle fatigue, brain trauma,joint and ligament damage, broken bones, and a number of other serious and not so serious injuries (Seidberg 1). 2007 has by far been the biggest year in UFC growth, population, and level of fighters. The major change was the UFC absorbing their Japanese based rival PRIDE. After taking over the pride a surplus of amazing fighters made their entrance into the UFC such as Antonio Minotauro Nogueira, Mauricio Shogun Rua, Dan Henderson, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic, and Wanderlei Silva. Its great to see all the background stories of these fighters, here we have an American wrestler from Iowa fighting a Brazilian immigrant whose been a black belt in jiu jitsu for ten years, its just insane (Wertheim 46). Including the absorption of the company they also gained the sponsorship of Anheuser Busch making Budweiser the official beer of the UFC, and Harley Davidson as the official motorcycle of the UFC. These two new kingpin sponsors boosted the UFC to once again what was previously thought as impossible heights for this still growing sport. 2010 has been the second largest growth year for the company, much like with the absorption of PRIDE they absorbed the WEC and strike force organizations which at the time were the last two organizations left standing in North America. The UFC continued to flourish being played on cable on FX and pay per view until in late 2011when Fox finally broke down and partnered with the UFC which was the final growth that ended any chance other fight organizations had to become dominant North America, South America, and Europe. With the UFCs new contract they were still able to do their cable show on FX which brought new UFC fighters into a house to live, train, and ultimately compete against

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one another. On top of this cable show they were also able to do six separate fight night events per year; this has grown to more in 2012. The UFC is truly one of the very few companies you will ever see hitting a snowball effect like this one did. Although there were very rough starts for it in the beginning, when the company started to see positive improvement it came astronomically and mergers, partnerships, and buyouts seemed to come at the perfect time for this company. The UFC has become a part of American culture, it is a part of what we are and its amazing to see a sport embraced in such a way.

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Works Cited Samuels, David. Rampage. Atlantic Monthly (10727825)302.5(2008):84-102. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web.25 July 2012. Fernandez, Bernard . "Old Hand at Boxing now in Love with the UFC." Philadelphia Daily News 05 August 2009: Points of View Reference Center. Web. 11 May 2012. Martin, Brian. Truth Be Told. Daily News of Los Angeles 05 July 2012: Points of View Reference Center. Web. 12 May 2012. Wertheim, Son. Blood in the Cage. Kirkus Media LLC 15 October 2008: Literary Reference Seidberg, Peter H. Mixed Martial Arts: Injury Patterns And Issues For The Ringside Physician. Current Sports Medicine Reports (American College Of Sports Medicine) 10.3 (2011): 147-150. SportDiscus with Full Text. Web. 18 July 2011. Center Plus. Web. 12 May 2012.