UFC
- Founded
- Nov 12, 1993 (UFC 1, Denver)
- Founders
- Art Davie, Rorion Gracie, Bob Meyrowitz (SEG), Campbell McLaren, David Isaacs, John Milius
- Home base
- Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- Fate
- Active. Sold to Zuffa in 2001 and to WME-IMG in 2016; part of TKO Group Holdings since 2023.
Notable Eras
- SEG era, 1993–2001: the no-holds-barred tournaments
- Zuffa era, 2001–2016: the Fertitta brothers and Dana White buy the company; The Ultimate Fighter (2005) breaks it into the mainstream
- WME-IMG / Endeavor era from 2016; merged with WWE into TKO Group in 2023
Key Events
- UFC 1 (1993): Royce Gracie wins the first tournament
- The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale (2005): Griffin vs. Bonnar
- UFC 100 (2009)
- UFC on Fox 1 (2011): first network TV broadcast
Legendary Champions
- Royce Gracie
- Matt Hughes
- Georges St-Pierre
- Anderson Silva
- Jon Jones
- Khabib Nurmagomedov
- Demetrious Johnson
The Full History
1993: The Experiment
Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) and the Gracie family's partners staged UFC 1 in Denver on November 12, 1993: an eight-man tournament meant to find out which martial art worked best. Royce Gracie won it by submission.
1995–2000: The Dark Ages
Political pressure led many U.S. cable providers to drop the pay-per-views. SEG added weight classes, gloves and more rules to win sanction from state commissions, but nearly went broke.
2001–2015: The Zuffa Boom
Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and Dana White bought the UFC in January 2001 for $2 million. The Ultimate Fighter in 2005 drew a mainstream audience. Zuffa bought WEC (2006), PRIDE (2007) and Strikeforce (2011), and signed its first network TV deal with Fox in 2011.
2016–today: The Corporate Era
A group led by WME-IMG (later Endeavor) bought the company in August 2016 in a deal valued at about $4 billion. In 2023 it merged with WWE to form TKO Group Holdings.
Legacy
The promotion that gave the sport its name in the public mind. It absorbed PRIDE, WEC and Strikeforce and became the measure every other company is judged against.
