It was in 1988 when the film “Contact Bloody” (“Bloodsport”) was released, starring an emerging Jean Claude Van Damme, playing the American fighter Frank Dux, who travels to Hong Kong to participate in a secret underground fighting tournament Between fighters of different disciplines to find out who is the best fighter in the world. As each martial art has its own rules, they decide to apply very few limitations in combat, leaving the door open to discover which is the most effective of all. The film was a true international success.
Five years later, in 1993, the first event of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) takes place. The objective is very similar: to bring together martial athletes from different disciplines to see who is the best. Fighters who come from karate, judo, wrestling, boxing or Jiu-Jitsu participate, to name a few. Royce Gracie, Brazilian, Jiu-Jitsu expert and relative of one of the organizers, won the first edition and made legend with his performances in the following. The techniques evolved and, instead of focusing each one on their martial art, a discipline of their own was born: MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), where each one emphasized their strengths, but trained in all areas of the fight. .
The first evenings were received with mixed reviews: there were those who saw the show as something exciting and many others believed that it was a savagery that distorted the spirit of the different fighting styles. The most purists could not accept that amalgam of fighting systems with a usually bloody result. But the first stars began to arrive, athletes whom the public idolized for their way of leaving their skin on the battlefield. In addition to Gracie himself, Shamrock, Frye, Mir, Lesnar appeared … It would take until 2009 for the UFC events to have worldwide recognition.
The figure of Dana White, current President of the company, has a lot to do with all of this. Holding a senior position in the UFC, he saw an opportunity to step up front when he learned that there was a possibility that the organization would be sold. Quickly, he found a buyer and positioned himself as the top leader, transforming the way events were organized and promoted. With a great business vision, he knew how to select and advertise charismatic fighters, as was the case with Conor McGregor, to generate expectation in the face of events. The last decade has seen the emergence of the UFC, not just as a mass-following sport, but as a business growth one as well.
It’s not just about pay-per-view audiences, or event tickets, the UFC moves a lot of content out of the octagon. On the one hand, we have a great audiovisual display on different networks, such as ESPN, which follows the organization’s current affairs, with interviews, current events, etc., there are even television programs, “reality TV” style to choose young fighters who they will sign a contract, as with “The Ultimate Fighter” or “Dana White’s Contender Series”. There is also the hectic activity in the forecasts, which causes some portals, such as Rivalry, to have their own setup within sports category, for MMA fights, where you can check your favorites for each fight. Of course, social networks are not far behind, the wrestlers and former wrestlers give a lot of material to “warm up” the future confrontations and the incipient or consolidated rivalries, which provoke so much play to attract an audience.
Last year, Conor McGregor was the highest paid athlete in the world. In large part, it was due to the sale of his brand of whiskey, but it is something that could not have happened had it not been for his enormous popularity thanks to the sport of MMA and his role in the UFC. The Irishman celebrated this fall his last fight to date and generated millionaire sales in PPV. Their previous match, earlier in the year, had already garnered a significant audience, but the trilogy’s tiebreaker created such excitement that it became one of the sporting events of the year. That’s one of the reasons the UFC raises nearly $ 16 million per event; and currently one per week is held. Its audience is estimated at hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide and continues to grow every year, with the competition (Bellator, OneChampioship …) very far from these figures. If the UFC is not the future it is because maybe we should think of it as the present.
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