UFC - One of the Most Popular Sports in the World

We have all witnessed that martial arts has grown in leaps and bounds. Many years ago, Bruce Lee helped in the martial arts gain more popularity, when he came up with his style of Jeet Kune Do. He acted in many movies, showing the world his speed and finesse. Since that time, movies have been a standard mode to demonstrate martial arts skills.

Back in the early 1990s, UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) emerged on the scene and took martial arts one step further. While there have been other competitions just like the UFC, none of them had the style and enthusiasm that UFC had. When it first begun, the UFC pitted fighters of different disciplines against each other.

This lead to thrilling bouts with varying results. In its first installment, Royce Gracie from Brazil was crowned champion. Gracie was the first to present Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in this way, opening up the eyes of everyone who saw him fight. After the first UFC tournament, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was instantly viewed as the best martial art. Royce weighed under 200 pounds, and he totally dominated people almost 3 times his size.

Royce emerged as the champion in UFC 2 and 4 as well. His dominant style during the tournament earned him global acclaim. He faced a very tough fighter, who nearly beat him, in UFC 3; but Royce came up trumps eventually. Gracie and Ken Shamrock fought out of their skins in a brilliant UFC 5 match up that resulted in a draw.

Other fighters have done exceptionally well in the UFC, but none could match the feats of Royce Gracie. Fighters such as Matt Sylvia, Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, Matt Hughes, and Oleg Taktarov have also done exceedingly well. Matt Hughes, who fights in the welterweight class, is considered one of the best fighters in the world.

In the world of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), the UFC has made a big impact. At first, there were no rules and no judges, just one on one fights until someone either tapped out, got knocked out, or the ref threw in the towel. The UFC also had a tournament style where 3 fights decided the champion.

Over time, the UFC format changed quite a bit. The UFC would start with judges after a few years, and the tournament style was scraped. The UFC aficionados rejoiced as the fights were eventually changed to one on one bouts. While the fights didn't have time limits at first, they do now. Title fights have five 5 minute rounds, while non title fights have three 5 minute rounds.

If there us no knockout or submission, the winner is decided by the judges. Normally, three judges preside over the fights, but this number may change as the UFC deems fit. The ref is there to protect the fighters. He can stop a fight if a fighter is unable to defend himself.

The UFC has come a long way, and is now one of the most popular sports in the world.