The first UFC was on November 12, 1993 in Denver, Colorado. It initiated the biggest change in the practice of martial arts ever. The concept was as simple as wheels on luggage – if you want to find out what martial art works best, fight.
Prior to UFC 1, the practice of martial arts had been like the children of Lake Wobegone – all the martial artists were above average.
Royce Gracie won it all, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was hailed as king. The Dan Severn and Mark Coleman showed that with a little breaking in period, wrestling was king. Then Maurice Smith kicked Coleman into bolivian, and kickboxing was rightly added to the mix.
In time, Pat Miletich set the blueprint that is followed widely to this day – to reach your peak in MMA, you need to be able to hang with national class exponents in the gym, in wrestling, kickboxing, and BJJ. You have to be able to roll with a good black belt, spar with a national class kickboxer, and wrestle with a good college team. You obviously don’t win in all three, but you have to be able to hang, to not be clueless and destroyed.
Since them influences from a wide variety of martial arts have come in, including the world’s two most popular martial arts, karate and TaeKwonDo.
The development could be watched fight by fight for over two decades.
Now FOX Sports has put together a display of every poster for every numbered UFC, from 1 to next Saturday’s 200.
