REAR COVER
THE GRUDGE MATCH. A FIGHT BETWEEN UNFRIENDLY OPPONENTS TO SETTLE BAD BLODD AND EVEN THE SCORE
UFC 94 FIGHTS
GEORGES ST-PIERRE VS BI PENN JON FITCH VS AKIHIRO GONO
KARO PARISYAN VS DONG HYUN KIM STEPHAN BONNAR VS JON JONES
LYOTO MACHIDA VS THIAGO SILVA
UFC 100 FIGHTS
BROCK LESNAR VS FRANK MIR
YOSHIHIRO AKIYAMA VS ALAN BECHER
JON FITCH VS PAULO THIAGO
DAN HENDERSON VS MICHAEL BISPING
GEORGES ST-PIERRE VS THIAGO ALVES
UFC 117 FIGHTS
ANDERSON SILVA VS CHAEL SONNEN ROY NELSON VS JUNIOR DOS SANTOS MATT HUGHES VS RICARDO ALMEIDA CLAY GUIDA VS RAFAEL DOS ANJOS
JON FITCH VS THIAGO ALVES
UFC 114 FIGHTS
RAMPAGE JACKSON VS RASHAD EVANS
MICHAEL BISPING VS DAN MILLER
TODD DUFFEE VS MIKE RUSSOW
ROGERIO NOGUEIRA VS JASON BRILZ
DIEGO SANCHEZ VS JOHN HATHAWAY
UFC 124 FIGHTS
GEORGES ST- PIERRE VS JOSH KOSCHECK
THIAGO ALVES VS JOHN HOWARD
JOE STEVENSON VS MAC DANZIG
JIM MILLER VS CHARLES OLIVEIRA
STEFAN STRUVE VS SEAN MCCORKLE
WHAT IS UFC?
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. The largest MMA promotion in the world, the UFC has over 578 fighters contracted that fight across 11 weight divisions (eight men's and three women's). The organization produces events worldwide and abides by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. As of 2024, it had held over 700 events. Dana White has been its president since 2001 and CEO since 2023. Under White's stewardship, it has grown into a global multi-billion-dollar enterprise.
The UFC was founded by businessman Art Davie and Brazilian martial artist Rorion Gracie, and the first event was held in 1993 at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the UFC's early competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a contest with minimal rules and no weight classes between competitors of different fighting disciplines. In subsequent events, more rigorous rules were created and fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create a separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.
The UFC was initially owned by the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) until it had financial issues and it was sold to the brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta in 2001, who formed the company Zuffa to operate the UFC, and placed Dana White as the president of the company. In 2016, UFC's parent company, Zuffa, was sold to a group led by Endeavor, then known as William Morris Endeavor (WME–IMG), including Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and MSD Capital[18] for US$4.025 billion. In 2021, Endeavor bought out Zuffa's other owners for $1.7 billion.
With a TV deal and expansion in Australia, Asia, Europe, and new markets within the United States, the UFC has achieved greater mainstream media coverage. It earned US$609 million in 2015, and its next domestic media rights agreement with ESPN was valued at $1.5 billion over a five-year term.
In April 2023, Endeavor Group Holdings announced that UFC would merge with the wrestling promotion WWE to form TKO Group Holdings, a new public company majority-owned by Endeavor, with Vince McMahon serving as an executive chairman of the new entity and White remaining as UFC president. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023. In January 2024, McMahon had ended his ties with the company amid a sex trafficking scandal. In 2025, the UFC would sign a 7-year, US$7.7 billion deal with Paramount Skydance Corporation (operators of CBS Sports and Paramount+) beginning the next year, exiting the pay-per-view business entirely.