Happy 23rd birthday mixed martial arts

The sport known as mixed martial arts was born on November 12, 1993, at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, with the debut of The Ultimate Fighting Championship (later renamed UFC 1: The Beginning). So today is the UFC’s and MMA’s 23rd birthday.

In the beginning, Rorion Gracie had a day at his Torrance, California Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academy, where anyone game enough could test their skills by fighting Jiu-Jitsu exponents until someone quit. A student at the academy, Art Davie, was convinced that the challenge fights could turn into a Pay Per View event. The pair approached HBO, Showtime, and others, with no luck. Then they presented to Semaphore Entertainment Group, and it was a go.

SEG, founded by Bob Meyrowitz, was the pay-per-view television arm of the massive international media company BMG. The head of programming at SEG was Campbell McLaren. Chief Operating Officer of the new UFC was David Isaacs, who had graduated from Harvard Law School two years before. Isaacs ran the company for the next half decade.

Thus it was that Art Davie, Rorion Gracie, David Isaacs, Campbell McLaren, and Bob Meyrowitz founded the UFC. Martial arts would never be the same.

The first fight in UFC history featured Teila Tula, a massive sumo wrestler against Gerard Gordeau, an opponent hundred of pounds smaller. In one of the most infamous moments in UFC history, the much smaller Gordeau took advantage of a charging Tula that fell to the ground and kicked him square in the face, knocking out a tooth.

Teila Tuli’s toothie was the real birth of the sport, the moment where the fight world realized this is real. For the first time, this is really real.

Gordeau would actually advance to the finals after defeating Kevin Rosier, but was no match for the ground skills of Royce Gracie and was submitted in less than two minutes.

Check out every UFC poster from 1-200.
Check out the FIRST UFC PROGRAM GUIDE

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And tonight, check out UFC 205, the greatest event in the history of the sport.