Some months ago, I managed to get the first UFC show from 1993 as well as some martial arts films. Those aren’t important at the moment as we’re focused on UFC 1.
The reputation of mixed martial arts has changed over almost 30 years to where it is now seen as a legit sport. There are training facilities for the combat sport, it’s on television, it’s covered online instead of just features in Playboy magazine.
It now makes millions upon millions a year and can afford big contracts for fighters. However, in that first tournament in 1993 the guys threw fists for $50,000.
UFC 1: A Live-Action Fighting Game
The first three events are what really drew attention to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It was something totally new outside of Japan and Brazil which had shooto and vale tudo.
What I love the most about this event isn’t the event itself but the significance and planning of it.
The organization has several founders who contributed to the original approach, ruleset, and presentation of the UFC.
Remember that the original presentation and concept was to be a live version of fighting games that were popular in the early 90s—especially Mortal Kombat.
Promoter Art Davie even wanted razor wire along the top of the Octagon! I mean, as a visual that would’ve just added more XTREME 90s to the presentation but the action was extreme enough.
“There Are No Rules!”
In the first few UFC events, the rules were sparse. They really ran as closely as possible with the term “no holds barred” as legally possible without the events becoming like Bloodsport and Bloodfist.
Yes, I mention those two films a lot when discussing anything martial arts, folks.
The thing is, UFC 1 as well as the other events between 1993 and 1995, fights were experimental and sometimes ended up like fights from those films.
Then you had the dominance of ironmen like Severn, Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Oleg Taktarov who tested the time limits.
In the first UFC event, most bouts were under a minute with the longest—Kevin Rosier vs. Zane Fraizer—being a little over four minutes.
As for actual disqualifications, low blows, eye-gouging, and biting were obviously not allowed but nothing really stopped fighters from doing it outside of a $1,500 fine.
The Magic of UFC 1
I believe the real magic of this event was first in fighters becoming legends of a sport that hasn’t been formed yet. For casual observers, this was a live-action fighting game with fighters who had a represented fighting style.
Fighters could wear gis, shorts, trunks, pants, a glove in one case, and it was before fighters had sponsors.
This was always neat in a time when the Gracie BJJ was rising, it hadn’t become the dominant style in the sport, and you got to see the differences in everyone’s represented style before BJJ training became something every fighter pursued.
All they had was a tournament, a few thousand fans in attendance, tens of thousands as the prize, and bad press.
In the same way that ECW was the renegade of American professional wrestling, UFC was the renegade of professional sports. The main difference is that the Ultimate Fighting Championship grew at the right pace and allowed regulation to work with the sport in North America.
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