Fighting has been around 6000 years, and I believe it maybe the first form of competition that humans engaged in. In Genesis 4 it has Lamech's lamentation to his wives, and he states that he slain two men. One man he murdered for wounding him, and the other man he murdered him for hurting him. These fights ended in death, but not knowing what started these fights makes it hard to see what initiated it. Obviously Lamech murder these two for attempting to murder him, but nearly in the next 3000 years fighting along the way became a competition. In Genesis 32:24 Moses states that Jacob wrestled with an angel until daybreak, but wrestling with an angel at least 6 hours is a good indication that Jacob knew how to wrestle. Because there is no way a beginner that has never wrestle before to go as long as Jacob did, so Jacob wrestling an angel is a pretty good indication that fighting could be one of the oldest competition.
Fighting being one of the oldest competition finally gets a major network deal to be televised along with the other professional sports like the MLB, NFL, and NASCAR. Last Thursday the UFC( Ultimate Fighting Championship) announced its a major network deal with FOX, and that's the sports milestone that it has been trying to get to in the last nearly 3 decades. There was a lot of innovation that took place along the way that the sport needed to do in order to reach that milestone.
The idea of the UFC belongs to the Gracie family, and they are the Rockefellers in the fighting world. In the fighting world the Gracies' are known for their jiu jitsu, and it was introduce to the world at the first UFC in 93. The reason why the Gracies wanted to do UFC was to promote its Jiu Jitsu to the rest of the world, so people outside of Brazil can see why it was more better than the other forms of fighting. In a way UFC was an informercial for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but it was promoted on PPV to be a no hold bars event open to any fighter regardless of their fight background. This event also did not have a weight class, nor did it have a time limit. Royce Gracie represented the Gracie family, and he was the smallest competitor there weighing around 170 to 180 lbs. He ended winning the first UFC defeating a boxer, shoot fighter that weighed 40 lbs more, and a Savate fighter. Savate is like kickboxing. People watching the event, and fighters participating in the first UFC were exposed to Gracie Jiu Jitsu. After Royce Gracie won 3 out of the first 4 UFCs fighters of different styles began to cross train in different areas of fighting like striking, grappling, and submission. Fighters cross training in different styles is where the term mix martial arts came from, and Gracies caused that innovation of martial arts.
Between now, and 93 the UFC had a lot of uphill battles to overcome for it to be accepted to the mainstream market like the other professional sport leagues. The way the earlier UFCs were being promoted as the most barbaric thing on TV almost killed the organization, because they did not have a lot of ways getting it into mainstream. Most states would not legalize it, so UFC did not have whole lot of venues to display it in front of the public. It was barely on PPV, and to the public eye the UFC was a form of human cockfighting. UFC was a company in the late 90s that was at negative $40 million dollars in profit, so how did it get through to mainstream? Again innovation played a role.
Innovation of Martial Arts continue through a vision of Dana White, and the Fertitta's casino money. Dana White was a former amateur boxer, and boxing manager prior to purchasing UFC. He stated that he was not a fan of the UFC when it started, and what got his interest of it was him trying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from a person he knew that was a cage fighter. He tried Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and it got him curious enough to go to a live event. Going to the alive event along with a friend is where he began to envision on how he can make the sport better. His experience through Brazilian Jiu Jitsu made him realize what kind of athleticism is needed to be a UFC fighter, and his vision of the sport became the driving force that would get UFC into the mainstream market. He convinced his friend's the Fertitta's to invest in it, but White knew that there would be major obstacles that the sport would need to overcome.
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