The Rules!

The UFC’s rules and format changed substantially over time. The one constant has been its cage-like structure in which its fighters square off. The octagon, referring to its eight-sided shape, was there from UFC 1 and continues to the present, becoming so ubiquitous that the word is practically synonymous with the UFC itself.

At UFC 1, competitors were instructed to not bite, pull hair, or hit each other in the nuts. But that was about it. There was a single ref within the octagon that commenced bouts and ruled the winner due to submission (read: a kind of crying uncle) or knockout. But there were no rounds, weight classes, or time limits; in fact, this glaring weakness was only corrected after its fifth event, in which a Superfight was ruled a draw after more than a half-hour stalemate. Really, the fans lost. Over time, this was refined, and today, UFC fights are comprised of three or five five-minute rounds, depending on whether it’s a regular match, headliner, or championship bout.

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The rules themselves were also refined over time. While the UFC initially grew more laissez-faire after its first event, briefly allowing groin strikes (the guy from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery gets hit with one of the most brutal seven-counts you’ll ever see), it quickly adopted more control in an effort to receive sanctioning from governing bodies around the U.S.

The results of these refinements led to the establishment and gradual updating of The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, which eliminated most dirty pool, from head butts to fish-hooking, pile-driving, back-of-the-head striking, and just about anything else you’d see on a professional wrestling stage when the ref’s back is turned. The Association of Boxing Commissions ratified it in 2009.

Shoes were banned and padded gloves were added, weight classes were established and then expanded, a 10-point round-by-round scoring system was adopted to decide matches where a submission or knockout was not achieved, and while in the middle years of the organization fighters tended to have the musculature of superheroes, a UFC and U.S. Anti-Doping Association deal was struck in 2015 that has, if not eliminated performance-enhancing substance use, at least curtailed its excesses while catching the odd dumb fish. (There are still plenty of dumb fish, as seen on UFC’s sanctions list.)

Major Moments

From the first, the UFC shook up the combat sports world. But its first great moment beyond its elevator pitch came from UFC 1, when Royce Gracie, younger brother to tournament co-founder Rorion, finessed his way through the bracket to become its first champion. Gracie, while weighing around a modern middleweight’s 175 pounds, decisively submitted all comers with a new-to-the-Western-world Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, which was a wrestling philosophy that neutralized size differences by moving the fight from the stand-up to the ground. There, in a close embrace, he used chess-like movements and positionings to manipulate joints, cut off air to the lungs, and restrict blood to the brain. It was a shot heard ’round the martial arts world, and it would be a central component to mixed martial arts and the UFC itself.

Jet-packing ahead, the next significant moment was in 1997. The UFC, which had been banned around the country and made powerful enemies like the late senator John McCain, who called it “human cockfighting,” scrambled to find a location for its event, and it settled on Dothan, Alabama. While its heavyweight tournament was notable through the debut of MMA legend Vitor Belfort, the biggest touchpoint was the introduction of Joe Rogan. Rogan, pre-podcast, was in the flush of his early NewsRadio fame and still owned a full head of a hair. He handled the floor reporting, which would begin his longtime role with the organization that continues to this day.

The UFC, on the verge of bankruptcy, was sold for $2 million in 2001 to Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta on the advice of their childhood friend, business partner, and fighter agent Dana White. White was quickly announced as president, and under his tenure and the Fertittas’ ownership, the UFC rapidly transformed from spectacle to sport, with no medium more significant than cable television.