In this article, we will discuss Seven things you need to know if you want to start watching the UFC.
Seven things you need to know if you want to start watching the UFC
‘As real as it gets,’ that’s the UFC, the fastest-growing sports organization in the world today. The Ultimate Fighting Championship began in 1993 and has operated as a mixed martial arts (MMA) organization for over 18 years.
To understand this sport better, we will simplify how it works and explain that, although many people think it is a ‘wild’ sport where anything goes, it is a mixture of styles and skills where respect between fighters is fundamental.
What exactly is Mixed Martial Arts?
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) originated in the 1920s with the well-known ‘Vale Tudo’, developed in Brazil and imported to the USA thanks to the Gracie family.
This sport was much more brutal and less regulated than the current MMA, which has become popular in many countries mainly due to the arrival of the Internet. In fact, many people decide to watch and learn more about UFC odds to make seeing the fights even more exciting.
This discipline combines almost all contact styles, allowing both standing fighting (striking) and ground fighting (grappling). Therefore, MMA is a contact sport in different disciplines, such as boxing, jiu-jitsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Maui-Thai, judo, taekwondo, karate, kung Fu, and kickboxing.
Requirements and basic equipment
The octagon:
Although many people think it is to make the show more sadistic by the fact of enclosing two fighters in a cage, the case is that it is quite the opposite. It is always to ensure the wrestler’s safety since being able to take the fight to the ground would be the possibility of falling out, which is avoided with the grids.
The commission must approve Gloves and bandages to regulate the event:
The weight is 113 grams, and the fingers must be uncovered to allow the grip. The bandage must be a soft gauze cloth with its corresponding measurements and must be put on in the presence of the commission and the rival corner manager. If the mouth guard is unintentionally displaced during the fight, the referee must stop the fight.
Clothing:
Wearing shoes or any bandage on the feet is forbidden. T-shirts are only allowed for female fighters -Time limit and rounds: Regular bouts are three rounds. All title fights or stellar fights are five rounds with a duration of five minutes and a one-minute rest between them.
Doping tests:
They are randomly applied according to the regulations of each state or country without restrictions.
Is it a fight without rules?
People who do not know this sport are often tempted to label the show as something violent, where anything goes and just looking for morbidity, with a certain similarity to the gladiator fights in the Roman coliseum, but despite having its beginnings in the “Vale Tudo” (meaning = anything goes/everything allowed), there are infinite rules to protect the fighter and ensure their safety. Blows in dangerous areas (neck, spine, genitals, etc.), manipulation of small joints (fingers), biting, sticking fingers in the eyes or other types of ‘dirty actions’, more typical of a street fight, are forbidden.
How can a fight end?
By way of knockout (K.O.):
It is the one that every fighter wants to get since, besides being the most spectacular, it is the one that lifts the fans out of their seats. It is when a fighter is unconscious, disoriented, or unable to perform his defense.
Technical knockout (TKO):
The referee stops the fight for lack of response and defense of one of the fighters.
Submission:
A fighter gets his opponent to surrender or faint with a strangulation or key. There is a tendency to think that this type of finish requires more skill and strategy.
Via decision
Unanimity: All the three judges agree on the winner.
Split: two judges choose the same winner, and the third judge decides the other fighter.
Majority: two judges choose the same winner, and the third judge votes tie.
Majority Tie: two judges vote for a tie, and the third judge selects the winner.
Fighters are not born; they are made! UFC fighters are athletes who have dedicated many years of effort and sacrifice to become professional fighters.
Many of them fight in smaller competitions to improve and expand their contact styles until they reach the holy grail of organizations:
the UFC. they train many hours a week, which makes it a full-time job, and their exercises include training with sparring partners, to prepare a specific strategy depending on the fight that touches them.it is essential to recover after the fights and training.
The doctors are the ones who decide how long they have to rest until their next fight, depending on the hardness of the fight (bruises, injuries, breaks).
Who are the UFC’s biggest stars?
Many stars have made this sport reach unimaginable heights. From Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and a long list of fighters who have taken the sport to the top of contact sports, special mention for Emelianenko, considered the best martial artist, although he has never stepped into the UFC octagon.
Fighter awards
The highest-paid fighters can earn between 300,000 and 500,000 dollars per fight, although they also get an unknown percentage of what is generated in Pay Per View. There are also prizes for the performance of the night, the K.O. of the night, etc.
In some cases, if the fighter is a favorite and has many followers, they can earn a million dollars (this is the case of Conor McGregor, one of the most famous fighters of all time).
This was for the Seven things you need to know if you want to start watching the UFC.
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