| UFC 1: The Beginning | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 VHS Box art for UFC 1 | ||||
| Promotion | Ultimate Fighting Championship | |||
| Date | November 12, 1993 | |||
| Venue | McNichols Sports Arena | |||
| City | Denver,Colorado | |||
| Attendance | 7,800[1] | |||
| Buyrate | 86,000[2] | |||
| Event chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (later renamedUFC 1: The Beginning) was the firstmixed martial arts event by theUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC), held at theMcNichols Sports Arena inDenver,Colorado, United States, on November 12, 1993. The event was broadcast live onpay-per-view and later released onhome video.[3][4]
Although the event was the lowest profile by the contemporary standards (the venue was less than half-packed, the grand prize of the tournament was as big as a regularsparring partner's biannual salary, major martial arts observers and columnists did not bother to show up, the press neglected the event,Black Belt mentioned it only several months later, big-name fighters turned down the offers to participate or to make aguest appearance in the audience),[5] it pioneered the interstylistic match-ups between the practitioners of different martial arts, and set the pattern for the futuresporting events of the kind,[6] and introduced theoctagon.
UFC 1 was co-created byRorion Gracie and theTorrance-based UFC promoterArt Davie, who decided to take locally famousGracie Garage Challenge fights versus California's martial artists to a new level, televised nationally, with the opponents picked internationally.[6]
They did not come up with a16-man tournament, as the big-name martial artists, mainly kickboxers, namelyDennis Alexio,Benny Urquidez,Jean-Yves Thériault,Rick Roufus,Stan Longinidis,Maurice Smith,Bart Vale,Hee Il Cho,George Dillman,Gene LeBell,Rob Kaman,Peter Aerts,Ernesto Hoost,Masaaki Satake, were among the others "publicly invited" by Art Davie,[7] but had shown no interest in participating.[5] Davie placed advertisements in martial arts magazines to recruit fighters. He found less than a dozen who answered the call.[6] The promoters came up with an eight-mantournament format, with the winner receiving $50,000.[citation needed]
They wanted it to look brutal on television, soJohn Milius, one of Rorion Gracie's students and a Hollywood veteran who had directedConan the Barbarian, decided the fights should take place in anoctagonal cagefenced with chain link.Campbell McLaren, a SEG executive, wanted people to consider the championship a live, televised version ofMortal Kombat, a popularfighting video game, in which victorious fighters got to"finish" their opponents through moves such asripping their spines out of their bodies. That one and the Davie's idea to top the cage withrazor wire were rejected.[6] UFC promoters initially pitched the event as a real-life fighting video game tournament similar toMortal Kombat andStreet Fighter.[8]
General regulations agreed upon were:
McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, at anelevationabove mean sea level of approximately one mile (1.6 km), had been chosen because Colorado had no athletic commission and thus no governing body from which they would need to get approval for bare-knuckle fighting.[6] The arena had hosted only two fightcards in its history, both of minor significance, occurring earlier in 1993.[11]
The major accomplishment though for the promoters was to gather a celebrity commentary team for the event. The commentary team for the pay-per-view wasBill Wallace,Jim Brown, andKathy Long, with additional analysis fromRod Machado and post-fight interviews byBrian Kilmeade. The ring announcer was Rich Goins.
Jason DeLucia was an alternate for the event, having defeatedTrent Jenkins in the alternate bout. However, as no fighter pulled out during the tournament, he was not called upon.
The tournament featured fights with no weight classes, rounds, or judges. The three rules – no biting, no eye gouging, and no groin shots – were to be enforced only by a $1,500 fine. The match only ended bysubmission,knockout, or the fighter's cornerthrowing in the towel, although the referee stopped the first fight at 26 seconds. Gloves were allowed, asArt Jimmerson showed in his quarterfinal bout againstRoyce Gracie, which he fought with one boxing glove.
Royce Gracie won the tournament by defeatingGerard Gordeau via submission due to arear naked choke.[12] Thereferees forUFC 1 were João Alberto Barreto and Hélio Vigio, two veteranvale tudo referees from Brazil.
| Final | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight class | Method | Round | Time | Notes | |||
| N/A | Royce Gracie | def. | Gerard Gordeau | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 1:44 | ||
| Alternate bout | |||||||
| N/A | Jason DeLucia | def. | Trent Jenkins | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 0:52 | ||
| Semi-finals | |||||||
| N/A | Royce Gracie | def. | Ken Shamrock | Submission (rear-naked choke) | 0:57 | ||
| N/A | Gerard Gordeau | def. | Kevin Rosier | TKO (corner stoppage) | 0:59 | ||
| Quarter-finals | |||||||
| N/A | Ken Shamrock | def. | Patrick Smith | Submission (heel hook) | 1:49 | ||
| N/A | Royce Gracie | def. | Art Jimmerson | Submission (smother choke) | 2:18 | ||
| N/A | Kevin Rosier | def. | Zane Frazier | TKO (punches) | 4:20 | ||
| N/A | Gerard Gordeau | def. | Teila Tuli | TKO (head kick) | 0:26 | ||
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
 Gerard Gordeau(Savate) | TKO | |||||||||
 Teila Tuli(Sumo) | 0:26 | |||||||||
| Gerard Gordeau | TKO | |||||||||
| Kevin Rosier | 0:59 | |||||||||
| Kevin Rosier (Kickboxing) | TKO | |||||||||
| Zane Frazier (Kenpo) | 4:20 | |||||||||
| Gerard Gordeau | 1:40 | |||||||||
 Royce Gracie | SUB | |||||||||
| Royce Gracie (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) | SUB | |||||||||
| Art Jimmerson (Boxing) | 2:18 | |||||||||
| Royce Gracie | SUB | |||||||||
| Ken Shamrock | 0:57 | |||||||||
| Ken Shamrock (Shootfighting) | SUB | |||||||||
| Patrick Smith (Taekwondo) | 1:49 | |||||||||
The event and its outcome catapultedGracie Jiu-Jitsu (also known as Brazilian jiu-jitsu) to new heights in the United States and worldwide. Its gate andpay-per-view buys ensured that there would be more UFCs in the near future, which proved to be the case.[6] The event sold nearly 90,000 live pay-per-view buys, in addition to drawing new audiences throughvideo rental stores such asBlockbuster Video.[13]
The following fighters were honored in the October 2011 book titledUFC Encyclopedia.[14]
