Ultimate Fighting Championship facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
UFC Holdings, LLC

Trade name	UFC
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Mixed martial arts Streaming media
Founded	November 12, 1993; 31 years ago (1993-11-12)
Founders	Art Davie Bob Meyrowitz Campbell McLaren David Isaacs John Milius Rorion Gracie
Headquarters	Las Vegas, Nevada , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Ari Emanuel (CEO, TKO) Dana White (President & CEO)
Products	Home video Live events Merchandise Publishing Streaming network service TV
Services	Licensing
Revenue	US$1.3 billion (2023)
Operating income	US$$142.9 million (2023)
Net income	US$387 million (2022)
Total assets	US$1.1 billion (2022)
Total equity	US$7 billion (2022)
Number of employees	~400 (2016)
Parent	TKO Group Holdings
Divisions	UFC Apex UFC Fight Pass UFC Performance Institute

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA promotion in the world as of 2023. It produces events worldwide that showcase 11 weight divisions (eight men's and three women's) and abides by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. As of 2022^[update], it had held over 600 events. Dana White has been its president since 2001 and CEO since 2023. Under White's stewardship, it has grown into a global multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

History

The UFC was founded by businessman Art Davie and Brazilian martial artist Rorion Gracie, and the first event was held in 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the UFC's early competitions was to identify the most effective martial art in a contest with minimal rules and no weight classes between competitors of different fighting disciplines. In subsequent events, more rigorous rules were created and fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create a separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

The UFC was initially owned by the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) until it had financial issues and it was sold to the brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta in 2001, who formed the company Zuffa to operate the UFC, and placed Dana White as the president of the company. In 2016, UFC's parent company, Zuffa, was sold to a group led by Endeavor, then known as William Morris Endeavor (WME–IMG), including Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and MSD Capital for US$4.025 billion. In 2021, Endeavor bought out Zuffa's other owners at a valuation of $1.7 billion. The organization had 578 fighters contracted as of January 2023.

With a TV deal and expansion in Australia, Asia, Europe, and new markets within the United States, the UFC has achieved greater mainstream media coverage. It earned US$609 million in 2015, and its next domestic media rights agreement with ESPN was valued at $1.5 billion over a five-year term.

In April 2023, Endeavor Group Holdings announced that UFC would merge with the wrestling promotion WWE to form TKO Group Holdings, a new public company majority-owned by Endeavor, with Vince McMahon serving as an executive chairman of the new entity and White remaining as UFC president. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023.

Facilities

UFC Apex

The UFC Apex is a live events and production facility. The facility was officially opened on June 18, 2019. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, several UFC events (including UFC 250) were held at Apex behind closed doors. The Octagon at the Apex is notable for being smaller than the Octagon used at all other UFC events, with 25-foot width rather than the usual 30-feet.

UFC Performance Institute

The UFC Performance Institute is the official mixed martial arts school for UFC. The building is located in Las Vegas, Nevada opposite the UFC Apex. The institute was opened in 2017, and is the world's first mixed martial arts center for innovation, research and training. As many as 400 MMA athletes have visited the center, as well as NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB athletes.

In June 2019, a second facility was opened in Shanghai, China. In 2021, UFC was named the official "high performance advisor" of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC), under which the Performance Institute in Shanghai would be designated as an official high performance training facility of the COC, and would offer access to its resources for Chinese athletes training to compete in the Olympic Games.

In February 2024, the third Performance Institute was opened in Mexico City, Mexico.

Impact on MMA regulations

The current rules used in the UFC were first established by the New Jersey Athletic Control Board in 2000, in consultation with the UFC and other MMA promotions in the United States. The first UFC event under the new rules was UFC 28, held before Zuffa's takeover. New Jersey's Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts has since been established throughout the country by other state athletic commissions, including Nevada and California. The UFC has, however, kept close ties with state commissions, especially the Nevada State Athletic Commission, of which Lorenzo Fertitta is a former board member.

Weight divisions and current champions

The UFC currently uses nine weight classes: Updated as of April 13, 2024, after UFC 300.

Weight class name	Minimum Weight (lb)	Upper limit		Gender	Current champion	Since	Ref	Days held	Defenses	Next Fight	Ref
		in pounds (lb)	in kilograms (kg)
Strawweight	None	115	52.2	Women	Zhang Weili	November 12, 2022		770	2	TBD
Flyweight	116	125	56.7	Men	Alexandre Pantoja	July 8, 2023		532	2	TBD
				Women	Alexa Grasso	March 4, 2023		658	1	TBD
Bantamweight	126	135	61.2	Men	Sean O'Malley	August 19, 2023		490	1	TBD
				Women	Raquel Pennington	January 20, 2024		336	0	TBD
Featherweight	136	145	65.8	Men	Ilia Topuria	February 17, 2024		308	0	TBD
Lightweight	146	155	70.3	Men	Islam Makhachev	October 22, 2022		791	2	UFC 302 - Dustin Poirier
Welterweight	156	170	77.6	Men	Leon Edwards	August 20, 2022		854	2	TBD
Middleweight	171	185	83.9	Men	Dricus du Plessis	January 20, 2024		336	0	TBD
Light Heavyweight	186	205	93.0	Men	Alex Pereira	November 11, 2023		406	1	TBD
Heavyweight	206	265	120.2	Men	Jon Jones	March 4, 2023		658	0	TBD
					Tom Aspinall (interim)	November 11, 2023		406	0	TBD

Non-title fights have a one-pound leniency. In title fights, the participants must weigh no more than that permitted for the relevant weight division. The Commission may also approve catch weight bouts, subject to their review and discretion. For example, the Commission may still decide to allow the contest the maximum weight allowed is 177 pounds if it feels that the contest would still be fair, safe, and competitive. In addition, there are five weight classes specified in the Unified Rules which the UFC does not currently use: Super Lightweight (165 pounds), Super Welterweight (175 pounds), Super Middleweight (195 pounds), Cruiserweight (225 pounds), and Super Heavyweight (>265 pounds).

Roster

As of 20 October 2020, the UFC roster consisted of fighters from 71 countries.

Pound-for-pound

As of January 27, 2020, it was announced through Twitter by Bruno Massami that the UFC has decided to separate its pound-for-pound ranking. Men and women will have their own pound-for-pound rankings.

Men's pound-for-pound ranking

Rankings updated on February 20, 2024, after UFC 298.

Rank	ISO	Fighter	Record	Win Streak	M	Weight class	Status	Next fight
								Event	Opponent	Ref.
1		Islam Makhachev	25–1	13		Lightweight	Lightweight Champion
2		Jon Jones	27–1 (1 NC)	5		Heavyweight	Heavyweight Champion
3		Leon Edwards	22–3 (1 NC)	4	+1	Welterweight	Welterweight Champion
4		Alex Pereira	9–2	2	+1	Light heavyweight	Light heavyweight Champion	UFC 300	Jamahal Hill
5		Ilia Topuria	15–0	15		Featherweight	Featherweight Champion
6		Charles Oliveira	34–9 (1 NC)	1		Lightweight	#1 in lightweight rankings	UFC 300	Arman Tsarukyan
7		Alexander Volkanovski	26–4	0	−4	Featherweight	#1 in featherweight rankings
8		Sean O'Malley	17–1 (1 NC)	2	−1	Bantamweight	Bantamweight Champion	UFC 299	Marlon Vera
9		Dricus du Plessis	21–2	9	−1	Middleweight	Middleweight Champion
10		Alexandre Pantoja	27–5	5	−1	Flyweight	Flyweight Champion	UFC 301	Stephen Erceg
11		Israel Adesanya	24–3	0	−1	Middleweight	#2 in middleweight rankings
12		Tom Aspinall	14–3	2		Heavyweight	Interim Heavyweight Champion
13		Sean Strickland	28–6	0	−2	Middleweight	#1 in middleweight rankings
14		Max Holloway	25–7	2		Featherweight	#2 in featherweight rankings	UFC 300	Justin Gaethje
15		Aljamain Sterling	23–4	0	−3	Bantamweight	#2 in bantamweight rankings	UFC 300	Calvin Kattar

Women's pound-for-pound ranking

Rankings updated on February 20, 2024, after UFC 298.

Rank	ISO	Fighter	Record	Win Streak	M	Weight class	Status	Next fight
								Event	Opponent	Ref.
1		Alexa Grasso	16–3–1	0		Flyweight	Flyweight Champion
2		Zhang Weili	24–3	3		Strawweight	Strawweight Champion	UFC 300	Yan Xiaonan
3		Valentina Shevchenko	23–4–1	0		Flyweight	#1 in flyweight rankings
4		Erin Blanchfield	12–1	9		Flyweight	#2 in flyweight rankings	UFC Fight Night 241	Manon Fiorot
5		Julianna Peña	11–5	0		Bantamweight	#1 in bantamweight rankings
6		Manon Fiorot	11–1	11		Flyweight	#3 in flyweight rankings	UFC Fight Night 241	Erin Blanchfield
7		Raquel Pennington	16–8	6		Bantamweight	Bantamweight Champion
8		Rose Namajunas	11–6	0		Flyweight		UFC Fight Night 240	Amanda Ribas
9		Tatiana Suarez	10–0	10		Strawweight	#2 in strawweight rankings
10		Yan Xiaonan	17–3 (1 NC)	2		Strawweight	#1 in strawweight rankings	UFC 300	Zhang Weili
11		Jéssica Andrade	25–12	1		Flyweight Strawweight	#5 in flyweight rankings #4 in strawweight rankings	UFC 300	Marina Rodriguez
12		Amanda Lemos	14–3–1	1		Strawweight	#3 in strawweight rankings
13		Ketlen Vieira	14–3	1		Bantamweight	#3 in bantamweight rankings
14		Irene Aldana	15–7	1		Bantamweight	#4 in bantamweight rankings
15		Mayra Bueno Silva	10–3 (1 NC)	0		Bantamweight	#2 in bantamweight rankings

UFC records

UFC Hall of Fame

Images for kids

• 

  The former logo of the UFC, used from 1993 to 1999

• 

  Royce Gracie used Brazilian jiu-jitsu in the early years of UFC to defeat opponents of greater size and strength.

• 

  UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock was instrumental in the UFC's turnaround into a mainstream sport.

• 

  A fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Mark Coleman in the Japanese, ring-based PRIDE organization. During its heyday, PRIDE was considered bigger than the UFC in terms of audience and quality of fights

• 

  Ronda Rousey was the first female UFC champion. She defended her 135-pound Bantamweight Championship from February 23, 2013, to November 15, 2015.

See also

In Spanish: Ultimate Fighting Championship para niños

• List of UFC champions
• List of UFC events
• List of current UFC fighters
• List of UFC bonus award recipients
• UFC Fight Pass