The Blog

 Introduction UFC 10: The Tournament. July 12, 1996. Birmingham, Alabama's Fair Park Arena. The tournament format was back — and it arrived with the most dominant debut performance in the sport's history. Mark Coleman, a two-time All-American wrestler and former Olympic competitor, stepped into the UFC Octagon and dismantled every opponent he faced. In one night, he invented a style of fighting that would define the sport for a decade. Coleman became known as the Godfather of Ground and Pound —

 Introduction UFC 9: Motor City Madness. May 17, 1996. The Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan hosted the most politically beleaguered show in UFC history — and one of the most controversial fights the sport has ever produced. Dan Severn and Ken Shamrock took the Octagon for their rematch. The Michigan State Athletic Commission, under intense pressure from Senator John McCain's 'human cockfighting' campaign, imposed a special condition: no closed-fist strikes to the head. The result was 30 minutes o

 Introduction UFC 8: David vs. Goliath. February 16, 1996. The UFC left the continental United States for the first time, landing in Bayamón, Puerto Rico — the only UFC event the island has ever hosted. The Ruben Rodriguez Coliseum hosted a night of debuts, drama, and two of the most memorable moments in the promotion's early history. Gary 'Big Daddy' Goodridge locked Paul Herrera in a crucifix position and ended his UFC career — and very nearly his life — with a sequence of elbows that remains

 Introduction UFC 7: The Brawl in Buffalo. September 8, 1995. Nine thousand fans packed the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York — the UFC's largest crowd to date — to watch the promotion make its New York debut. They got a historic night: a record-breaking crowd, a Superfight that went to another draw, and one of the most significant tournament performances in early UFC history. Marco Ruas — a Brazilian Vale Tudo champion making his UFC debut — introduced the sport to something it had never

 Introduction UFC 6: Clash of the Titans arrived on July 14, 1995, at the Casper Events Center in Wyoming — the smallest market the UFC had ever visited. Two thousand seven hundred fans filed into the arena to witness what the promotion had been building toward since UFC 5: the crowning of the UFC's first champion outside of a tournament setting. Ken Shamrock vs. Dan Severn. The Superfight rematch. A title that nobody had yet claimed. Shamrock answered the question in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. A

 Introduction UFC 5: The Return of the Beast. On April 7, 1995, the Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina hosted the most anticipated night in the UFC's young history. The card featured the first-ever UFC Superfight — a special championship match outside the tournament format in which Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock would finally settle their rivalry once and for all. For the winner: a bespoke UFC Championship belt, and the undisputed title of the world's best fighter. What followed was

 Introduction UFC 4: Revenge of the Warriors. Even the name told a story. After the chaos of UFC 3 — Gracie's exhausted withdrawal, an alternate champion, a rulebook in need of repair — the fourth event promised resolution. On December 16, 1994, the Expo Square Pavilion in Tulsa, Oklahoma hosted a night that delivered exactly that: Royce Gracie back on top, more dominant and more mythologised than ever. The field was the strongest assembled to date. Dan Severn — a two-time NCAA Division I All-Am

 Introduction UFC 3: The American Dream arrived on September 9, 1994 as the sport's most chaotic and consequential night to date. For the first time in its brief history, the tournament ended without Royce Gracie standing victorious. Instead, the Grady Cole Center in Charlotte, North Carolina witnessed a card defined by injury, exhaustion, and a replacement fighter nobody expected to compete — let alone walk out as champion. The card had been built around a presumed Gracie vs. Shamrock final — J

 Introduction Four months after the UFC's explosive debut, the promotion returned to Denver with something even more ambitious: a 16-man tournament. UFC 2: No Way Out, held on March 11, 1994 at Mammoth Gardens, doubled the first event's bracket size, raised the prize money to $60,000, and introduced the world to referee Big John McCarthy — a man who would define UFC officiating for the next decade. The result was the same as UFC 1, but the message was even louder. Royce Gracie went through four

IntroductionMartin Kampmann was one of the most technically gifted welterweights of his era — a Danish striker trained in Copenhagen who produced two of the most celebrated single-fight finishes in UFC welterweight history: the Dan Hardy standing guillotine choke and the Carlos Condit fourth-round TKO that still stands as one of the best late-round comebacks at 170 lb. Kampmann passed away on February 11, 2023 at the age of 39, following a courageous battle with glioblastoma multiforme brain can

Antonio Silva — universally known as Bigfoot — is the most medically unique heavyweight in UFC history.

IntroductionChad Mendes is the most accomplished featherweight wrestler in modern UFC history and the only fighter to challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight championship twice. A Hanford, California-born Team Alpha Male wrestler who produced two of the most competitive Aldo title fights of the champion's nine-year championship era, Mendes combined the most elite-level takedown ability in the featherweight division with a devastating right hand that produced 12 of his 18 career wins by knockou