America is home to the Pentagon, one of the most prestigious buildings in the world where security is at its peak. Even more intimidating than the Pentagon though is the Octagon, where some of the world’s finest fighters face each other to fight their hearts out after many months of hard training. The Ultimate Fighting Championship was established in 1993 in America, imitating the Brazilian sport known as Vale Todo (anything goes). When it comes to the UFC, there are a plethora of fighters who are trained in many different forms of martial arts, which is why it can also be known as MMA (mixed martial arts). These matches consist of various ways to win, such as knocking opponents out, tapping out to submissions, or if the fight lasts for all of the rounds, judges will decide who the winner is.
There are countless number of fighting styles in the UFC. A few of the disastrous fighting styles include Brazilian jiu jitsu, wrestling, or sophomore Tristian Watson’s favorite style, “Muay Thai.” A few of the skilled fighters possessing these special fighting styles include Anderson-The Spider-Silva, Diego-The Dream-Sanchez, George St. Pierre (better known as G.S.P.) and Jon-Bone-Jones. Watson’s favorite fighter is Jon Jones “because he is a great fighter, and I watch a lot of tape on him to mimic his fighting style.” Jones in this past year has been one of the most successful fighters in the UFC, winning a title and successfully defending it twice. Now though Jones has to face the daunting task of going against a longtime friend who was closer than a brother. The set date for their match was on April 21st 2012; it was a date two friends who swore to never fight each other faced each other for the championship belt that ended their friendship. This fight had a lot of hype built up for it, and senior Noah Rice said, “The fight didn’t live up to its hype, but it was still good.” The fight lasted all five rounds and went to the judges to score the fight and declare the winner by unanimous decision: Jon Bones Jones. Jones during the fight landed 105 strikes and got one takedown, while Rashad Evans only landed 45 strikes and a tick in his loss column. Now that all of the drama has passed from these two, it has been speculated that Jones’ next title defense could very well be against Dan Henderson.
Different styles will, of course, come with different types of moves to use during the fight. Take for instance Brazilian jiu jitsu, a form of martial arts that focuses primarily on chokeholds, grappling, and submissions such as the arm-bar, which is a potential arm breaking move if the fighter chooses not to tap out. Muay Thai focuses mainly on pure devastating strikes when the fighters are standing up, which would include moves that Rice enjoys seeing, such as the “Superman punch, or flying knee because they prove to be the quickest knockouts; simply stated, they are explosive and exciting.” Jon Jones and Anderson Silva are great examples of these types of fighters because of the way they utilize their skills. Jones has become known for his spinning backwards elbow, which he uses to demolish opponents out of nowhere. Silva, on the other hand, is able to toy with his opponent throughout the whole match until he finds it suitable to grasp the opposing fighter’s neck and thrust knees into his head until he forgets where he is.
Wrestling is probably the oldest form of fighting, but this method is very useful in a fight if the fighter aims to gain points on takedowns. Two of the fighters skilled in this area of fighting are Diego Sanchez and G.S.P. In one of Sanchez’s more recent matches, he picked his opponent up and ran across the octagon, slamming him down with authority. As far as G.S.P. goes, there are no parallels to his greatness; fans, announcers, and opponents have described him as being a machine because he is so calm and calculated with his approach, never missing a beat.
The UFC is a sport unlike any other in this world. In 2001 the business was put under new ownership after being purchased by Frank Fertitta, Dana White, and Lorenzo Fertitta with a growing fan base that will not slow down. The UFC has become the quickest growing sport ever in sport history by operating twelve pay per view fights each year. These pay per views offer the UFC fan base a way to view these fights without paying a huge sum of money to see the fight live. The UFC also has a reality show to choose which lucky winner will be the next fighter in the octagon. The show is known as The Ultimate Fighter, and it consists of two coaches, two teams, and sixteen fighters who gave up their lives to become the next Ultimate Fighter. The most recent event for UFC is its appearance on FOX and Fuel TV, giving the fan base more than just the internet to keep up with the fights that happen. On a worldwide basis, UFC is broadcasting out to over 149 different countries in over 20 different languages. The common denominator in every country is that every person, whether it be male or female, loves to see people get the life, literally, beat out of them. Why else would the Romans have built so many coliseums for jousters and gladiators to go at it with each other?
This sport is not one where someone can just jump in willy nilly and immediately receive the skills. These fighters are not born; they are molded into tenacious fighters by their coaches and encouraged by their friends and families. Even if the fighters cannot be born great fighters, they can be born with great will and determination, which separates the inferior from the superior. Watson has said if the chance were to present itself, “I would join the UFC because it is what I have always wanted to do,” which is going to be the typical answer expected from a zealous UFC champion in the making.
UFC is going to continue growing into one of the most thrilling sports to watch. No matter what happens, the fighters will never lose that "never say die" attitude, and they will keep fighting to pay the bills. As a disclaimer, this is not something that should be practiced without expert supervision. A broken bone to an arm-bar happening in the backyard will not be the highlight of anyone’s day.