Ultimate Fighting Championships

Vicious Kicking, Throttling and Wounding in a Blood Spattered Cage!
Just How Did This Become Our Fastest Growing Sport?

CONTROVERSIAL and barbaric, it is one of the fastest growing sports on the planet - the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Critics of UFC have branded it nothing more than "human cockfighting". The ring is enclosed by a 6ft high cage and the combatants can PUNCH, KICK, THROW and CHOKE their opponent, in fact, there is very little they are not allowed to do - although refs draw the line at eye-gouging and head-butting.
 
In the murky world of UFC fighters aim to take down their opponent in whatever way they see fit. The defeated leave the ring weary and bleeding - the triumphant exhausted and covered in their opponent's blood.
 
For this reason UFC has attracted mass criticism since it began in 1993.
 
The fight-to-the-death nature is seen by many as nothing short of a pure blood sport, and some have even called for a ban. Yet the stomach-churning battles sell out venues in hours and have celebrity fans. Just recently saw the biggest event in Britain so far - a clash between the UK Not Michael "The Count" Bisping and US fighter Matt Hamill at the 02 Dome in London. Around 20,000 were there to watch the two men battle it out - the fight at the 02 Dome was a sell-out where twice the number of tickets were snapped up than were sold for boxer Amir Khan's fight there.
 
Whether dangerous or not, no one can argue with the sport's popularity. This year UFC events have been held at Belfast and Manchester, with tickets also a sellout. The Manchester event also cleaned up on merchandise - it outsold Take That's merchandise. Many fighters are now starting their own clothing ranges. 
 
UFC is already big business in America. Fighters are household names and command millions of pounds per fight. Until recently it was relatively unheard of in Britain. But with the help of home-grown talent such as Bisping the sport has swept the country and is proving more popular than any other martial art.
 
What makes UFC unique is that competitors are allowed to use ANY style of fighting to get the job done.This means in a single match fans are likely to see a combination of boxing, wrestling, kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Fighters need strength, power and to be skilled in all martial arts. A good boxer will be effective against another upright fighter but if he can't grapple he will soon be pinned to the ground and beaten.
 
In short, only the truly hard should take up this combat. The aim is to incapacitate your opponent to the point that they can't fight any more. The winner is declared by a referee when one man is COMPLETELY subdued by the other. Points are rewarded for successful strikes and attacks. And points are deducted if a fighter is being too timid. Although this encourages a do-or-die attitude in the ring, UFC chiefs insist it is safe.

There have been no deaths since the sport began, compared to an average of 18 a year in boxing.
The worst injury ever sustained in UFC is a broken arm.

UK champion Bisping, a 28-year-old father of two from Liverpool, is a typical example of an ultimate fighter.He has spent the last couple of years competing in the US and loves to fight."We're starting to see the sport catch on big time over here," says Bisping. "I give it ten years before it's as well known as boxing. "UFC takes far more than boxing on the pay-per-view channels. It's just a case of getting kids to take up the sport to really make it part of British life.

 
 adapted from 'The Sun' 5th September 2007
 Reporter Nick Francis