With the WEC eliminating his weight class, Hendricks had to find another place to fight and chose to make the jump to the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC ).

Silva, who is the reigning UFC Middleweight Champion, went on to knock out Vitor Belfort with a kick, in their fight at UFC 126 in February 2011, and Machida also credited him for helping him perfect the crane kick that he used to knock out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in May 2011.

In April 1995, following UFC 5 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Davie and Gracie sold their interest in the franchise to SEG and disbanded WOW Promotions.

After the long battle to secure sanctioning, SEG stood on the brink of bankruptcy when Station Casinos executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and their business partner Dana White approached them in 2000, with an offer to purchase the UFC.

After a very successful run on Spike and with the upcoming announcement of the UFC's new relationship with Fox, Spike officials made a statement regarding the end of their partnership with the UFC, “ The Ultimate Fighter season 14 in September will be our last ... Our 6-year partnership with the UFC has been incredibly beneficial in building both our brands, and we wish them all the best in the future .”

At the time, the UFC had an exclusive deal with Spike, so the purchase of the WEC allowed Zuffa to block the IFL from Versus without violating their contract.

A fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Mark Coleman in the Japanese, ring-based Pride Fighting Championships | Pride organization. On March 27, 2007, the UFC and their Japan-based rival the Pride Fighting Championships announced an agreement in which the majority owners of the UFC, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, would purchase the Pride brand.

As a result of the merger, the UFC absorbed WEC's bantamweight, featherweight and lightweight weight divisions and their respective fighters.

The UFC also made the last WEC Featherweight and Bantamweight Champions, José Aldo and Dominick Cruz respectively, the inaugural UFC Champions of their new weight divisions.

Yet later, when, in accordance with United Fruit Company's tax claims, the Árbenz Government offered to pay the UFC at the misrepresentative $ 3-per-acre rate, the United Fruit Company claimed that the true value of their land was $ 75 per acre, but refused to explain the increase of the financial-worth determination of the agricultural land.

Former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida holds a 3rd dan black belt in Shotokan karate, while his brother Shinzo holds a 4th dan and their father Yoshizo holds a 7th dan and was head of the Japan Karate Association's Brazilian branch.

I can beat those UFC fighters at their own game.

Filipović developed a friendship with Patrick Barry following their fight at UFC 115.

In 2006 DSE announced it would showcase Pride alongside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, North America's largest MMA event, and would be integrating their fighters, including Wanderlei Silva and Kazuyuki Fujita, at a UFC MMA show in November.

On June 4, 2012, THQ publicly announced a deal with Electronic Arts that turned over their license to UFC games.

During that event the UFC met with the Independent Labour Party, led by M. J. Coldwell, to discuss their options.

Admirable Mixed Martial Arts Fighters including UFC Legend Kimo Leopoldo were recognized with good-humor for their outstanding accomplishments while being ridiculed in a heartwarming fashion.

Kimo was best known at this time as the man who ended Royce Gracie's consecutive UFC tournament wins dating back to their fight at UFC 3.

After defending his UFC title at UFC 8, Shamrock was scheduled to face number one contender and rival Dan Severn at UFC 9 in a rematch of their fight at UFC 6, which Shamrock won by guillotine choke in 2: 14.

He is also a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and former # 1 ranked mixed martial arts ( MMA ) Heavyweight by Sherdog ; he was ranked # 5 before he announced his retirement at the end of 2011.

During his reign as the UFC Superfight Champion, he was widely considered the # 1 mixed martial artist in the world.

On September 9, 1994, Shamrock returned to the octagon at UFC 3 in an event that was marketed by the UFC as the ultimate rematch between two-time champion Royce Gracie and # 1 contender Ken Shamrock.

The ' superfight ', a match presented as a fight between the " best of the best ", was still the match that would determine the UFC champion and the tournament winners would be considered the # 1 contender for the newly created UFC Superfight Championship, the first single world MMA championship outside of Japan.

In December 2000, Pride tried to set up a dream fight between Ken Shamrock and then current PRIDE Grand Prix Champion, former UFC Heavyweight Champion and consensus # 1 ranked heavyweight Mark Coleman.

Shamrock was the # 1 ranked pound for pound fighter in the world during his reign as the UFC Middleweight Champion.

Hendricks fought longtime World Number # 2 Welterweight Jon Fitch on December 30, 2011 at UFC 141.

He was one of the four # 1 seeds in the tournament and his first fight was against MMA newcomer ( and future UFC champion ) Frank Shamrock.

# redirect List of UFC champions

Where scoring takes place it may be a subsidiary measure, only used if no clear winner has been established by other means ; in some competitions, such as the UFC 1, there was no scoring, though most now use some form of judging as a backup.

This was the origin of the first Ultimate Fighting Championship tournament ( later renamed UFC 1: The Beginning ) in the U. S. inspired by the Brazilian Vale tudo tradition and along with other minimal rule competitions, most notably those from Japan such as Shooto and Pancrase, have evolved into the combat sport of Mixed Martial Arts ( MMA ).

Because of mixed martial arts ' relatively unknown status within India, and its population of 1. 2 billion, Fertitta claimed that India would be a viable market to expand the UFC brand, however challenging.

The organization hit a milestone with UFC 66, pitting Ortiz in a rematch against Liddell with over 1 million buys.

UFC 100 was a massive success garnering 1. 7 million buys under the drawing power of former NCAA wrestling champion and current WWE superstar Brock Lesnar and his rematch with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir, Canadian superstar Georges St-Pierre going head-to-head with Brazilian knockout artist Thiago Alves, and Pride legend Dan Henderson opposing British middleweight Michael Bisping ; rival coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom.

UFC 129 shattered previous North American gate and attendance records. This momentum carried into the summer of 2010 at UFC 116, which featured the return of Brock Lesnar defending his UFC Heavyweight title against the undefeated interim-champion Shane Carwin before 1. 25 million PPV viewers.

| UFC 1: The Beginning

Their 2010 measurements found samples taken at Ponte Tresa, Ostene and Port Ceresio to be " Heavily Polluted " ( more than 1, 000 UFC / 100ml intestinal enterococci and / or greater than E. coli 2000 UFC / 100ml ).

One night during the show, João Alberto Barreto ( later a referee for UFC 1 ) was competing against a man trained in Luta Livre.

Shamrock's opponent in the semi finals of UFC 1 was Royce Gracie.

On April 9, 2005, the most important event in UFC history to that point took place, the The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale.

** UFC Superfight Championship ( 1 time, first )

** UFC 1 Tournament Semifinalist