UFC Works “On The Fly”
Published by on January 5th, 2008 in History

 Print |  Email |  RSS

 Everything about the Ultimate Fighting Championship was so new at the outset that they could hardly be blamed for making a few rules up on the fly. For example, the original idea had been for the UFC to be a 16-man tournament, with $100,000 going to the winner. But the desire to lower the risk and concerns about being able to recruit enough fighters into the field reduced the roster to eight competitors vying for the $50,000 first prize.

That is not to say some of the fighters were coming to Denver to compete just for the prize money. Actually, they all got a minimum of $1000 just for showing up, but some wanted and got more. For example, Teila Tuli, the sumo wrestler who might not have thought he had much of a chance, received $5000, while Art Jimmerson, the professional boxer, got the astounding total of $20,000. Of course, Jimmerson wasn’t stupid; he had been weaned on dealings with some of the shadier elements in boxing, so he was somewhat experienced in the art of leverage and the art of negotiation, if not thoroughly versed in the martial arts. It is not clear as to whether the other contestants were aware at the time of who was getting something extra.

What would the rules be? Well, the ideal was to have “no rules,” and that was part of the appeal, but of course there had to be some limitations. It was agreed that there would be no eye gouging, no biting and no kicks or punches directly to the groin. This would seem to make it look somewhat civilized, although there were actually a few mild protests over the groin attacks, since some of it was indeed allowed in Thai boxing.

What would the fighters wear on their hands? Well, this was an interesting question, since in the kind of competitions that people were used to seeing up to this time – boxing and kick boxing – gloves were the norm. However, karate experts did not wear gloves during competition, and Royce Gracie certainly didn’t. Finally, it was decided that if the fighter’s discipline entailed bare-knuckles, they could go that route. But if the competitor’s sport involved strikes to the head with a closed fist, they would wear gloves. Of course, none of this, one supposes, would prevent someone like Gracie from hitting his opponent to the head with a bare fist, but at this point everyone was playing it by ear.

Either way, there were no hand wraps allowed to the bare-knuckled fighters, which was a judgment call but perhaps wise, because hand wraps could be manipulated in certain ways, and without a boxing commission around to check the hand wraps, anything could happen.

Fights were scheduled for five rounds of five minutes apiece, but not many people thought the fights would get that far.

Right again.