Is The UFC Fake or scripted?

in short, no the UFC is not fake, unlike the WWE or other “wrestling” organisations which take place in a ring and are 100% scripted.

The UFC is a real life MMA promotion which contracts some of the world’s most skilled martial artists. These fighters sign a contract to fight against an opponent and they are then scheduled to step into what is called “The Octagon” in the UFC, but is usually a ring or cage in other MMA promotions like Bellator. These fighters will then battle for dominance, with one fighter leaving victorious.

The whole purpose of the UFC is to find “The Ultimate Fighter” on planet Earth, hence the name “Ultimate Fighting Championship” (UFC). The promotion was set up in order to find out who the best fighters are on the planet. MMA is supposed to mimic a real fight as closely as possible, which is why so many different fighting tactics are allowed, such as ; boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, Sambo, Judo etc. etc.

In order to find out who really is the best fighter on the planet, the fights cannot be staged or scripted, otherwise the result would not be genuine.

There will always be people who think that a particular fight was ‘staged’ or that one fighter was paid to take a dive, in order for the UFC to push one fighter’s popularity, so they can make more money off his, or her, fame, but there is no evidence whatsoever that the UFC has ever engaged in fight fixing.

Sport fixing does happen across pretty much all sports in the world. People pay a sports-star to do a particular action, so that a lot of other rich people can make money from betting on that thing happening. It has allegedly happened in boxing, football, cricket and even in MMA before; Bob Sapp has, allegedly, been engaged in fight fixing while at PRIDE. However, the UFC has never officially been found to fix fights.

When Dana White started the UFC back in 1993, he wanted the organisation to do everything which the sport of boxing didn’t; Make sure top stars actually fought each other, be completley free of corruption, and definitely avoid any fight fixing. It is therfore very unlikely that the UFC would suddenly turn around and decide to fix fights for their own benefit.

Do fighters sometimes cheat in the UFC? Yes, but this is not done with the UFC’s consent. Fighters who take steroids before competing are caught and receive bans from fighting. When a fighter does get caught cheating, they are usually released from the UFC and they can’t fight for Dana White (UFC President) ever again.

Does the UFC create certain story narratives for individual fighters? Yes, absolutely, that is part of fighter marketing. Human beings respond to stories very positively, that’s why you see it in product advertising so often. However, these are just stories which make the fighters more relatable to the MMA audience and they are used to sell tickets. It does not mean that the UFC are then fixing fights to keep those narratives alive.

So, to sum up; UFC fights are 100% real, and not scripted at all, unlike the WWE.

This post is part of a wider series on “what is the UFC“