People often get confused and think that the UFC is the same thing as MMA. However, they are different.
MMA refers to the sport of mixed martial arts. Whereas, UFC is an MMA promotion (meaning they are a company which puts on sanctioned MMA fights). There are plenty of MMA promotions in the world, such as; Bellator, Cage Warriors, One FC etc. but the UFC is the world’s largest and most popular promotion.
If you’re looking for a full explanation on the difference between them, then have a read of our guide on the difference between MMA and UFC.
However, here’s a brief explanation:
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What does the UFC stand for?
The UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship. It is the name of the world’s largest MMA promotion.
At the UFC’s inception, the goal was to find “The Ultimate Fighting Champion” by putting on a single night tournament which brought in the best martial artists in the world. Fighters who had skills in; karate, BJJ, kickboxing, boxing, wrestling etc. would all be able to compete against each other in this tournament.
At the end of the night, a Champion would emerge, and be called “The Ultimate Fighting Champion”. Thus making them, unofficially, the best pure fighter in the world!
The UFC is an American company which MMA fighters like Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar, Ronda Rousey & Khabib Nurmagomedov have all fought in. There are 12 weight classes in the UFC (8 men’s divisions and 4 women’s divisions)
The UFC is generally known for having the world’s best MMA fighters on its roster (with some exceptions). It also has the largest viewership of any promotion and it has around since 1993.
It’s global success lead the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa Ltd., to be sold for just over $4 billion, in 2016.
What Does MMA stand for?
MMA stands for mixed martial arts. It is a full-combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques to be used in a single fight. There are many different types of martial arts which are allowed in a modern MMA fight, such as Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing, Wrestling, Boxing and others.
The rules of an MMA fight in the UFC are laid out in “The Unified Rules Of MMA”. These rules dictate what strikes are allowed, and which are not allowed. In a nutshell, fighters are allowed to use a combination of hand, elbow, knee and foot strikes, alongside popular grappling techniques.
If you are looking for more information on MMA, then read out guide on ‘What is MMA‘
