From TV deals to Ronda Rousey's UFC debut: Here are 10 defining moments in MMA over past decade
The past decade has proven intriguing for the sport of mixed martial arts.
In 2011, the UFC was still partnered with Spike TV for its U.S. broadcast deal, and prelim broadcasts bounced around between the likes of Facebook, Ion Television and UFC.com – if they aired at all.
The entirety of the UFC's next broadcast deal, which saw the promotion move to network television courtesy of FOX, ran its course during the decade. And as the 10-year span closed, the UFC signed on with ESPN, one of the most recognized brands in sports and a leading digital distributor in the space.
And that's without even speaking of what happened in the cage.
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The decade started with the UFC hosting fights in five different weight classes. Ten years later, that number has grown to 12. Promotional stalwarts such as Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre gave way to names like Conor McGregor and Jon Jones. Women stepped into the octagon for the first time, and new markets around the globe were visited.
Here's a sampling of 10 defining moments from 2010 through 2019.
March 12, 2011: UFC purchases Strikeforce
While the UFC has been the dominant name in MMA since the promotion's launch in 1993, Strikeforce had acquired an impressive amount of talent despite operating on a much tighter budget. As the UFC looked to ramp up the number of events it was producing for prospective TV partners, the organization needed as many marketable stars as it could find, and the promotion's parent company, Zuffa, made a major play.
Buying Strikeforce, which was shuttered less than two years later, gave the UFC access to a stunning number of athletes, including future UFC champions such as Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold. It also shut down the company's chief rival at the time.
Aug. 18, 2011: UFC announces TV deal with FOX
What once seemed impossible was now a reality: Joe Rogan was wearing a suit. Oh, and the UFC – an organization that once was banned from pay-per-view – was now going to be broadcast on network television.
The financial terms of the deal were beneficial to the UFC, but that wasn't the real win. The type of acceptance that comes along with being on network TV was massive in continuing to bring MMA into the mainstream.
Feb. 23, 2013: Ronda Rousey makes her UFC debut
UFC president Dana White once infamously claimed that women would never fight in the UFC. He's certainly happy that he changed his stance on that issue, with women's MMA now just as popular as the men's game. It all started with one woman, Ronda Rousey, who was a belated addition to the UFC roster following the Strikeforce purchase.
Rousey, with her brash personality and quick-finish capabilities, rapidly became the biggest star in the sport, and she brought a new demographic – women – along with her, raising the UFC's profile and again garnering increased mainstream attention.
June 3, 2015: UFC announces anti-doping policy
You can argue just how successful the UFC's partnership with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has been – after all, it remains a system still in development, which can be a bit scary to think considering how serious the ramifications can be to an athlete's career. However, it's difficult to claim the deal didn't at least give the organization an enhanced reputation in the industry.
MMA will always be a brutal venture in many ways, but the UFC's commitment to keeping the sport clean of performance-enhancing drug use certainly seems a well-intended venture.
Nov. 15, 2015: Holly Holm shocks Ronda Rousey at UFC 193
UFC 193 was significant before the headliners stepped in the cage, with the massive crowd of 56,214 fans packed into Australia's Etihad Stadium, as it was then known, setting a company record. But not many in the building outside of Holm and her team believed in her chances of scoring a devastating knockout of Rousey – yet that's exactly what happened.
In a sport that prides itself on mind-blowing moments, this one was up there on the list. It was marked a seismic shift in the women's game, with Rousey never again seeing her hand raised in victory inside of the octagon before moving on to WWE.
March 5, 2016: Nate Diaz taps out Conor McGregor at UFC 196
With Conor McGregor's star power at its peak, in stepped a fan-favorite anti-hero who seemingly willed a fight into existence with an expletive-laden callout on national TV. Then-featherweight champ McGregor originally was expected to face lightweight titleholder Rafael dos Anjos, but when the Brazilian was forced out due to injury less than two weeks from the card, in stepped Nate Diaz, the self-proclaimed "real money fight."
Diaz played the perfect foil in the short but powerful buildup, refusing to be drawn into a war of words with such a master of the pre-fight stage. Instead, he did his talking in the cage, surviving the early aggression of McGregor until he began to slow in the second. Diaz stunned McGregor before taking him to the ground and choking him out for the submission.
July 9, 2016: UFC sells to WME-IMG
A company that was purchased just 15 years earlier for $2 million sold for more than $4 billion. That's an incredible success story in any industry. But it also meant much change behind the scenes for the UFC, including the departure of former majority owners Lorenzo Fertitta and his brother, Frank Fertitta III.
The true effect of the sale is still being measured some four years later. To the average fan, the product hasn't changed too much. But the culture of the company behind the scenes, which once ran like a family business but was forced to realize a corporate mentality, certainly was impacted.
Nov. 12, 2016: Conor McGregor becomes UFC's first simultaneous champ
After years of political battles to get the sport legalized in the Empire State, the UFC was finally in New York and looking to make a splash at famed Madison Square Garden. To do so, it brought in Conor McGregor, whose brash style and devastating left hand had seen him take over the mantle as the sport's biggest star. McGregor delivered, with a flawless victory over Eddie Alvarez.
And with the win, McGregor became the UFC's first simultaneous two-division champion, a feat UFC president Dana White had declined to let past champions try and achieve. It was the height of McGregor's fighting accomplishments, and it was achieved on the sport's biggest stage.
Aug. 26, 2017: Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather
What started as fantasy became reality, with the UFC co-promoting a boxing match that allowed reigning UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor to cross over into the world of boxing and take on undefeated superstar Floyd Mayweather. Calling it "The Money Fight" was promotional honesty, as cash was the only real goal of the contest, and it delivered both men boatloads of green paper.
In the end, Mayweather did what he was expected to do and earned a 10th-round TKO. It also meant that McGregor would go two years between MMA appearances. Still, it marked one of the biggest moments in the history of MMA, even if it was a boxing match – and a bit of a phony one, at that.
May 8, 2018: UFC announces TV deal with ESPN
While moving off broadcast television and back to cable may seem like a bit of a step down, that changes when ESPN is involved. For sports, the network is clearly the pinnacle, and the financial terms of a five-year deal were massive for the UFC, which ultimately ceded over every last bit of its programming for ESPN to distribute on both digital pay-per-view and subscriptions, as well as through lineal delivery, launching Jan. 1, 2019.
UFC officials have been nothing short of giddy through the first year of the partnership, and the brand's alignment with the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" is clearly another feather in the cap of a promotion and a sport that battled for years to gain acceptance.