UFC 1

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (later renamed UFC 1: The Beginning) was the first mixed martial arts event by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), held at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, United States, on November 12, 1993. The event was broadcast live on pay-per-view and later released on home video. The event was the lowest profile by the contemporary standards. The venue was less than half-packed, and the grand prize of the tournament was as big as a regular sparring partner's biannual salary. Major martial-arts observers and columnists did not bother to show up; the press neglected the event, and Black Belt mentioned it only several months later. Big-name fighters turned down the offers to participate or to make a guest appearance in the audience. The event pioneered the interstylistic match-ups between the practitioners of different martial arts, and set the pattern for the future sporting events of the kind. UFC 1 would also be the first ever martial-arts event to use the octagon.