The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest Mixed Martial Arts promotion company in the world, which hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport and produces events worldwide. Based in the United States, the UFC has eight weight divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first UFC event was held in 1993 in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the event was to identify the most effective martial art in a real fight between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including Boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Karate and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters ventured outside their base style to utilize effective techniques from other disciplines, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

With a cable-television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe, Australia the Middle East,Asia and new markets within the United States, the UFC as of 2011^[update] has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage. As of 2001^[update] viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television in the U.S., Brazil, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Italy. UFC programming can also be found on FX, Fuel TV, and Fox in the U.S., on ESPN in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as in 150 countries and 22 different languages worldwide. UFC also carries a mobile site for on-the-go users and a Sports Bars page for fans to find places showing the pay-per-view. It is also available on the Roku streaming player.

Chris Weidman (born June 17, 1984) is an American mixed martial artist and former collegiate wrestler. He is currently signed as a Middleweight with the UFC. Weidman attended Baldwin high school on Long Island where he was a Nassau County and New York State wrestling Champion. Weidman earned All-American wrestling honors at NCC before transferring to Hofstra where he became a Two-Time Division I All-American, placing 3rd at the NCAA tournament his senior year. Weidman graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology.

Weidman trains and competes as part of the Serra-Longo Fight Team under the tutelage of Ray Longo and Matt Serra; Weidman currently competes in the middleweight division. In just his 3rd fight, Weidman fought a highly touted Uriah Hall for the Ring of Combat middleweight title in what was billed as a striker vs wrestler matchup; Weidman showed his striking prowess by knocking Hall out in dramatic fashion. Weidman qualified for and competed at the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship (with just 1 year of formal Jiu-Jitsu training) in Barcelona where he lost to world renowned Jiu-Jitsu practitioner André Galvão. As of 2010, multiple MMA ranking panels had Weidman ranked as high as the #1 ranked prospect in the world at 185 lbs. Weidman was also listed as the number one prospect in all of MMA in the 2011 Top 50 Prospects piece put out by MMARanked.com

Jesse Bongfeldt (born August 28, 1980) is a Canadian professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. He is a middleweight, and has fought for such organizations as the Ultimate Fighting Championships.

Bongfeldt began his career fighting in the regional fight scene in Canada, including fighting under King of the Cage-Canada and TKO. In that time he amassed a 15-4 record, finishing every opponent in the process. He is a former TKO Welterweight Champion.

After Jason MacDonald had to pull out of his fight with Rafael Natal at UFC 124 due to injury, it was announced on October 27 that Bongfeldt had signed with the UFC to step in on short notice. After three hard fought rounds, the fight was ruled a majority draw.

On March 12, 2011, it was announced that Bongfeldt would fight The Ultimate Fighter winner Court McGee at UFC 131. Due to an injury, McGee was forced to withdraw from the bout and was replaced by highly touted prospect Chris Weidman. Bongfeldt lost to Weidman after being forced to submit from a standing guillotine choke in the first round.

Lyoto Carvalho Machida (Portuguese pronunciation: [liˈotu maˈʃidɐ]; born May 30, 1978) is a Japanese-Brazilian mixed martial artist from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil who fights as a light heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and is currently ranked as the #6 light heavyweight fighter in the world by Sherdog, MMAWeekly and Yahoo! Sports.

Machida was born in the city of Salvador as the third son of the highly ranked head of the Brazilian branch of the Japan Karate Association, Shotokan karate master Yoshizo Machida. Yoshizo moved to Brazil from Japan when he was 22 years old. There he met and married Lyoto's mother, Ana Claudia. Growing up in Belém, Lyoto began training in karate at the age of three and earned his black belt at the age of thirteen. He also began training in sumo at twelve and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at fifteen. He won a number of amateur karate tournaments, including the 2001 Pan American Karate tournament.

He was the runner-up in the 2000 Brazilian Sumo Championships in the 115 kg division. As an adult, he became Brazilian Champion twice under Taylor Swanson, and placed second in the South American Championship. He defeated American black belt Jiu-Jitsu fighter Rafael Lovato Jr. at L.A. Sub X. In addition to his sumo and karate achievements, he has a college degree in Physical Education. Lyoto's brother, Chinzô, is a Shotokan vice-champion (Australia 2006), losing only to number-one ranked Shotokan master Koji Ogata. Lyoto and Chinzô fought in a Karate Final 10 years ago in which Lyoto gave Chinzô a cheek scar that still exists today. His other brothers include Kenzo Machida, a TV journalist for one of Brazil's biggest TV stations, Take Machida and adopted brother Francisco Machida.

Donald Frye (born November 23, 1965) is an American mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, and actor. Frye rose to fame fighting in early Ultimate Fighting Championship events, winning the UFC 8 and Ultimate Ultimate 96 tournaments. He holds notable victories over Ken Shamrock, Gary Goodridge (2x), Tank Abbott, and Gilbert Yvel.

Don Frye began wrestling at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona then in college (for Arizona State) in 1984, where he was trained by fellow future Ultimate Fighting Championship legend, then assistant wrestling coach, Dan Severn. In 1987, he won the freestyle and Greco-Roman events during an Olympic qualifier. A year later, he transferred to Oklahoma State, where he encountered another future UFC star amongst his teammates: Randy Couture.

On August 28, 1989, Frye made his professional boxing debut against Luis Mora in Phoenix, Arizona and won via first round knock out. This was to be his final pro boxing bout.

In 1995, Frye helped train his old friend Dan Severn for the Ultimate Ultimate 1995, accompanying Severn's entourage to Denver. Severn returned the favour in 1996, when he acted as Frye's manager for UFC 8. Fighting three times in one night, Frye dispatched all of his opponents in just under a minute total, winning the tournament with relative ease. At this event Frye set the record, since broken by Duane Ludwig, for fastest KO in the UFC at just 8 seconds. However, due to the controversial nature of the event, Frye was barred from both firefighting, his previous occupation in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and from training in the Buena High School gym he had used since his ASU days. Along with Marco Ruas, Frye is considered one of the original "cross trained" MMA competitors who had a background in multiple disciplines. Along with his collegiate wrestling experience, Frye holds a 2nd degree black belt in Judo and a professional boxing record.