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.

Edson Mendes Barboza Jr. (born January 21, 1986), better known as Edson Barboza, is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division. A professional MMA competitor since 2009, Barboza is a former Ring of Combat Lightweight champion and is currently competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Barboza comes from Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro. His fighting style incorporates Muay Thai and Taekwondo. His professional Muay Thai record is 28-3 with 22 victories by knockout and 17 first round finishes. Barboza moved to the United States in January 2009 and joined "The Armory" [1] in Jupiter, Florida.

Barboza's professional MMA career began in April 2009 in Tampa, Florida, when he defeated Aaron Steadman via TKO due to punches midway through the first round. Barboza then defeated Lee King twice in the Renaissance MMA promotion, first via second round knockout, then submission.

Barboza then joined New Jersey-based promotion Ring of Combat, making his promotional debut at Ring of Combat 28 against Nabih Barakat. Barboza knocked Barakat out in 69 seconds.

Jahmal Ara 'Johny' Hendricks (born September 12, 1983) is an American mixed martial artist and an accomplished former collegiate wrestler. He currently fights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's Welterweight division. As of March 2012, Hendricks is ranked as the #4 welterweight fighter in the world by Sherdog.

While competing for Oklahoma State University, Hendricks won the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Division I wrestling title at 165-pounds, and he finished second in 2007 after falling to Mark Perry from the University of Iowa. The loss to Perry was Hendricks' only one suffered during his senior year at OSU, during which he had compiled a 56-0 record coming into the bout.

In addition to his two national championships, Hendricks was a 4-time All-American at OSU and a three-time Big 12 Conference champion (2005, 2006 & 2007). During his high school wrestling career at Edmond Memorial High School, Hendricks won three Oklahoma state titles and the 160-pound high school national championship.

After graduating from OSU in 2007, Hendricks moved to Las Vegas and signed with Team TakeDown, along with two other former OSU wrestlers, Shane Roller and Jake Rosholt. Hendricks began training for an MMA career and made his professional MMA debut on September 28, 2007, in which he scored a third round TKO (punches) over Victor Ratcliff at Masters of the Cage 16 from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Hendricks fought once more in 2007, and defeated Spencer Cowley with a second round TKO (punches) at Snakebite Fight Night from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Robert Glen "Robbie" Lawler (born March 20, 1982) is an American mixed martial artist Lawler was the EliteXC middleweight champion before EliteXC filed for bankruptcy. Lawler has recently signed with Strikeforce. He is a member of Team Hughes fighting out of H.I.T. Squad, a Granite City, Illinois gym, which he co-owns with teammate and former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes. MMAWeekly ranks Lawler as the #8 middleweight in the world.

On March 31, 2007, he fought Frank Trigg for the ICON Sport middleweight championship and won by KO in the fourth round. On September 15, 2007, he fought PRIDE Fighting Championships veteran Murilo "Ninja" Rua for the EliteXC middleweight championship and won by TKO in the third round.

Lawler was scheduled to fight Hawaii's Kala Hose for the ICON Sport Middleweight Championship on December 15, 2007 in Honolulu, Hawaii, he however pulled out of the fight due to an injury. Icon Sport stripped Lawler of the middleweight title on February 9, 2008 for failing to defend the title.

Fabricio Werdum (Portuguese pronunciation: [faˈbɾisju veʁˈdũ]; born July 30, 1977) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist, a two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, a two-time ADCC world heavyweight champion and European Jiu-Jitsu champion. He holds black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,Judo, and Muay Thai. Werdum has competed in Pride Fighting Championships, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and made his Strikeforce debut on August 15, 2009. He is currently ranked the #4 heavyweight in the world by Sherdog and the #6 heavyweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly. He was the first fighter to decisively defeat Fedor Emelianenko in mixed martial arts competition.

Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Werdum started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after a recommendation from his ex-girlfriend. He trained with Marcio Corleta at the Porto Alegre Academy, Winner Behring. After success in competitive BJJ and submission wrestling, he started his career in MMA.

He arrived in Spain to join his mother, who had moved to the city of Madrid some years before. At the age of 17, soon after his arrival in Spain, when he was just a purple belt, he started teaching the art of BJJ in Madrid and other cities of Spain. Despite only training with white and blue belts, he became BJJ World Champion, being promoted to the rank of black belt by Master Sylvio Behring 3 years later.