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.

Daniel Cormier (born March 20, 1979) is an American mixed martial artist and a former Olympic wrestler. He is currently signed to Strikeforce, fighting in the heavyweight division. Cormier is ranked #4 in the heavyweight division by Fight Matrix.

Cormier is the son of Joseph and Audrey Cormier. He has an older brother named Joseph and a sister named Felicia. When Cormier was seven, his father was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Day in 1986 by the father of his second wife.

He was a three-time Louisiana wrestling state champion in high school and high school All-American. In high school, Northside High School, he suffered only two losses after his freshman year, both coming in injury defaults. He had a 101–9 record during his high school career and was also an All-State performer in football. After high school he attended Colby Community College where he was a two-time junior college national champion. After Colby he transferred to wrestling powerhouse Oklahoma State University where he was an NCAA runner-up, losing to Cael Sanderson in the finals.

Miesha Tate (pronounced /ˈmiːʃə/; born August 18, 1986) is a professional mixed martial artist. She is the former Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion and the current Freestyle Cage Fighting Women's Bantamweight Champion. She has also competed and won a silver medal in the FILA Grappling Championships.

Tate is currently the #6-ranked pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world by MMARising.com and the #3-ranked 135-pound female fighter according to the Unified Women's MMA Rankings.

Tate wrestled on the boys' wrestling team in high school. In 2005, she won the high school women's state championship and went on to win nationals at the World Team Trials in the 158 lb division.

While attending Central Washington University Miesha's colleague, Rosalia Watson, encouraged her to attend the mixed martial arts club with her. Soon after attending, Tate officially joined the mixed martial arts sport club at Central Washington University that was run by her current boyfriend and trainer, Bryan Caraway. She amassed a 5-1 amateur record in MMA before turning pro.