N.J. Athletic Commission Give History Lesson

Would it surprise you to learn that Zuffa wasn’t responsible for getting Mixed Martial Arts sanctioned in the USA?

The common belief is after Zuffa purchased the Ultimate Fighting Championships from SEG in 2001, they and they alone were responsible for dragging the UFC from the “underground” (where at the time it lurked ) to the main stage by legitimising it.

Zuffa claimed to achieve this in part by implementing a cleaner set of rules that were put in place by them and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The rest as they say is history...

You would be forgiven for believing this as the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission are very quick to take credit for the move. Even UFC’s President Dana White has trumpeded this tale in many a media interview.

However! The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board (NJSACB) have come out of the woodwork and are now demanding recognition that they were the UFC’s original sanctioning body, even before Zuffa and the NSAC became involved with the sport.

The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board say they became the original sanctioning body of the Ultimate Fighting Championships by sanctioning UFC 28: High Stakes on November 17th 2000. They also say that the MMA rules we now hold as the traditional UFC rules were actually in place even before the UFC came to town. According to the NJSAB the first ever officially sanctioned MMA show in the USA was an event called International Fighting Championship.

What does all this prove? Well nothing really. Zuffa ARE responsible for dragging Mixed Martial Arts in to the lime light in the USA and Zuffa are a promotional organisation just doing what they do best, PROMOTING, in this case their own company.

But the moral of this story is… Don’t always believe the hype. It is also nice to see these powerful State Athletic Boards squabbling over who "saw Mixed Martial Arts first."