Last year, the UFC celebrated its 25th anniversary by releasing a series of videos highlighting the most iconic moments in the sport. At first, these clips were only available on the UFC’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. Now, with the celebratory year in the rearview, the company posted all of the exclusive content for free on its YouTube channel for fans to lose countless hours of productivity to.
True mixed martial arts fanboys will enjoy the insider stories that detail milestone moments in the company’s history, like the time the UFC had to pick up and move its entire operation from Niagara Falls, New York to Dothan, Alabama in less than 24 hours after New York banned MMA fights in 1997. (That ban was later lifted in 2016.)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gB-CDGsHJ8I
There’s also The Lion’s Den, a 14-minute-long video that focuses on legendary UFC fighter, Ken Shamrock. Regarded as one of the toughest fighters at the time, this mini-documentary takes your through Shamrock’s start in the sport, including his loss in 1993 to legendary Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner Royce Gracie, and how he leveraged that unwanted fame to assemble the first-ever MMA team—The Lion’s Den.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=uxUXAZ0ORvE
In 2016, the UFC was sold for $4 billion to WME-IMG. It was a defining moment for the world of MMA, one that signified the legitimacy of the sport and propelled it to new heights with bigger fight cards, better fighter promotion, and, as of January 2019, a TV deal with ESPN. Whether you were a fan or not, you most likely heard about the sale, and the short documentary Three Guys and Three Letters takes viewers through the inception of the organization from a business perspective and discusses the sale of the UFC.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=tWMG1PsR21U
If you want to check out the full collection of videos—which also includes a selection of free fights, the origin story of the Octagon, a look at UFC President Dana White’s relationship with Donald Trump, and the entire UFC 1 event—check out the UFC’s YouTube channel.
