Art Davie met by a coincidense the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu man Rorion Gracie in the early 1990s, when he was after information regarding different martial arts for a client. Gracie operated a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Torrance, California as well as the Gracie loved ones had a long history of vale tudo matches - a precursor of modern mixed martial arts - in Brazil.
As their friendship evolved, Davie did become the brazilians student. In 1992, inspired through the Gracies in Action video-series developed by the Gracies and featuring Gracie jiu-jitsu defeating several martial-arts masters, Davie proposed to Rorion Gracie and John Milius an eight-man, single-"|tournament with a title of War on the Worlds.
The newly developed tournament would feature different forms of martial arts from many various disiplines fighting against eachother in combat. it would aim to replicate the excitement of the matches Davie had seen on the videos. Milius, a noted film director and screenwriter, as well as a Gracie student, agreed to be the event's creative director. Davie drafted the business plan and twenty-eight investors contributed the initial capital to start WOW Promotions with the intent to develop the tournament into a television franchise.
In 1993 WOW Promotions sought a television partner and approached pay-per-view producers TVKO (HBO), SET (Showtime) plus the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). Both TVKO and SET declined, but SEG – a pioneer in pay-per-view tv which had developed such off-beat events like a mixed-gender tennis match between Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova – became WOW's partner in May perhaps 1993.
SEG contacted video and film art-director Jason Cusson to style the trademarked "Octagon", a signature piece for your event. Cusson remained the Production Designer by means of UFC 27. SEG devised the name for your show as The Ultimate Fighting Championship.
VHS box art work for your 1st Ultimate Fighting Championship WOW Promotions and SEG created the very first event, later known as UFC 1, at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado on November 12, 1993. Art work Davie functioned as the show's booker and matchmaker. The tv broadcast featured kickboxers Patrick Smith and Kevin Rosier, savate fighter Gerard Gordeau, karate expert Zane Frazier, shootfighter Ken Shamrock, sumo wrestler Teila Tuli, boxer Craft Jimmerson and 175 lb. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Royce Gracie—younger brother of UFC co-founder Rorion Gracie who was hand-picked by Rorion himself to represent his family inside competition. The display became an instant achievement, drawing 86,592 television subscribers on pay-per-view.
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