Difference Between

UFC vs MMA

Can you say that French Open is any different from Tennis or do you go ahead and try to find similarities or differences between tennis and French Open? The same applies to the relationship between UFC and MMA, where MMA is a kind of sport whereas UFC is an organization that conducts this sport. But because of the overwhelming popularity of UFC, there are some who feel that it is bigger than the sport it promotes which is why such people remain confused by the difference between MMA and UFC. This article will put to rest all such doubts from the minds of the readers.

MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts which does not fall under fixed sport such as Karate or Judo and in fact comprises features of many such martial arts from different countries. It even has elements of kickboxing which is a sport in itself. MMA has been popular ever since it was promoted as a spectator sport. However, MMA attained prominence only when it was organized by UFC or Ultimate Fight Championship, as it is called. Headquartered in Las Vegas, the credit for founding UFC goes to Robert Meyrowitz, Rorian Gracie and Art Davie. It was in 1993 that UFC was organized and soon MMA caught the fancy of the people with live spectators as well as televised shows all over the country. The word MMA for the fights organized by UFC was coined by Olympic wrestler Jeff Blatnick.

Thus UFC is for MMA what NFL is for football or NBA is for basketball. It is futile to differentiate between the two though it can be said that despite being very popular, UFC is never more or greater than MMA, which is the sport it promotes.