What if I told you that instead of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) handing out belts to its champions, they’d be receiving crowns? Thankfully it never happened, but it was an idea that was thrown around by Art Davie — creator and co-founder of UFC — in the early days of the company.
In “Ultimate Accessory” – one of UFC’s entries in its “25 Years in Short” series – Davie takes a trip down memory lane to recap the history of the UFC belt, which was first handed out in 1995 at UFC 5 to Dan Severn.
Interestingly enough, another title was set to be handed out that night, but since the super fight rematch between Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie ended in a draw, it was not awarded. After it was sold by Davie, it wound up in the hands of a sports collector in New York City.
With the help of Joe Marshall – maker of the original belt – and Dave Millican – the man who took over UFC’s belt-making duties later on — we get an inside look at how the belt went through the evolution process over the last 25 years.
Just last year, the promotion introduced the latest edition of the title, which was initially met with mixed reviews.