Before the first UFC and before he met Rorion Gracie, Art Davie had proposed a no-holds barred mixed martial arts event to his boss’s client at J&P Marketing in the spring of 1990. Davie called his concept the World’s Best Fighter.

For his presentation to the client, Davie had researched several historical developments in the martial arts. The first was Pankration, an event added to the classic Olympic Games in 648 B.C. Pankration allowed blows, strikes, holds and chokes with very few rules. It quickly became one of the two most popular events in the Olympics, the other being horse racing. More than any other single influence, the first UFC owes a great deal to the historical linkage with Pankration, according to Davie.

The Vale Tudo development in Brazil was another great influence on Davie’s thinking even before the first UFC. Vale tudo wasn’t so much a fighting style as a meeting place for fighting styles. Popularized in the 1920s in Brazil, vale tudo often took place at circuses across the country, where two fighters would meet in a bout with no or very few rules. This led Davie to Pat Jordan’s September 1989 article about the Gracies, titled “BAD.”

Davie studied the 1963 Gene LeBell vs. Milo Savage mixed match (judoka vs. boxer) and began to understand why no one had been successful in developing a sporting event matching different styles of martial artists. Long before the first UFC, the key problem was money (i.e. who was putting up the dough) & the agreed upon rules. As Davie says in his book, IS THIS LEGAL?, “Getting two fighters of different backgrounds to agree to anything is like asking two pit bulls to decide how a steak should to be divided.”

The other mixed match Davie researched was the 1976 “fight” between Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki (boxer vs. wrestler). This bout suffered even more from the “agreed upon rules.” The same problem plagued the Chuck Wepner vs. Andre the Giant bout on the same card.

In the book the Strength Athletes by David Willoughby Davie encountered the stories of heavyweight boxing champs John L. Sullivan and “Gentleman” Jim Corbett. Both men went into the ring with a wrestler and were easily handled. Corbett was quoted as saying, “In a mixed match between a boxer and a wrestler, the wrestler will win nine times out of 10.”

Davie would later say, “By the time I walked into the Gracie Academy, I had a very good idea of the problems and the challenges of trying to stage a mixed styles event; and how it should be done. The first UFC, as I conceptualized it in the W.O.W. Promotions business plan, owes a debt to these potent influences. There were others, but these were the ones that got my attention.”

Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) became the partner for W.O.W. Promotions, the company Rorion Gracie and Art Davie founded for the first UFC. This partnership produced the first UFC 1 thru UFC 5 and after their purchase of W.O.W. Promotion’s share of their joint venture, SEG went on to produce UFC events until they sold the franchise to Zuffa in 2001.

The key individual at SEG was CEO Bob Meyrowitz. “Meyro” had produced award-winning specials for cable TV and was an established producer of TV and radio content.

The Vice-President of Original Programming was Campbell McLaren. A super creative executive, he was educated at Berkeley and MIT and had been a factor in the creation of the Catch a Rising Star comedy clubs. He was the first to see the value of the UFC; and was heavily responsible for the on-air talent for the UFC, including Bruce Beck, Jeff Blatnick and Joe Rogan.

The Vice-President of Sales at SEG, pitching Pay-Per-View projects to the cable companies, was Michael Abramson. He was also responsible for selling SEG’s King Biscuit Flower Hour, a radio syndication to stations. A powerhouse sales pro, Mike was actually the one who came up with the name “The Ultimate Fighting Championship.”

The Vice-President of production at SEG was Michael Pillot, an experienced producer of TV content. He was responsible moving the Octagon production forward when he added Rorion Gracie and Art Davie’s working ideas to his needs for TV production; and hired set designers, Greg Harrison and Jason Cusson to design the cage. Pillot was the show’s line producer responsible for the 6-camera setup & graphic design at the first UFC and subsequent events.

Semaphore Entertainment Group had been a pioneer in Pay-Per-View television with music and comedy concerts and sporting events like Jimmy Conners vs. Martina Navratilova. The UFC became their first “franchise.” Bob Meyrowitz was also an established force in radio syndication with the King Biscuit Flower Hour, a rock music package employed by radio stations across North America.

Here is the “pitch” letter Art Davie sent to Semaphore Entertainment Group in April 1993 that got the Pay-Per-View TV company interested in the first UFC. Davie had already been turned down by Showtime and HBO, but ESPN was giving it consideration. This simple three-page executive summary contained the highlights of the tournament concept for a mixed match franchise; and was sent to Campbell McLaren, the Vice-President of Programming at SEG.

SEG had been looking for a franchise property; as they had been producing “one-offs.” You can read all about it in the book IS THIS LEGAL? the inside story of the first UFC by Art Davie and Sean Wheelock, published by Ascend Books and due in book stores the first week of July.

Campbell McLaren was so impressed with this simple outline that he sent Davie a plane ticket to come to New York City and discuss a deal. The first UFC was off and running. Read all about it in IS THIS LEGAL? the inside story of the first UFC from the man who created it. Available in bookstores July 2014.

Fighters who said no to the first UFC.

As booker and matchmaker for the first UFC, Art Davie went after everyone he thought the show could afford for the first UFC tournament. Searching for wrestlers, Art called on the great Olympic wrestler and coach, Dan Gable. For professional boxers, Davie called the Kronk Gym in Detroit and Joe Frazier’s gym in Philadelphia (this is where he found cutman Leon Tabbs). He are just a few of the great combat athletes who turned Davie down for the first UFC:

The legendary kickboxer, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez had a history with Rorion Gracie. When Davie called on him to join the tournament, he passed, saying, “these guys are amateurs. I’ve already proved myself.”

Dennis Alexio played Jean-Claude Van Damme’s brother in Kickboxer. He was also arguably the world’s best heavyweight kickboxer in 1993. He blew Art off the phone in less than 5 minutes. No sale.

6’3″ 250lb. Bart Vale had made a reputation as a “shootfighter” in Japan. The Miami based athlete didn’t even break a sweat saying, ‘NO’ when Art Davie called him. Kathy Kidd, after leaving the UFC, was able to recruit big Bart into the World Combat Championship in October 1995 where he won one bout and retired with an injury.

Davie went after the Olympic gold medalist (1992) for taekwondo, Herb Perez. The young star was even offered  an “appearance fee”. He passed. You can read about why Art Davie thought he wasn’t able to fight in IS THIS LEGAL? the inside story of the first UFC from the man who created it.

Alberto Cerro Leon was the first European to win the World Penjak Silat Championship in Jakarta, attaining the title of “Murid.” He was built like Mike Tyson and looked like a rugged Antonio Banderas. No matter how Davie tried in the W.O.W. office to convince him he passed on the first UFC, but Art did get him into UFC2 where big judoka Remco Pardoel crushed him.

Many were called, but not everybody came to the party. But, as the UFC became a hit, Davie was even able to get Olympic gold medalists like Mark Schultz and Kevin Jackson into UFC events.