A butterfly flaps its wings in Japan. A century later, a fight takes place in Abu Dhabi.
Well, sort of.
That flap of wings was the arrival of Japanese judo expert Mitsuyo Maeda in Brazil in November 1914.
It set in motion a series of events that led to the creation of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the Gracie family dynasty and, in modern times, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), one of the world’s most popular spectator sports.
Legend has it that in 1917 Carlos Gracie, the son of the Brazilian circus promoter Gastao Gracie, witnessed a judo demonstration by Maeda at the Da Paz Theatre in the northern Brazilian city of Belem.
He was hooked.
Maeda took 14-year-old Carlos Gracie under his wing, and soon Carlos introduced the sport to his four brothers: Osvaldo, Gastao, Jorge and, crucially, his youngest brother Helio, who, along with Carlos, is credited with founding Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, or modern Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
The Gracies would establish an empire.
Carlos had 21 children who would carry the family traditions forward.
Helio fathered nine children and his branch of the family tree had a huge impact on the martial arts landscape in the late 20th century.
So assured were the Gracies of the superiority of their art that they invited fighters – boxers, martial experts and wrestlers – to take them on in what became known in the 1920s as the “Gracie Challenge”, an early version of mixed martial arts (MMA).
But, for decades, few could overcome the Brazilians.
It was Helio’s son, Rorion, and the entrepreneur Art Davie, who saw an opportunity to grow the sport, creating the precursor of the UFC brand: War of Worlds (WOW) – a vehicle to showcase Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters against the best of the rest.
In 1993, thanks to US pay-per-view broadcaster Semaphore Entertainment Group accepting WOW’s offer to produce its first event, the Gracie Challenge came to television.
The famous Ultimate Fighting Championship moniker and a new era of "octagon" cage fighting was born. It made stars of the likes of Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, the great Anderson Silva and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who, on Friday, takes on Roy Nelson in Abu Dhabi.
UFC 1 was held on November 12, 1993, in Denver, Colorado, one of few US states that would sanction a sport many political figures opposed for its brutality.
For the first generation of UFC viewers, it was a strange spectacle.
“Nobody knew what to expect, but it was exciting to see fighters with different disciplines facing each other,” says David Boulos, a Canadian business consultant who lives in Abu Dhabi. “You had a boxer, a sumo wrestler and a guy who did taekwondo. Then there was Royce Gracie, who did Brazilian jiu-jitsu.”
The jiu-jitsu masters had set up UFC to prove theirs was the best discipline – opponents and spectators were about to find out why.
“You see this massive guy and everyone assumes he’s going to win the whole thing, and then Royce Gracie comes out, he’s about 1.83 metres, not small, but he’s very skinny. Everyone looked at him and thought he would get killed,” Boulos says. “All of a sudden he wins and nobody understands how, because nobody was really familiar with these joint-locks and chokeholds.”
So the seeds of modern MMA were sown, a case of the television brand giving MMA a huge boost.
Jiu-jitsu's popularity continues to soar.Next week sees the return of the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
“UFC was responsible for the growth of MMA but also for Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Nobody could beat the Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys because it was an unfair fight,” Boulos says.
“After UFC 2 and 3 everybody saw the value of fighting on the floor and started learning it. To be the best at MMA you have to know all types of fighting.”
In the late 1990s UFC was experiencing growth and financial pains.
In January 2001, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, along with Dana White, bought the UFC for US$2 million (Dh7.3m) under the umbrella of Zuffa LLC.
Despite sanctioning by Nevada, the pay-per-view UFC 33 in September 2001 failed dismally and would later be remembered by White as “the worst show we’ve ever had”.
By 2004, Zuffa had accrued huge debts since its buyout of UFC.
But help was around the corner, television again coming to the rescue of MMA.
The reality television show The Ultimate Fighter brought MMA into the homes of millions of Americans and the knock-on effect turned UFC into the cultural beast we know today.
UFC 52, the first held after the opening season of The Ultimate Fighter, boasted an audience of 300,000, doubling the previous best mark from UFC 40.
The UFC brand has not looked back since.
“I got into UFC about seven or eight years ago,” says the Iraqi, Saeed Al Ahmedi, a Dubai resident.
“It’s interesting to watch the old YouTube clips to see how much the sport has advanced.”
Inside and outside the octagon, UFC’s march was relentless.
On March 27, 2007, the Fertitta brothers announced they were purchasing the UFC’s Japan-based rival the Pride Fighting Championships.
From Japan to Brazil to the US, and now back to Japan.
The story has come full circle.
Today, UFC is televised in more than 150 countries, including the UAE.
On April 10, 2010, UFC 112 was held in Abu Dhabi after Flash Entertainment bought 10 per cent of Zuffa.
It was the sport’s first outdoor setting.
"Everyone came to see Anderson Silva, and he didn't really fight well, it was a boring fight," Boulos says.
“He got a lot of slack for it and actually apologised to the fans after the fight.
“The quality of the fights was not great. Sometimes you can’t control that. But the venue in Abu Dhabi, the whole event itself, was perfect.”
Four years later and 100 years on from Maeda’s journey into a brave new world, Abu Dhabi will host UFC Fight Night 39 on Friday.
The capital is expectant.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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