10 Ways UFC Has Grown In The Last 10 Years
1. Women's Divisions
As incredible as this sounds, before 2012, UFC hadn't signed a single woman to the company.
Bearing in mind that the first women's MMA bout on American soil took place in 1997, fifteen years was honestly an embarrassing amount of time for this to finally come to fruition on the big stage.
Determined to make up for lost time, Dana White announced the signing of Strikeforce's Bantamweight Champion, Ronda Rousey, and before long, the first Olympic Champion to hold a UFC title had amassed six title defences. This brought with it a wave of buzz that UFC wisely capitalised on, pushing Rousey as one of their top stars.
While Rousey would eventually be knocked off her perch, her ascension opened the door for the likes of Holly Holm, Amanda Nunes and Cris Cyborg to make a name for themselves - which they did.
In 2013, UFC acquired the contracts of eleven women from the Invicta Fighting Championships and launched their own Strawweight division.
Now with two divisions, UFC's women have ample opportunity to showcase their immense fighting ability and increase their drawing power, regardless of their weight class.
It should have definitely happened sooner, yet when the second highest attended event in your company's history - 56,000 strong in Melbourne - was headlined by two of the Baddest Women on the Planet (Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm in 2015) you must be doing something right.