Back in the early 1990s, something known as the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) came along to take things one step further. Even though there have been other competitions similar to the UFC, none of them had the flair and the dedication as UFC did. When it first began, the UFC paired different styles and different weight classes.

The result were exciting fights with varying results. The first ever champion was a man from Brazil named Royce Gracie. Gracie was the first to introduce Brazilian Jui-Jitsu in this way, opening up the eyes of everyone who witness him fight. After the first UFC tournament, Brazilian Jui-Jitsu was instantly viewed as the best martial art. Royce weighed under 200 pounds, and he was completely dominating people nearly 3 times his size.

Gracie would go on to win UFC 2 and 4 as well. He was the most dominating in the sport, and opened the eyes of everyone across the world. In UFC 3, he didn’t lose, although he ran into a very tough fighter who nearly beat him. Gracie came back in UFC 5 for a superfight match up with Ken Shamrock, which would go the distance and end in a draw.

Other fighters have done exceptionally well in the UFC, although none of them had the impact as Royce Gracie. Fighters like Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Oleg Taktarov, Matt Hughes, and Matt Sylivia have also done very well. Matt Hughes is also regarded as one of the best, as he fights in the Welterweight class and is considered pound for pound to be the best fighter in the world.

In the world of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), the UFC has made a big impact. In the beginning, there were no rules and no judges, just one on one fights until someone either tapped out, got knocked out, or the ref through in the towel. Fighters also fought in a tournament style as well, which took 3 fights to win the championship.

Over the years, there were several changes. The UFC would start with judges after a few years, along with eliminating the tournaments. The fights would eventually go to one on one, which was great for the fans. Although the fights didn’t have time limits in the beginning, they do now. The non title fights are three 5 minute rounds, while the title fights are five 5 minute rounds.

If a fight goes to the judges, the judges decide the winner. There are three judges, which normally change with each different UFC. Judges are there do determine the winner if there is no knockout or submission, while the ref is there to protect the fighters. The referee can stop a fight as well, if a fighter is unable to defend themselves.

With all the changes in the rules of the UFC, it’s only a matter of time before the UFC gains a lot more popularity. It is more popular today than it ever has been, which tells you that martial arts have come a long way. Martial arts is very popular these days, with competitions such as the UFC being one of the most popular sports in the world.

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Major sports such as American Football, Baseball and Basketball games are syndicated all round the world for fans to watch on TV. But nothing quite beats being there in person, cheering with the crowd, taking in the electric atmosphere. Many British holidaymakers are timing their holidays with sporting events in the States so that they can add a bit of variety to their holidays.

There’s plenty of regular season games for all the big four (Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey) and tickets are rather easy to get hold of, with many arenas and clubs using online booking systems such as Ticketmaster so you can get your tickets sorted early.

In other cases most hotels’ concierge services have connections to the stadiums and may be able to pull a few strings for visitors looking to make the most of their holidays.

One point to be careful of is ticket touts, yes these vultures exist stateside too, and prey upon impressionable tourists, my advice is to stay clear, it isn’t uncommon for tickets to be fakes or getting a child’s ticket instead of an adult’s one. After all you didn’t come thousands of miles to get swindled.

The main attraction of American sports is how much effort and style goes into their big events, the Football has Superbowl, a national treasure in itself. American football is as popular (possibly even more) than football, sorry, I mean soccer, is in the UK.

This is the ultimate in sporting entertainment with fireworks a plenty, pulse pounding action and the halftime shows. The halftime shows are like an arena concert unto themselves, with past performers such as Prince, Paul McCartney and the infamous Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake incident! This year Superbowl XLII is going to be taking place in Phoenix, Arizona and is in March.

The NBA basketball goes above and beyond Superbowl with not only an All-Star game but an entire weekend devoted to the festivities. Apart form the game itself showcasing the cream of it’s NBA basketball players there are other events such as a celebrity game (last year including names like The Green Mile’s Michael Clarke-Duncan and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) and the high-flying Slam Dunk contest. Basketball is a growing sport over here in the UK and what better way to see the pros than getting to New Orleans for February the 17th.

These are just two stand out spectacles on offer, people that have gone on holidays to America and seen sporting events like these have had a great time, especially families. One activity I have done myself is visit the historic Madison Square Garden arena in New York which was due to host a boxing match between Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant in 2000, and whilst we were unlucky in trying to get tickets we were still able to get a great guided tour of the arena including trophy rooms, locker rooms and the Theatre upstairs that has hosted awards shows and events such as VH1’s Divas Live. Many arenas in the United States offer these tours normally during the day even whilst they’re setting up for events like the boxing match previously mentioned.

In general if you can get tickets good and early then you could easily add some interest and value to your holidays this year!

The Invention

Naismith and his wife saw an article in a magazine from South America that featured an Aztec ball game called Ollamalitzli, and the Mayan game called Ulama, where the round bouncy ball had to go through a hole. He also read another article by Tom Ellison, a New Zealander, which described an ancient Maori ball game that involved a lot of handball skills, where the ball was passed aerially with speed and agility.

Taking these games into account, he and his wife devised a new ball game, to be played indoors in a gym. He developed 13 rules for his game, and divided his 18 players into two teams of nine players each. Two peach baskets were tied to the lower railing of the gym’s balcony. The idea was to throw the soccer ball into these peach baskets. As the bottoms of the peach baskets were intact, the game had to be stopped every time the ball entered the basket, for the janitor to get a ladder and retrieve the ball!

Of course, those days the games were very low scoring affairs. The very first basketball game ever played had an amazingly low score of 1-0. The first official game, played on January 20, 1892, was played on a court half the size of the modern National Basketball Association (NBA) court, involving the use of a soccer ball and two peach baskets for goal.

YMCA, which initially spread the game, later started to discourage playing it, as it was quite rowdy and rough, and deviated from its basic mission. The game however caught on, and it was picked up enthusiastically by other sports clubs, professional clubs, and colleges.

Basketball, of course, used soccer balls initially, and the first basketballs made for the game were brown in color. In the late 1950s, the orange color basketballs were introduced by Tony Hinkle, to make the balls easily visible to the players and the spectators.

Tickets

From such humble beginnings, basketball has grown into a game that is played by more than 300 million people worldwide. The legends of the game, such as:

Michael Jordan

Larry Bird

“Dr. J” Julius Erving

Magic Johnson

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Wilt Chamberlain

Bill Russell

Oscar Robertson or Robinson

“Pistol Pete” Maravich

have added richness to the game, over the years.

Basketball tickets, whether for the professional games or the collegiate games, are well sought after. You can arrange your basketball tickets for the games of your choice through legitimate ticket brokers.

Put in your request for the basketball tickets for the games of your choice and they will be delivered to you.