Art Davie

Art Davie is the creator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and the

father of mixed martial arts (MMA). Davie came to sports and

entertainment from the advertising agency business.

Spectacle and creativity was always a theme in Davie's work. Davie even

performed his own stunts in TV commercials. (For a San Diego car

dealership, he jumped from a 10-story building, was set on re, shot with

a .357 magnum, catapulted over a car and suspended from a helicopter.)

Davie had an epiphany in 1993, and created the television tournament

that pitted boxers, wrestlers and martial artists against each other. This

was the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the franchise that exploded on

Pay-Per-View TV, and two decades later, is still going strong. In addition to

being the UFC's founder and creator, Davie co-produced, created

personalities, booked, matched ghters and served as the organization's

commissioner.

In 1998, Davie brought the popular K-1: The New Fighting Sport from

Fuji TV in Japan to American television with a show at the Mirage Hotel &

Casino in Las Vegas. The re to create new TV shows brought him to

Mandalay Sports Entertainment in 2003, where he developed pilots,

including King of the Streets, a drag-racing reality show; Fight Quest, a

mixed-martial arts reality show; and MAGIC (Making a Great Inner City),

with Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

Davie attended New York Military Academy (where his roommate was

Donald Trump), St. John's University and Pace College in New York. After

military service, he worked with youth gangs in New York City as a member

of the Youth Services Agency - Crisis Task Force. As a United States Marine

sergeant, he had a top secret clearance, and worked at the Commandant's

Communications Center in the Pentagon. He was later awarded the Navy

Achievement Medal with combat "V" for his service in Vietnam. In 2018 Davie was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.