Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation

Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation
Type	Private
Industry	Mixed martial arts promotion
Founded	2007
Headquarters	Shanghai, China
Key people	Joel Resnick, CEO
Website	http://www.ruffchina.com/us

Last updated May 04, 2019

Ranik Ultimate Fighting Federation (RUFF) is the first Chinese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization sanctioned by the General Administration of Sport of China. The winners of the title fights will be crowned as the national MMA champions of China in their respective weight classes. RUFF held its first event in August 2011 in Shanghai, before presenting in Chongqing, Hohhot, Nanjing, and Sanya. In February 2013 RUFF awarded Championship belts in five weight classes, at their Superfight event. Together with the Championship belt, each winner was awarded 1,000,000 RMB. RUFF along with Mandt Bros. Productions produced and aired a 10 episode reality series RUFF: Journey leading up to the Superfight. A new episode will air each week and will be nationally televised across China^[1] with TV viewership of over 30 million, over 10 episodes.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport that allows striking and grappling, both standing and on the ground, using techniques from various combat sports and martial arts. The first documented use of the term mixed martial arts was in a review of UFC 1 by television critic Howard Rosenberg in 1993. The term gained popularity when newfullcontact.com, then one of the largest websites covering the sport, hosted and republished the article. The question of who actually coined the term is subject to debate.

Shanghai is one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of the central government of the People's Republic of China, the largest city in China by population, and the second most populous city proper in the world, with a population of 24.18 million as of 2017. It is a global financial center and transport hub, with the world's busiest container port. Located in the Yangtze River Delta, it sits on the south edge of the estuary of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the West China coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the south, east and west, and is bound to the east by the East China Sea.

Chongqing, alternately romanized as Chungking, is a major city in southwest China. Administratively, it is one of China's four municipalities under the direct administration of central government, and the only such municipality in China located far away from the coast.

Background

Founded in 2007 by businessmen Joel Resnick. From the outset, fighter safety was of paramount importance to RUFF. The company brought in well-known and C.O.M.M.A.N.D-certified referee, Jerin Valel to officiate at all events and to train local referees and judges from RUFF 1-8; and has continued its dedication to safety and fairness through training of referees and judges with the world's #1 referee Herb Dean.^[2] On December 6, 2010, RUFF announced its partnership with China's Wushu Association of the General Administration of Sport, allowing them to award National Champions. RUFF is the first organization with the ability to award the title of National Champion in MMA.^[3] Gaining credibility through their partnership with the government, RUFF was able to sign exclusive contracts with many of China’s best fighters.

In August 2011, RUFF Genesis was held in Shanghai. RUFF announced its partnership with the L.A. based Mandt Bros. Productions Company in January, 2012.^[4]

Mandt Bros. Productions is a Los Angeles-based production company founded by brothers Neil and Michael Mandt. The brothers are ten-time Emmy Award winners and partners in the Los Angeles based creative studio.. The company was formed in 2001 and has a wealth of experience delivering award-winning content to television, film, internet, immersive and mobile audiences. In addition to creating traditional content, the brothers have built and operated multiple turn-key production facilities and are experts in virtual and augmented reality content creation.

Current Operations

On September 8, 2012, RUFF made headlines when RUFF 5 was aired LIVE on Chinese TV. The event also played online on PPTV and QQ/Tencent ^[5] and garnered an audience of over 1.3 million viewers. It was also the first time a combat event was televised live in China.^[5] RUFF 4 was re-broadcast in the days before RUFF 5 and gained a total viewership of 4.25 million. Having recently signed deals with satellite and regional broadcasters, RUFF's #s continue to grow reaching 8 million viewer for RUFF 7 and livestream #s hitting 2 million views; with a total potential audience of well over 1.3 billion.^[6]

PPTV is a Chinese video streaming website. Its predecessor, PPLive, was a peer-to-peer streaming video freeware created in Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, Hubei. The group of companies that runs the website, was headed by Cayman Islands-incorporated offshore company PPLive Corporation. However, the actual operations were mainly carried by Shanghai SynaCast Media Tech Co., Ltd..

Tencent QQ, also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service developed by the Chinese tech giant Tencent. QQ also offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat software. The logo of the software is a winking penguin wearing a red scarf. It is the world's 7th most visited website, according to Alexa.

RUFF has also been featured on the internet programs such as MMA Inside the Cage, MMA H.E.A.T and MMAMADHouse.^[7]

Weight Divisions

▪ Flyweight: 55 kg

▪ Bantamweight: 60 kg

▪ Featherweight: 65 kg

▪ Lightweight: 70 kg

2013 Champions

Division	Weight limit	Champion	Since
Flyweight	55 kg (121.3 lb; 8.7 st)	Zhang Meixuan	February 2, 2013
Bantamweight	60 kg (132.3 lb; 9.4 st)	Irshaad Sayed	February 2, 2013
Featherweight	65 kg (143.3 lb; 10.2 st)	Wang Guan	February 2, 2013
Lightweight	70 kg (154.3 lb; 11.0 st)	Rodrigo Caporal	February 2, 2013

List of Events

#	RUFF Event	Date	Venue	City
1	RUFF: Genesis	August 27, 2011	Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena	Shanghai, China
2	RUFF 2	December 17, 2011	Jiangnan Sports Center	Chongqing, China
3	RUFF 3	March 24, 2012	Chongqing Indoor Stadium	Chongqing, China
4	RUFF 4	June 30, 2012	Hohhot People's Stadium	Hohhot, China
5	RUFF 5	September 8, 2012	Hohhot People's Stadium	Hohhot, China
6	RUFF 6	November 3, 2012	Hohhot People's Stadium	Hohhot, China
7	RUFF 7	December 22, 2012	Zifeng Tower	Nanjing, China
8	RUFF: Super Fight	February 2, 2013	Hohhot People's Stadium	Hohhot, China
9	RUFF 9	May 18, 2013	MGM Grand Sanya	Sanya, China
10	RUFF 10	August 24, 2013	Hongkou Indoor Stadium	Shanghai, China
11	RUFF 11	November 30, 2013	Hongkou Indoor Stadium	Shanghai, China
12	RUFF 12	March 29, 2014	Hongkou Indoor Stadium	Shanghai, China
13	RUFF Fu	June 7, 2014	Hongkou Indoor Stadium	Shanghai, China

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References

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[1] RUFF | MMASucka

[2] February 2012 Newsletter | IJF Blog ^{[ permanent dead link ]}

[3] RUFF new combat sport to contend with China's traditional martial arts | China Travel Archived 2012-12-19 at Archive.is

[4] Mandt Bros. Gets RUFF in the Land of the Dragon - SHANGHAI, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/

[prommanow-5] 1 2 China MMA: RUFF 5 garners near 1.3 million viewers

[6] UFC on Fuel 6: Why Le vs. Franklin May Not Be the Gateway for the UFC into China | Bleacher Report

[7] RUFFCHINA - RUFF featured on MMA: Inside the Cage Archived 2013-04-08 at Archive.is