With hearts pounding and adrenaline rushing, two fighters go at it with an enthralled audience cheering them on and snarling with every hit landed on their favorite fighter. UFC fights are enjoying a relatively new popularity among the mainstream culture, and in the future may even take away the spotlight from traditional fighting sports such as boxing.

For those not in the loop, UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship and it’s an organized mixed martial arts fighting organization. While the organization has roots dating back much further than the 2000s, that’s when it predominantly got successful and began drawing larger crowds.

One of the main attractions is seeing two highly skilled fighters who are often trained in multiple martial arts techniques fights until submission or knock-out, with few rules. While it’s not a no-rules bout, it’s the closest thing we’ve seen yet in American organized sports, and it makes for an incredibly exciting fight. UFC fights are often times viewed in two different ways, the striking game and the grappling game. Fighters usually specialize in striking their opponent or they specialize in a martial arts technique that focuses on using leverage to grapple and put their opponent into one of the many legal submissions such as an arm bar in hopes of getting them to forfeit.

Because it’s much quicker paced than boxing and appears much more brutal, it’s quickly gained the interest of boxing fans and martial artists everywhere. Catching a UFC fight can be one of the most exhilarating experiences of the year.