Happy Birthday, Ultimate Fighting Championships!!

[VCURamFan]

That's right, ladies & gents: today marks the 19th anniversary of the inaugural UFC. If it weren't for a tiny event (only 2,600 attendance & 86,000 PPV) in the now-demolished McNichols Arean in Denver, Colorado, none of us would know each other & share a passion for this great sport.

Link that may or may not lead to a video of the event (actually, I don't know if it works, I'm at work & can't verify): http://tkohub.com/ufc-1-the-beginning-video-full
Gracie Breakdown of Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSS9CuuPvQg

To celebrate, take some time out of your day at 1pm EST today & enjoy this:

Since Monday's episode of The MMA Hour falls on the 19th anniversary of UFC 1 (Nov. 12, 1993), we've decided to dedicate the entire show to that historic event. Below is a rundown of who will be stopping by and when:

1:00 p.m. ET -- MMAFighting.com's Dave Meltzer, one of the pioneers of MMA journalism, will put the event into perspective and set the scene for Nov. 1993.

1:25 -- Promoter Art Davie who, along with Rorion Gracie, first came up with the concept of the UFC, will discuss how the promotion came to be.

1:45 -- Campbell McLaren, the executive producer of UFC 1-20, will talk about getting the promotion off the ground and how it was presented on television.

2:05 -- World kickboxing champion Kathy Long will talk about being a part of the broadcast team, along with Bill "Superfoot" Wallace and Jim Brown, for UFC 1.

2:25 -- Hall of famer Royce Gracie will look back on how he got involved in UFC 1 and winning it all.

2:45 -- Rener and Ryron Gracie, the sons of Rorion Gracie, will talk about the legacy of UFC 1 and growing up Gracie.

3:05 -- We'll answer your #themmahour questions on anything and everything going on in the MMA world. Hit us up on Twitter using that hash tag or give us a call. The best question will receive this prize from Round 5: Ultimate Collector Series 10 featuring Championship Editions of Anderson Silva and Dominick Cruz, Pride variants for Alistair Overeem and Mark Coleman, the Round 5 debuts of Chael Sonnen and Anthony Pettis, and a brand new figure for Lyoto Machida. Plus, we'll preview UFC 154 with Ric's Picks.

Also, we'll take your calls on anything and everything. Got a question or comment? Give us a call at 1-888-418-4074.

Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. GMT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here or via TuneIn here.

O, & for Mike - today's also Arianny's birthday:

[MattHughesRocks]

[flo]

W00T!

Happy Birthday to the UFC, thanks to Dana and the Fertittas for their vision and to all the warriors who have entered the octagon and entertained us!!

Nice post, I'll be watching for sure. Thanks, VCU RamFan...RamFan...

tee hee

[VCURamFan]

Here's the segments from yesterday's show. Honestly, they're all really interesting & a lot of fun to listen to.

1. Dave Meltzer
2. Art Davie
3. Campbell McLaren
4. Kathy Long
5. Royce Gracie
6. Rorion, Ryron & Rener Gracie