Randy Couture

By FCF Staff

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has announced that the promotion is introducing new categories for its Hall of Fame, which already included 12 fighters.

On Tuesday, the following statement was posted at UFC.com:

The UFC Hall of Fame is evolving into a unique four-category system, enabling UFC, media and fans to celebrate and commemorate the greatest achievements in the organization’s history in a well-defined historical context.
The four new UFC Hall of Fame categories are:

Modern era wing: commemorating fighters who made their pro MMA debut in the modern era

Pioneers era wing: commemorating fighters who made their pro MMA debut in the pioneers era

Contributors wing: commemorating significant contributions outside of active competition

Fight wing: commemorating the greatest and most important bouts in the sport’s history

The UFC Hall of Fame Class of 2015 will feature a new member in each of these new categories. The Class of 2015 will be announced in the coming weeks. The existing Hall of Famers – already inducted over the last 12 years – will be retrospectively inaugurated into the most fitting of these four categories.

Here is where the current 12 Hall of Fame members were categorized:

Modern Era (competed on or after November, 17, 2000)
Forrest Griffin (inducted 2013)

Pioneers (competed before November, 2000)
Royce Gracie (inducted 2003)
Ken Shamrock (inducted 2003)
Dan Severn (inducted 2005)
Randy Couture (inducted 2006)
Mark Coleman (inducted 2008)
Chuck Liddell (inducted 2009)
Matt Hughes (inducted 2010)
Tito Ortiz (inducted 2012)
Pat Miletich (inducted 2014)

Fights (of great historical significance)
Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar I, April 2005 (inducted 2014)

Contributors (Outstanding contributions to the UFC outside of active competition)
Charles “Mask” Lewis (inducted 2009)

The promotion’s next induction event will take place on July 11th as part of UFC Fan Expo 2015.