Group turns UFC into worldwide phenomenon
By Joshua Buckley
The Daily News
Published April 7, 2007
The Ultimate Fighting Championship was on the verge of collapse. Called by some politicians “human cockfighting” the no-holds-barred mixed martial arts organization was banned from numerous states, banished from television and on the brink of bankruptcy.
Six years later, the UFC is one of the fastest growing sports in America. Its reality television show “The Ultimate Fighter” has become a cult favorite on Spike TV and the company has started to stretch into Europe and Japan.
It’s been a challenge for Dana White and his partners, Frank and Lorenzo Ferrite, turning around the UFC since they bought the company in January 2001 for $2 million. But the UFC president said it’s been worth every bit of the work they’ve done to turn the sport into a worldwide phenomenon.
“I can’t say I was a keen businessman and we bought this company because it would make millions and millions. We felt it had potential and we were passionate about the sport. That’s why we bought it.”
The Dark Ages Of UFC
The UFC began in 1993 as a way of pitting different types of fighters together to see who was the best fighter. Among the styles featured in the first UFC event were sumo, kick boxing, wrestling, boxing and different forms of karate.
It started raising plenty of interest among fans and on Capital Hill.
“When it started in 1993, no one knew what it was going to be like,” said Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor and publisher Dave Meltzer. He has covered the UFC since its inception. “It started doing phenomenally well in late ’94 and started hitting its stride on pay-per-view. But then all the major cable companies started dropping coverage because of the pressure being put on them by Sen. John McCain and some other politicians. Without pay-per-view, the UFC started to die and had to go underground.”
White, a boxing promoter in the late ’90s had the same attitude toward UFC as many of the politicians. The sport was brutal, with hardly any regulations or rules to lower the violence in the octagon.
But when White met a few of the UFC competitions in Vegas, he began to see the positives of the sport.
“I had the same perception as everyone else when I first heard of it,” White admitted. “I didn’t think it was a real sport. But I met some of the fighters and started working out with them because I wanted to learn Jujitsu, I became educated about what it really was. Once I became educated, I fell in love with it.”
The $2 Million Investment
White was an owner of some boxing gyms in Las Vegas in the 2000 and was managing a few fighters. White started negotiating with the UFC to enter them in events.
It was then that White realized what bad of shape the UFC was financially.
“I started to hear that they were in trouble and were looking to sell,” White said. “The company was so dead and had such a bad stigma around it, that it wasn’t even allowed on pay-per-view. How bad is it when a service that allows porn won’t broadcast your sport?
“That’s when me and Frank and Lorenzo Ferrite decided to negotiate with the owners to buy the UFC. A month later, we owned the company.”
The trio formed the company Zuffa to serve as the controlling entity of the UFC and immediately worked on getting the company approved by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
“Our fist goal was to get it sanctioned,” White said. “We knew if it wasn’t sanctioned we wouldn’t be able to bring it back on TV. Once we were sanctioned by the NSAC, we started working on some tweaks that we wanted to make as far as production.”
Part of those tweaks involved improving the experience of fans who were in attendance. White said unlike boxing, which focuses just on entertaining its PPV customers, the UFC wanted to give the paying fans in attendance more bang for their buck.
The results started to create a positive buzz around the UFC. But the sport was still going to go under if it couldn’t find a way back on television.
“They spent several years losing tremendous amounts of money,” Meltzer said. “Zuffa realized it wasn’t going to work without television, but no one wanted to touch them. So they decided to complete finance a reality show, which finally got it back on the air. Their fortunes started turning around after that.”
‘The Ultimate Fighter’
Zuffa came up with the idea for “The Ultimate Fighter” after seeing the success of reality television shows. The show took young up-and-coming fighters and gave them a chance to earn a $100,000 UFC contract.
“‘The Ultimate Fighter’ ended up being our Trojan horse,” White said. “We had tried a million ways to get on television and nothing was working. But with ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ we built a show where people were watching MMA without realizing it. It educated people on the sports and athletes and was a perfect vehicle to help it grow in popularity.”
“The Ultimate Fighter” is entering its fifth season on Spike TV, and receives some of the best ratings on cable with male demographics. The show also helped UFC receive PPV events and become a fixture on Spike.
Meltzer said the determination of Zuffa saved UFC from extinction.
“The UFC needed someone with deep pockets to get back on pay-per-view,” Meltzer explained. “It needed deep pockets for ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and to survive the big losses early on. Did Dana White and the Ferrite brothers save the sport? Absolutely.”
The Worldwide Push
The UFC has become such a moneymaker, that Zuffa has started to set up events overseas. They already have a four PPV events set up in the UK beginning this summer.
The Ferrites also purchased UFC competitor Pride Fighting Championships, a Japanese based MMA company, earlier this month for $70 million. With UFC in control of Pride, it will set up future MMA “dream matches” between the top fighters from around the world.
“People have been asking for years which fighters are better — Pride or UFC,” White said. “Now were are hopefully going to create the Super Bowl of fighting. It will be all of their champions versus all of our champions. I think this will make MMA a main sport.”
Meltzer said the next year would be a critical one for the UFC in determining if the company is here to stay, or simply set to fade out of the mainstream once again.
“Sports last, but television shows don’t,” Meltzer said. “Sooner or later ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ is going to be done. They need to have things in place to continue the sport when that happens.
“Every sport has its ups and downs, but there is no reason with the right exposure and the next gen media catching on, there is no reason UFC couldn’t be as big as boxing once was.”
Don’t believe the UFC is a real sport? White encourages people to come to a live event and see for themselves. Houston residents can have that chance tonight, when UFC 69 takes place at the Toyota Center beginning at 9 p.m.
“If you are a fight fan, there is no doubt you will fall in love with the UFC,” White said. “The fighting style is more exciting than boxing and the live event is filled with energy and excitement. It is the most exciting combat sport in the world.”
