The UFC’s July 10 Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier pay-per-view fight card is set for Las Vegas and expected to take place in front of a capacity crowd, according to UFC president Dana White.

The UFC 264 event -- the third fight between the two fighters -- will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in front of a capacity crowd of “20,000 fans,” White said in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. 

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak said Tuesday that he expects the state to be at 100 percent capacity by June 1, although the state’s mask mandate will remain in effect, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The UFC event will be the second for McGregor in 2021. The fighter -- who drew more than 4 million PPV buys for his 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather -- lost to Poirier this past January. That fight generated a reported 1.2 million PPV buys domestically.

The UFC this past Saturday (May 9) held its UFC 249 pay-per-view event, becoming one of the first sports organizations to hold a live event in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ESPN+-distributed PPV fight card from Jacksonville, which featured no fans in the auditorium, generated in the neighborhood of 700,000 buys according to Sports Business Daily, and set the stage for two other live UFC events this week -- one on Wednesday (May 13 on ESPN+) and Saturday (May 16 on ESPN).

I had a chance to speak to UFC chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein regarding the operational strategy behind the mixed martial arts outfit’s successful UFC 249 event -- including dealing with a fighter on the undercard that tested positive for the COVID-19 virus -- as well as whether the UFC has created a blueprint for other sports to follow in the midst of the pandemic. An edited version of the interview appears below.

From your perspective, did Saturday’s UFC 249 event meet expectations?

Absolutely. It was really a product of five plus weeks of work as we drafted and re-drafted an operational health and safety game plan for the event. All things considered we had tremendous cooperation from the Florida State Athletic Commission as well as a robust testing plan, and our fighters delivered what I thought was one of our best cards in UFC history.

Can you confirm published reports that the fight generated 700,000 PPV buys?

I can’t confirm it, but I will echo what (UFC president) Dana White said, which is that the fight did incredibly well and exceeded our expectations. Our partners are really happy.

Is UFC 249’s strong PPV performance due to a pent up audience demand for live sports programming in general or UFC fights in particular?

I think it's definitely both. In this new world that we live in it's so hard to figure out what the consumer is going to do and what expectations should be. Maybe we were a little conservative in our projections, but clearly the event exceeded those expectations. I do think people are starved due to the lack of live sporting content, but I know our fans were really, really hungry for live UFC action because they’ve told us so.

Did you have to make any technical tweaks in how you presented the fights due to the lack of a live audience?

Sure there were some things that we did, but we do have experience in producing fights with limited or few people in the audience, from Dana White’s The Contender series to The Ultimate Fighter. With those shows you could hear the announcers and a lot of things that were said in the corners because of the limited audience. So we had the experience producing those types of events, and we use that experience to produce quality content for UFC 249. Overall even though the experience felt different in the arena, it still had that UFC energy.

Did the UFC ever consider cancelling the event when one of the undercard fighters (Ronaldo Souza), tested positive for the COVID-19 virus?

No. The procedures we put in place worked properly -- we got the test results back before the event took place. We prevented an athlete that tested positively for COVID-19 from participating in the event, so things worked out well. He was isolated for the vast majority of the time he was in Jacksonville -- we feel it worked out exactly as planned.

Do you know when the next big UFC PPV event will take place?

We’re working on a number of different dates and locations … I’m going to leave it to Dana White to make those announcements. I’m just focused on executing the fights tomorrow and Saturday.

Based on the success that you had for UFC 249, do you feel that the UFC has created a template for other sports to follow as they get back to live events?

Absolutely. We are already sharing our experience and plan with regards to COVID-19 testing with all of our partners and friends in the entertainment world. We’ve had a tremendous amount of teams and organizations reach out to us, and we’re looking to share everything we’ve learned. We’re incredibly proud of our plan, but we also want to share our experiences with everybody in the sports world so they can get back to work as well. 

Today the UFC should be talking up its big April 7 UFC 223 pay-per-view event after holding a major press conference yesterday in Brooklyn, N.Y.  to tout the fight card. Instead, most mixed martial arts fans are conversing about the felony actions of UFC superstar Conor McGregor surrounding an alleged attack on a bus after the conference.

Boxing fans were anticipating the big Cinco de Mayo rematch between middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin up until this past Tuesday, when Alvarez withdrew from the fight after facing an extension of his current suspension for failing two drug tests.

Both incidents have given the combat sports category an unexpected and unwanted black eye just as both boxing and the UFC were gearing up for what is still hoped to be a strong year for the pay-per-view fight category.

The UFC, in the midst of celebrating its 25th anniversary, used yesterday’s press conference in Brooklyn as a spring board to tout its current lineup of superstars -- as well as its upcoming schedule of high-profile PPV events -- led by Saturday’s UFC 223 show at Brooklyn's Barclay Center. The event was to feature top UFC fighters as Michael Chiesa, Ray Borg and Artem Lobov.

Instead, both Chiesa and Borg have been forced from the event due to injuries suffered when a group allegedly led by McGregor and Lobov "vandalized the vehicle that contained a number of athletes competing at the event taking place this weekend," according to the UFC. 

Lobov was dropped from the event after the incident, according to the organization. McGregor --arguably the UFC's most popular star, and whose August 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather drew a near record 4.3 million PPV buys -- was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief, according to published reports.

UFC President Dana White took to the airways Friday morning to condemn McGregor’s behavior, saying on Friday’s ESPN’s Get Up! morning sports show that the incident is “embarrassing” for the UFC.

HBO and the PPV industry were hoping to build on the momentum from last September’s first Alvarez-Golovkin match – the controversial draw drew more than 1 million PPV buys and established Alvarez as boxing's  biggest PPV boxing draw. 

Instead, Alvarez’s two failed tests for performance enhancing drugs -- and the subsequent cancellation of the May 5 PPV fight card -- casts a pall on both Alvarez and boxing during a period in which the sport can ill afford to lose marquee events as it looks to build a new crop of potential PPV-appealing fighters.

Both the UFC and boxing will ultimately survive these unquestionably difficult setbacks, but that won't  dilute the pain of the image gut-punch suffered by both sports in the short term. 

The heavily hyped Aug. 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor pay-per-view boxing match proved to be worth the wait for both distributors and fans, and industry executives said they hope it boosts future pay-per-view boxing and UFC events.

Showtime last Friday reported that the fight, in which boxer Floyd Mayweather improved his record to 50-0 with a 10th round TKO over the game UFC/mixed martial arts champion McGregor — is expected to draw in the “mid to high” 4 million PPV buy range, which would potentially knock out the record 4.6 million buys generated by Mayweather’s 2015 fight with Manny Pacquiao. It could also eclipse the $450 million generated by the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout.

“We consider this a huge success,” Showtime Sports and Event Programming executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza told Multichannel News. “We could very well break the record — we just haven’t seen enough of the data to definitively say that — we’re either over the record or very close. Even if we don’t break the record, it’s still a massive success.”

Some MVPDs were reportedly overwhelmed by a flurry of last-minute fight purchases, to the point where Showtime officials said the Mayweather-McGregor main event was “slowed down” to allow distributors to complete orders. Espinoza, though, said there were no major distributor problems regarding buys. “We didn’t even experience the level of technical issues that we saw on Mayweather-Pacquiao,” he added.

Espinoza also called reports that the network’s new Showtime PPV app suffered major technological problems during the event “exaggerated,” saying that the network only received a “limited” number of complaints, which were quickly addressed. Showtime will provide refunds to those who were unable to see the purchased event, he added.

UFC’s website UFC.TV also struggled to keep up with demand, prompting the company to issue several post-fight statements regarding the issue. UFC said it is reviewing each consumer complaint on a “case-by-case basis,” adding that it was “disappointed by the technical difficulties that were experienced … We are working with our vendor NeuLion to assess exactly what happened.”

UFC president Dana White also said in a statement: “Nothing is more important to the UFC than our fans. They’ve always been incredibly loyal and supportive, and we’ll always take care of them.”

Some 3 million viewers watched the fight illegally, according to video security company Irdeto. Espinoza admitted that it was nearly impossible to totally eliminate illegal viewing of the fight given its magnitude.

“Like all events with this kind of appeal, we’re going to have people who will try to view it illegally,” he said. “We took, along with our partners, unprecedented action both before and during the fight to block and remove as many of the illegal streams as possible. ”

Despite the online problems, most industry observers said the fight inside the ring was better than expected, with UFC champion McGregor holding his own in his first ever boxing match, and will easily finish as the year’s most lucrative PPV event.

Former HBO head of pay-per-view Mark Taffet said the fight will generate significant momentum for both the PPV boxing and UFC categories. Both sports have PPV events scheduled over the next two weeks: The UFC will distribute its Sept. 9 UFC 215 pay-per-view event featuring Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg, while HBO will offer its Sept. 16 Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin bout.

“Mayweather-McGregor clearly exceeded fans’ expectations, and that is great news for both boxing and UFC,” Taffet said. “It bodes well for both sports, and I think it’s one of those great instances in which everyone comes out a winner — boxing, MMA, McGregor, Mayweather and the fans.”

Mixed martial arts organization UFC will step into the reality competition octagon for a 25th season on April 19, with its competition series The Ultimate Fighter looking to deliver another knockout season of fisticuffs to fight-starved FS1 viewers.

The series, in which up-and-coming MMA competitors live together under one roof while vying against each other in a series of elimination fights — with the winner earning a coveted UFC contract — is credited with exposing the once-fringe Ultimate Fighting Championship to a mainstream audience.

“The show has been instrumental in the success of the UFC and getting us on television,” UFC president Dana White, who also serves as executive producer of The Ultimate Fighter, told Multichannel News. “It’s also created a ton of talent — not only great fighters that have fought in the UFC, but great champions.”

REACHED HEIGHTS FOR FS1
Launched in 2005 on Spike TV and now airing on FS1, The Ultimate Fighter has produced two seasons each year, providing an entry point both for fans curious about the emerging sport and for athletes vying to become household names on the UFC circuit. The series is the most-watched original series in FS1’s history and has spawned an aftershow, TUF Talk, which recaps each installment.

“Not only are viewers tuning into FS1 to follow the series, but their appetite to go even deeper into the fighters and the storylines has been insatiable,” David Nathanson, head of business operations for Fox Sports, said.

But the show wasn’t always a knockout success. In fact, the first season of the series almost never got off the ground. When UFC pitched the concept of The Ultimate Fighter to networks in 2005, UFC was still in its development stages and perceived as a violent, no-holds-barred entity. The only TV exposure for the sport was though its various pay-per-view events. Cable networks weren’t jumping at the chance to put MMA on the air.

“When we first thought about doing The Ultimate Fighter, the first season was really rough to even launch,” Craig Piligian, CEO of TV production company Pilgrim Media Group and executive producer of The Ultimate Fighter, said. “The perception back then of the UFC was that two men enter the ring and only one man leaves: They thought it was a blood sport and that people really died fighting. We really wanted the show to blow away those misconceptions.”

Finally Viacom’s Spike TV, then a men’s-targeted network, decided to offer the UFC a time buy on the channel. Piligian would forfeit his production fees and the UFC ponied up the cash to launch the first season of the show in 2005. “Dana and I flew around the country looking for sponsors for the show and we couldn’t find one — it was a real nightmare,” Piligian recounted. “I never thought it would go more than one season because you just didn’t know if anyone would support it.”

At the time, though, White and Piligian vowed to create an honest reality show that stayed true to the actions of the fighters both inside and outside the octagon.

“We were sort of winging it, but the thing that has kept The Ultimate Fighter so strong is that nothing in it is fake,” White told MCN. “The most contrived part of the show is when I’m standing there and say, ‘Gentlemen, welcome to The Ultimate Fighter.’ Then it’s game on. Everything that happens is spontaneous and real — it is real reality television. There’s nothing scripted on The Ultimate Fighter.”

Added Piligian: “We didn’t Hollywood it — we gave people a brawl, regardless of whether it was a great brawl or a bad brawl.”

The final bout of the first season pitted then-unknowns Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin in an action-packed fight that many observers described as the fight that officially launched the UFC into the mainstream.

“The first season killed it and the rest is history,” said White. “We literally went into the alley behind the arena after the fight and made the deal for the second season of TUF and the UFC.”

Griffin would win the bout and go on to become the UFC’s light heavyweight world champion, one of six fighters from The Ultimate Fighter to eventually wear a championship belt. “The pinnacle moment for me was in 2005 when I won The Ultimate Fighter because I knew at that moment that my life had changed forever,” recalled Griffin, who now serves as vice president of athlete development for the company. “To me, at its heart the show is about finding the best talents that have the potential to be in the UFC and put them under a microscope and see how they deal with the pressure.”

Added White: “TUF, literally, it is our rookie camp. I really get to see who’s who and what’s what — it couldn’t be any more perfect for me to scout talent.”

The Ultimate Fighter would air on Spike TV for six years before moving to FX as part of the groundbreaking, seven-year TV deal UFC reached with Fox Sports in 2011.

In 2013, the show would move to then newly launched national sports network FS1. That move bolstered UFC’s status as a legitimate sport, White said, putting it on the same platform as high-profile, mainstream properties such as Major League Baseball, NASCAR and major college football and basketball games.

“The Ultimate Fighter has been one of the crown jewels of the UFC portfolio, and since we’ve launched Fox Sports 1, it’s been the No. 1 original series on the FS1 network,” Fox’s Nathanson said.

Added White: “The love that Fox has put behind the show in helping us promote it every season has really helped the show’s success. They’ve done a fantastic job.”

During its run, UFC has tinkered with the The Ultimate Fighter’s format to keep the show fresh and entertaining for viewers. The upcoming season, dubbed “Redemption,” will feature fighters who have competed in previous seasons once again vying for a UFC contract. Previous seasons have included casts of all-women fighters, with Ronda Rousey as a coach, as well as the launch of a new weight division, complete with its first champion, UFC executive vice president of operations Craig Borsari said.

“It’s challenging to try to figure out that right balance between changing up the format slightly and finding the right characters to bring to the house while not alienating the viewers that got us here,” Borsari said. “There are times where we’ve pushed the envelope, but for the most part, we’ve figured out how to keep the core format in place with minor tweaks on the fringes, which has helped this show maintain the longevity that it’s had.”

STORYLINES ‘NEVER DISAPPOINT’
Regardless of the format changes, FS1’s Nathanson added, The Ultimate Fighter consistently delivers a power punch for viewers looking for quality, action-packed fights.

“The Ultimate Fighter never disappoints … eventually what gets you every single season is the actual athletes and the storylines that emerge from them,” he said. “Not only are they incredibly compelling fighters, but they are compelling athletes, and the storylines are able to give people a reason to follow them well after the series, particularly if they’re lucky enough to make it into the UFC.”

As for the future, White said he can see the show continuing to thrive and build its next generation of champions as the UFC continues to grow as a sport. “If the sport continues to grow and more fans make their way toward the UFC, I think the TUF will always be relevant.”

Added Piligian: “Never before has a reality unscripted TV show built a sport, and that’s what this one did and will continue to do.”


SIDEBAR: FROM ‘ULTIMATE’ TO PINNACLE
Six UFC athletes who debuted onThe Ultimate Fighterwent on to become UFC champions:

FORREST GRIFFIN, Former UFC light heavyweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer (won Season 1).

RASHAD EVANS, former UFC light heavyweight champion (won Season 2 as a heavyweight): Evans defeated Forrest Griffin at UFC 92 to capture the UFC light heavyweight championship.

MICHAEL BISPING, current UFC middleweight champion (won Season 3): Bisping, who entered UFC competition in 2006, captured the UFC middleweight title at UFC 199 in June 2016.

MATT SERRA, former UFC welterweight champion (won Season 4): Serra defeated Georges St-Pierre at UFC 69 to capture the welterweight title in what has been described as the greatest upset in UFC history.

T.J. DILLASHAW, former UFC bantamweight champion (appeared on Season 14): Dillashaw, the only fighter on this list who did not win the season in which he competed on the show, lost in the finale to John Dodson, but rebounded to become bantamweight champion at UFC 173.

CARLA ESPARZA, former UFC strawweight champion (won Season 20): In winning the show, Esparza became the global brand’s firstever champion in the newly established weight class.

SOURCE: UFC

When the ultimate fighting championship brings its action-packed brand of mixed martial arts to New York City’s Madison Square Garden for a pay-per-view event in November, the organization — which just a year ago was still banned from exhibiting in New York State due to its violence — will have finally KO’d all of the ghosts of its checkered past.

UFC has established itself as arguably the fastest growing sport in the country under the leadership of chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White. If there were any doubters, the value of the UFC was made clear with its $4 billion sale last month to talent company WME-IMG — the most expensive sale of a sports organization in history.

The WME purchase was more than a validation of the blood, sweat and tears Fertitta and White poured into building the UFC after acquiring the once-shunned franchise from Semaphore Entertainment Group for $2 million in 2001. It’s also a bet that WME-IMG will give UFC the muscle to expand its media and promotional footprint to even greater heights.

The two executives have successfully turned a moribund combat sports franchise into a multibillion-dollar, multiplatform sports conglomerate. Fertitta positioned the UFC as a legitimate sport and got it sanctioned in all 50 states, and White built the UFC brand on-screen with major pay-per-view events and as host of the FS1 reality competition series The Ultimate Fighter

Top UFC fighters such as Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva have helped transform the sport from niche play to mainstream pop culture. The popularity of these and other fighters has helped UFC draw big audiences for its pay-per-view events, and set has ratings records for live televised fights on Fox and FS1 under a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal with Fox Sports that expires in 2018.

Fertitta and White, the 2016 Multichannel News Sports Executives of the Year, recently spoke to programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about UFC’s success and its future plans for growth in international distribution and on the technological front. An edited transcript follows.

MCN: When you guys purchased UFC back in 2001, did you ever foresee the franchise becoming as valuable, financially and brand-wise, as it is today?

Dana White: We were really confident. I always believed in this and I always thought it would be huge, and I wasn’t shy about telling people.

MCN: What are the differences between the sport then and now?

Lorenzo Fertitta: Obviously, the biggest difference is when we purchased it this really was a venture deal. There was really no sustainable business that was in place in 2001 when we made the decision to purchase it. What’s different now is that we have a full infrastructure in place and a full team that has helped us over the last 15 years that we have built up now that is in offices around the world.

This is a fully sustainable, fully functional global sports enterprise. Obviously, it’s much different from the entity that we bought for $2 million dollars in 2001. We are essentially sanctioned and allowed and broadcast all around the world, whereas prior to that we weren’t actually allowed on cable from a pay-per-view standpoint. When we bought the company we were only allowed on, I think, [satellite-TV providers] Dish [Network] and DirecTV, so a lot of barriers have been broken. There has been a massive foundation that’s been built. The brand is in the best position it’s ever been.

MCN: The sport initially had trouble getting sanctioned in the states because of its perceived in-ring violence. How did you convince the states over the years that this was a legitimate sport and should be sanctioned?

LF: I’ll take that. Previous to being involved in the UFC, I spent four years on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, so during that time I learned a lot about the health and safety issues regarding fighters. I spent a lot of time with the Nevada Medical Advisory Board that reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission and tried to learn as much as possible.

Once we bought the company, the UFC was already sanctioned in the state of New Jersey. [Former New Jersey State Athletic Commissioner] Larry Hazzard, a longtime regulator in New Jersey, actually had a background in martial arts and had a good understanding of what the sport was and was willing to go ahead and let it happen. So the foundation was in place.

From there, we just took a very methodical approach with our regulatory team, which now includes Mark Ratner, the ex-executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission; Lawrence Epstein, our COO; and Kirk Hendrick, our chief legal officer. We just went through a process of methodically sitting down with every state, talking to legislators, talking to athletic commission members, telling them exactly what the sport was, what the health and safety record was — all the things that we had put in place to address the health and safety issues.

And just over a period of essentially 15 years, we went from two states regulating the sport, in New Jersey and Louisiana at the time, to where we are today with all 50 states in the U.S. as well as every province in Canada and, for the most part, everywhere around the world.

MCN: The last state to fall was New York earlier this year. How big a deal was that for the UFC in terms of building its brand and value?

DW: New York is huge, obviously. It’s the media capital of the world and it has Madison Square Garden. We’ve always loved hitting these different milestones throughout the UFC’s history and, obviously, New York and MSG are really big for us. Not to mention the fact that it has taken so long, there’s pent-up demand that makes it even bigger.

MCN: The UFC has one of the youngest skewing audiences in all of the major sports. Why does this franchise have such great appeal with millennials?

DW: I think there are a lot of different reasons for that. First of all, when we were growing up, your parents would put you in karate or Taekwondo or something like that. This is the new martial art that children are taking all over the world, so that’s number one. Number two, I think that these millennials consume content faster. They take in a lot more information than we did when we were younger. With sports like boxing you can punch to the head and the body, but in the UFC you can kick, punch, knee, elbow, go to the ground and grapple — it’s faster and it’s more exciting. It’s three rounds instead of 10 rounds or five rounds instead of 12 rounds. It’s just a faster, more exciting sport.

MCN: Was the UFC’s appeal to younger viewers the catalyst for you guys to finally break through and secure a major television deal with Fox Sports?

LF: Really the first driver for us was when we did the original deal with Spike TV, where we went in and essentially did a time buy to put The Ultimate Fighter on. [The series aired on Spike from 2005-11 before moving to FX and, eventually, FS1 under UFC’s deal with Fox Sports.] That was really, obviously, our breakthrough moment, and when you look at the trajectory of our business — whether it’s revenue growth or profitability — it actually started right after that happened.

So getting a platform like Spike, for it to allow us to be able to show our product to the masses, really was key. And I think obviously our success that we had on Spike led to other, traditional sports broadcasters to want to carry our product, which eventually led us to doing a deal with Fox Sports, which I think took us to the next level in various different ways.

But in addition to that, as you mentioned before, the fact that millennials are really attracted to our product, one of the things that we embraced early on was making sure that we had a digital strategy and making sure that we provided our product on every platform possible, whether it was traditional pay-per-view, basic cable TV, now free-to-air broadcast, as well as … an OTT product in Fight Pass, in addition to having once again a very robust digital/social strategy. I think that’s one of the things that really has allowed us to grow and be consumed by millennials.

MCN: Do you see in the future the opportunity to fully develop a robust OTT service where you’re offering exclusive content to your fans on the Web, much as World Wrestling Entertainment has done with its WWE Network?

LF: We look at it as an additive to all of our strategies from a distribution standpoint. So while WWE has been very successful in putting all of their primary content over the top, it’s been great for them, we have taken a little bit of a different route. We like continuing to have a valuable pay-per-view franchise, which we are obviously going to continue on with. We also like having our deal with Fox Sports where we are getting license fees on both basic-cable and broadcast television and we like providing product on an OTT platform. We want to be able to generate revenue on every platform and not necessarily just one.

MCN: While the UFC franchise was growing in popularity over the years, its stars really didn’t begin to transcend the sport, so to speak, until recently with the emergence of Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones and Holly Holm.

DW: I don’t know if that’s necessarily true. People say that a lot, but I don’t believe that. If you look back and you look at where we were back in 2001/2005/2008, we had Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, B.J. Penn, Randy Couture, Rich Franklin [and] Matt Hughes all in that era.

Then the second wave of guys started coming through with the [2007] purchase of [Japan-based MMA company] Pride Fighting Championships. We had Anderson Silva, Wanderlei [Silva], Shogun and [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira. We introduced all of those guys and they became stars.

Then you go into the next phase. We have Ronda, Conor, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, Robbie Lawler ... the list goes on and on. I think if you look at how big the UFC was back in 2005, Chuck Liddell was as big a rock star as I’ve ever seen in any sport.

MCN: But they didn’t necessarily get on the sports pages of the major newspapers back in the day. Now these stars are in popular culture — movies, TV shows and what have you. So you’re saying that that happened back in 2005? I think more people know today’s UFC stars than the sport’s stars a decade ago.

DW: I’ll say Chuck Liddell opened the doors. When we first bought the UFC in 2001, we’re out there talking to all these sports editors of the major newspapers. The guys who were in a power position back in 2001 were stick-and-ball guys. Those guys didn’t want to hear about the UFC and didn’t care about the UFC.

Then you look at the work that we did from 2001 to what we’ll call 2010. All these younger-generation kids that grew up watching Chuck Liddell and the B.J. Penns and the Matt Hughes all started to get into these positions where they were assistant editors or editors of the publications, and that’s when everything really started to change.

LF: Also we continue to invest in the UFC brand and make the platform bigger. When the platform and the brand becomes bigger, it allows for our athletes to become crossover stars, because more people are interested when you’re getting exposure on Fox Sports, and when you have deals with Globo down in Brazil and Televisa in Mexico and British Telecom in the U.K. The platform makes a big difference.

MCN: How do you deal with the controversies that often crop up surrounding your fighters?

DW: That’s the fight game. Things aren’t always going to work the way you want them to. Listen, one of the things that we have is a deep roster. We’ve got a deep roster and, not to sound arrogant, but I think we’re the best. And at crunch time, when it comes to pulling stuff together and putting another fight together all the time, I say all the time to my team — this is what we do, so let’s do it. Let’s fi x it.

When the Jon Jones thing happened at UFC 200 (he was dropped from the main event after a potential violation of anti-doping agency rules), we got Anderson Silva in there quick. Not many people could pull that off . Most would have to cancel their event and we don’t do that.

MCN: How much did the Fox Sports TV deal help expose the UFC to a broader audience?

DW: It was huge. And it’s a testament to the fact that the sport is still growing.

If you look at the way the NFL has grown over the last however many years, that’s what’s going to continue to happen with the UFC. I say it all the time and I’ll say it again — everybody likes fighting, man. We continue to put on the best fights with the best fighters and we continue to grow the sport, the brand, and make everything bigger every year.

LF: Ultimately, it’s like any other business. It’s about providing a great product that the consumer wants … it’s as simple as that. That’s what we’ve done. We match up the fights and the fighters that the consumers want to see; we provide a great value, whether it’s pay-per-view or obviously a ton of value when you’re watching it on free TV. You just live by those rules and we’re able to build a very successful franchise.

MCN: The Fox deal comes up at the end of 2018. Are you already thinking about what the next step is for the organization, and would you look at or would you entertain other partners along with Fox going forward?

LF: Yeah. I think it’s always a process of analyzing what the marketplace is. I think one of the big benefits that we have is that there are no major sports rights coming up over the next five years, so the UFC is essentially the only major sports platform that is going to be available for the various media companies here in the U.S. to be able to bid on. And I think that puts the UFC in a great position.

There is no question about it that it’s a product that generates eyeballs, consumers. Our advertisers want to get the millennials that we’re drawing, and it puts us in a very enviable position.

MCN: What are some of the challenges UFC faces over the next couple of years?

LF: Honestly, I think one of the big things for us is continuing to forge ahead and grow in the international markets. There is an interesting thing that’s going on. There seems to be a real supply and demand imbalance right now, meaning that there is just more demand right now than we have been providing in the marketplace, particularly in Europe.

If you look at it, I think 10 or 11 of our last [international] events have sold out. And when I say sold out, I mean within the first day and many times before we even announce who is fighting on the card. So the UFC brand is red hot in Europe, and it’s just a matter of trying to figure out how we scale that going forward in an efficient and responsible manner.

I think the same thing obviously can be said for Latin America and Brazil. We built a tremendous business down in Brazil. Even though the Brazilian economy has just absolutely gone into the tank, we continue to have a tremendous amount of demand down there. We just did an event with 45,000 people, so our business continues to grow down there. You look at some huge opportunity in Asia, particularly China. I think it’s going to be a big focus of the company.

MCN: How about on the technology side? You guys offered virtual reality with UFC 200. Do you see the UFC continuing to be on the cutting edge of new technologies as we go along?

LF: Absolutely. A lot of times, whether it was the early days of digital, whether it was OTT or whatever, we just always wanted to be on the forefront. We are risk-takers and now we’re broadcasting in 4K and we’re working with some different VR companies. And if the opportunity presents itself, I would expect that we will be on the forefront of that relative to sports.

MCN: Do you think that the sports industry considers the UFC as a major sport in this country? Has it earned the respect of the sports industry as a whole up to this point?

DW: [Laughter.] I mean they should. We have definitely turned a lot of heads; you know what I mean? We definitely woke a lot of people up and I don’t know if they’ve changed their mind, but if they didn’t, whatever, who cares. We’re gonna keep plugging along and doing what we do.

LF: We just did the largest deal in the history of sports. I think they probably should. People talk about the big four [the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and the NHL] I think you gotta start talking about the big five and adding the UFC in that conversation.

MCN: We talked a bit aboutThe Ultimate Fighter. Do you see any other opportunities to launch any other series outside of the live fights you’re televising from the octagon?

DW: I think now, being hooked up with WME, I think we’re going to be able to do more. I have tons of ideas for TV shows all the time. Now they’ll actually get on TV.

MCN: What does WME bring to the UFC? Can you talk about that?

DW: This is what they do. If you look at Frank, Lorenzo and I, when we got involved in this business we weren’t television or sports guys. We’ve never done any of that stuff. The thing about us is we were huge fight fans and we knew exactly what we wanted. We knew the product we wanted, we knew what we wanted it to look like, and we knew we wanted to put on the best fights that you could possibly put on. That’s what we knew. So that’s what we started with and then we started to learn the rest.

And we’ve done a pretty decent job for three guys that have never done any of that and aren’t media guys. [WME co-CEOs] Ari Emanuel and Patrick White-sell are media guys. This is what they do. This is what they are good at, this is what they drive to work and do everyday. So I think this brings so much to the table. Then, if you look at the [IMG] side, with production in other countries and everything else, once we get this thing dialed in, it’s gonna be awesome. I am excited for this next phase.

UFC: Tale of the Tape

Facts and figures about the fastest-growing franchise in TV Sports

• Zuff a LLC buought UFC from Semaphore Entertainment for $2 million in 2001.

• Last month, WME-IMG bought UFC for $4 billion, the biggest sports franchise deal in history.

• UFC produces 42 live events annually around the world.

• The median age of UFC’s fan base is 37.8, the youngest of all other major professional sports leagues in the United States.

• UFC struck a seven-year, multimillion-dollar television pact with Fox Sports in 2011 that, for the first time, put live UFC fights on broadcast television. The deal has produced record-setting ratings for cable network FS1.

• UFC launched its Fight Pass over-the-top subscription service in 2013, offering live fights and library programming.

• The UFC counts 5.8 million Twitter followers, 5 million Instagram followers and 3 million YouTube subscribers.

SOURCES: UFC, Multichannel News research

Ultimate Fighting Championship’s $4 billion sale to talent company WME-IMG has delivered a powerful financial and brand-building punch to UFC as well as the wider mixed-martial-arts sports category, industry observers said.

The deal, the most expensive purchase of a sports franchise in history, completes a journey begun in 2001 when Zuffa LLC, owned by brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta as well as UFC president Dana White, purchased the then-struggling franchise from Semaphore Entertainment Group for $2 million. At the time, UFC was limited to pay-per-view distribution and was outlawed by many states that considered MMA fighting too violent, but the Fertittas and White slowly created a franchise that now is considered a legitimate pro sport alongside boxing and has strong appeal with millennials.

“Nobody involved in the UFC could have imagined that the franchise would be valued at $4 billion,” said Bas Rutten, UFC Hall of Fame fighter and co-host of AXS TV’s mixed-martial-arts series Inside MMA. “The sale will solidify the UFC, and more people will now be interested in the UFC because they heard about the deal and want to check it out.”

Currently, UFC is in the midst of a multiyear television deal with Fox Sports that expires in 2018. Live UFC events televised by Fox and FS1 have delivered knockout ratings for the networks — thus far in 2016, UFC on Fox fights have averaged a combat sports high of 2.6 million viewers, while Fight Night bouts on FS1 have averaged 1.1 million viewers.

“We’re happy that the hard work and value created by Lorenzo, Frank and Dana has been rewarded,” Fox Sports president and chief operating officer Eric Shanks said regarding UFC’s sale. “We have been thrilled to be a partner on the ride and are big believers in the sport and the stars that have been created. We’re looking forward to beginning the next chapter with [WME] and Dana.”

The deal was also celebrated by owners of other mixed-martial-arts franchises who believe the $4 billion UFC purchase price also builds more value for their franchises and the MMA sport itself.

“It just shows that this industry can be a very profitable one if done properly, and there are people that want to invest in MMA,” said Scott Coker, CEO of Bellator MMA, which is owned by Viacom and offers live MMA events on Spike TV. “To see a number like that is great because the credibility and respectability of MMA is finally coming to the forefront.”