UFC’s evolution was monetized

When the Twitter universe exploded late Sunday evening to say the unofficial had become official, that the horribly kept secret about a $4 billion transaction to purchase the Ultimate Fighting Championship had finally been confirmed by those whose bank accounts were suddenly the size of Malta, one name came to mind.

John McCain was for years the despised adversary of those niche mixed martial arts souls who wanted the UFC to grow and prosper, a United States senator from Arizona who in the late 1990s termed the sport, “human cockfighting.”

It’s a good thing he did.

Without such an uncompromising stance from McCain, the Fertitta family would never have realized the historic success created from purchasing the UFC for $2 million in 2001.

More than the obvious — an ungodly Return On Investment — those who raised the Las Vegas-based UFC to such implausible heights should be applauded for showing the willingness and capacity to evolve over time. McCain’s comments forced regulation of the sport, which allowed it to cultivate and mature.

Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White took things from there.

There has never been a better duo when it comes to elevating a sport directly from the defibrillator paddles to the sort of exemplary health that now has the UFC shown in more than 156 countries and contested in all 50 states.

Fertitta owned the acumen, not to mention a desire to remain more in the background, to realize the UFC needed a specific face by which to promote its brand while breaking down those mainstream barriers that were impeding it from being accepted on a much larger, global, profitable scale.

So he put in charge his brash and biased and at times rude and always unapologetic flawed friend.

“Dana White was Jim McMahon living paycheck to paycheck,” said a friend of the Fertitta family Monday. “He had nothing but motivation to make this work.”

It was genius. The UFC needed a president who wore jeans and a T-shirt and offered more F-bombs than your next HBO miniseries.

A three-piece suit and the polished prose of a seasoned politician wouldn’t have worked in this arena.

There is a reason the investment group led by talent agency WME-IMG wants White to remain president and will bestow him a percentage of ownership. While he still emanates a skewed and inaccurate opinion on the media’s role and responsibility when covering the UFC, White as much as any sports executive understands his market.

He didn’t just break down mainstream barriers. White bull-rushed them in a barrage of profanity and progressive objectives, fighting the fights that boxing wouldn’t, delivering the matchups fans desired most, cutting broadcast deals with networks and offering an exclusive digital subscription services, landing sponsors like Budweiser and Harley-Davidson and EA Sports and Reebok, being as accessible to fans as any executive in sports.

The guy has 3.75 million followers on Twitter. Enough said.

Evolving?

They hired the incredibly respected Marc Ratner as vice president of regulatory affairs, a major reason the UFC will hold its first card in New York come Nov. 12 after the state’s nearly 20-year ban.

They finally admitted the truth about performance-enhancing drugs being prevalent with countless fighters, and contracted the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to oversee the testing program. They are also among the largest contributors to the Cleveland Clinic’s Professional Fighter’s Brain Health Study.

They relented over time when it came to how much top fighters deserved to be paid, and salaries exploded in recent years.

Why sell now?

To start, there are 4 billion reasons. Think about it. The UFC now marks the richest sale in professional sports history, nearly twice the next highest transaction ($2.1 billion for the Dodgers when bought out of bankruptcy in 2012).

But owning total control is paramount to Fertitta and White, and you get the sense that the fact they were losing some to fighters having to be removed from major cards due to injuries or doping wore on them. It’s also true that to reach the next level of prosperity, the UFC needs to generate expansion into places like China and India and across Southeast Asia, and the time needed and amount of red flags that exist for such a venture probably weren’t tops on Fertitta’s list of projects.

You also get the sense he took this as far as he wanted and probably even desired a total departure with no lingering ownership stake had the cash been available from the new owners.

I don’t believe this is the last we see of Fertitta and professional sports. More than anything, his rumored desire to be involved with an NFL franchise makes more sense than not. He certainly has the capital to pursue such a venture.

Fifteen years ago, he and brother Frank took a risk to purchase the UFC in a time when a prominent U.S. senator was doing everything in his power to destroy the brand.

Two years ago, John McCain shook the hand and told then-light heavyweight champion Jon Jones he would be purchasing his next fight.

That’s progress.

That’s evolving.

Nobody did those two things better than the UFC under the collective thumbs of Fertitta and White.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney