It’s easy to look at the explosion of mixed martial arts in general – and the Ultimate Fighting Championship in particular – over the last few years and forget that there was a time not so long ago when the sport was in dire straits and possibly on the verge of being extinct.
The UFC, the major brand in the sport, was in deep trouble, and though the new Zuffa ownership team of Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta, and Dana White had fought and won battles along the way after taking over in 2000 – such as getting the sport sanctioned in Nevada and back on easily accessible pay-per-view – it came at a heavy price, somewhere around $44 million, and the end seemed near.
“It was brutal,” said White, UFC President. “We were waiting any day for the plug to be pulled. We felt like we were getting momentum and getting traction, but it wasn’t enough to dig us out of the hole that we were in and it didn’t look like there was any light at the end of the tunnel. When was this gonna turn? Then, boom, ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’”
The fighting reality show, financed by Zuffa, took off when it aired on Spike TV in 2005, and the series finale, pitting Forrest Griffin against Stephan Bonnar, was the first UFC fight ever aired live on basic cable and a monster hit. Since then, the company has been a juggernaut, dominating an industry that is gaining more supporters every day.
Yet while perceptions about the sport of MMA have changed as casual fans and mainstream media have come aboard, what hasn’t changed is Zuffa’s single-minded pursuit of excellence, epitomized by the hard-charging White, whose hellacious pace can’t be rivaled by any head of a major sporting organization. But as White’s global journeys continued to mount while the company pursued its rapid expansion into Europe, Canada and beyond, White recently got a phone call from Lorenzo Fertitta, his best friend, high school classmate, and business partner, who decided that he was going to resign his post as President of Station Casinos to work full-time with the UFC, an announcement made officially to Zuffa employees Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas.
“I was shocked,” said White when asked his initial reaction. “But I said ‘We did it, we’re there.’ And I was so happy because I have so much respect for him, and the UFC was his dream too. You don’t drop $44 million into something that you’re not passionate about. So this is his dream, he loves this sport, he loves this company, and I’m happy for him too.”
For Fertitta, the sport’s incredible growth prompted his decision to devote all his time to the UFC.
“We’ve seen this explosive growth of the UFC, and particularly the opportunity we now we have internationally, so we felt like it was time for me to come aboard and help the team grow and expand,” said Fertitta. “And what it came down to was me and my brother Frank have always been in the same meetings and been running the same businesses, and we felt it was time to kind of divide and conquer. He’s gonna focus 100 percent on Station Casinos and I’m gonna focus 100 percent of my time on the UFC.”
For White, having Fertitta in the office every day is a Godsend.
“I’m only one guy,” admits White. “Last month I was home four days. This month I was gone two weeks and my secretary just told me I’m going to be in Las Vegas next week for 24 hours. There’s so much going on, so much opportunity, and we’re growing so fast that there’s only so much I can do. I look at milestones in this company’s history, and the reason the UFC is here is because of Station Casinos. The Fertittas’ ownership of Station Casinos gave them the ability to take this on as a hobby. Now the fact that this hobby has Lorenzo leaving Station Casinos to come work on this, I’m proud of it and it’s a big day for me.”
And despite Wednesday’s announcement, it’s not as if Fertitta is just jumping into the operations of the UFC cold. The former Station Casinos boss has always been involved with all the aspects of the business and is a fixture at Octagonside for every event. But now, all of his time can be focused on the UFC.
“I’ve always been involved in the business of the UFC,” he said. “I’ve talked to Dana numerous times a day over the last eight years about the business and I’m involved with all the major strategic parts of it. The problem is I haven’t been able to contribute 100 percent of my time, energy, effort and focus to it, and that’s really what this affords me to do. There’s so much to achieve, especially when you talk about worldwide global growth. It’s not something that one person can do – it’s got to be a team effort, and I’m really just coming over to hopefully add to the team here.”
“Nothing changes as far as structure goes or how this thing is run,” said White. “I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing. The difference is, me and Lorenzo talk 40 times a day anyway, and instead of me and him getting together and going over things, he’s gonna be there every day, all day, non-stop. It’s big for this company – me and my best friend got into this together and now we actually get to work together.”
They’ve come a long way in just eight years, and perhaps what kept Zuffa afloat wasn’t just a belief in their product but in each other. That kind of loyalty is hard to find in any walk of life these days, especially in the fight game. Is that the secret?
“I think it was a passion we had for the business and the sport, and I think it also is the partnership and friendship that me, Frank, and Dana have,” said Fertitta. “I think that’s one of the keys to our success, that we’re like three brothers, and the only way to get through the bumps in the road in tumultuous times is to have a great relationship, a great friendship, and a great partnership. I think that gives us such an advantage over any of these other companies or any of these competitors. Nobody has the partnership or stability at the top that we have.”
And now the fun really begins.
“We’re probably one of the most aggressive companies out there, and we can kick back and say ‘oh, we’re the fat cat here in the United States,’ but we don’t,” said White. “We’re out here to build a sport and build a company, that’s what we’re doing, and we’re not gonna stop until we get there.”
Fertitta agrees.
“I’ve always been a believer that this was going to be the biggest sport on the planet,” he said. “That’s what our goal is and that’s where we’re taking it.”
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