UFC President Dana White has named one historically key moment that helped to shape the trajectory of MMA’s premier promotion.
Nowadays, the UFC sits uncontested as the leading organization in mixed martial arts. Among its 600-plus-strong roster are some of the most talented fighters in the world, from lightweight champion Islam Makhachev to two-division queen Amanda Nunes.
The promotion’s star names and stacked cards have helped it visit countries around the world, from Sweden and Czech Republic to Argentina and New Zealand, while selling out arenas and breaking records along the way.
With that in mind, UFC history features a number of moments that were no doubt vital in building the brand into what it is today. The question is, which was the most important?
Was it UFC 1, the promotion’s first-ever show in 1993? Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers’ purchase in 2001? The creation and first season of The Ultimate Fighter in 2005?
If you’ve just heard a buzzer sound, that’s because you didn’t say the surprisingly correct answer — a wedding…
White Details Importance Of Reunion With The Fertittas
During a recent interview with Grant Cardone, Dana White recalled the early days of the UFC and the moments prior to his instalment as president.
In 2001, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta purchased the then-failing promotion for just $2 million. They’d been alerted to the possible sale of the organization by none other than White, who’d been working as a manager for Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz at the time.
Had things panned out differently, White would never have had the idea to go to his future business partners with the opportunity. While he’d attended the same high school as Lorenzo, they’d drifted apart once White headed to Boston.
As it turns out, the crucial reunion that shaped the history of the UFC and mixed martial arts as a whole was a wedding.
“It’s crazy. Lorenzo and I went to high school together. It’s not like we were best (friends). He was a rich kid, I was broke,” White recalled. “But we knew each other… I went away to Boston… A friend of mine, Adam Corgan… This kid and another guy who grew up with money was a great guy, used to drive me to school every day.
“He got married, probably 25 years ago — in that ballpark. He was such a good dude to me growing up… I got invited to his wedding and there’s no way I wasn’t going to his wedding. So I end up going to his wedding, where I bump into Frank and Lorenzo again,” White continued. “It was the first time I’d seen those guys since high school.”
White went on to note that had either he or the Fertittas decided against attending the wedding, the entire future of the UFC would’ve played out differently.
“That’s where we reconnected. We went to Adam Corgan’s wedding and we’ve been together ever since,” White noted. “If we don’t go to that wedding, we definitely don’t bump into each other and we don’t see each other. We changed the f*cking world because we went to that wedding.”
With the trio reconnecting at the celebratory event, they went on to form an alliance that would go on to develop the UFC into an enterprise that sold for $4 billion to talent agency WME-IMG in 2016.
But, no proposal, no wedding, no invites, no White-Fertitta partnership, no UFC purchase; an entirely different MMA scene — the butterfly effect.
What comes to mind as other crucial moments in the history of the UFC?
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