Ultimate fighting finds its legs after shaky start

updated 11:14 a.m. ET July 12, 2006

NEW YORK - Shortly after a group of investors bought the nearly bankrupt Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2001, the company put on a pay-per-view bout.

But the fight ran over its allotted time. Angry viewers didn’t get to see the conclusion.

“It was a very bad start,” UFC President Dana White acknowledged. “It took us a long time to rebuild.”

UFC has since found its legs and it’s making money. The privately held Las Vegas-based company has been slowly bolstering its brand, forging a successful relationship with cable network Spike TV and reshaping attitudes about the violent sport.

More importantly to the bottom line, UFC has begun to attract impressive audiences with each of its pay-per-view fights, appealing to young men who yearn for a good slugfest in the absence of a strong heavyweight boxing card.

“This thing isn’t going anywhere,” White said. “This is the new combat sport.”

UFC is mixture of martial arts, boxing and wrestling. The best fighters have mastered elements of all three sports. The combat takes place over three rounds (championships are five) inside the UFC’s caged ring,— named “The Octagon” — with judges scoring the bout.

But this is not Wrestlemania. The punches and kicks are real. The fighters are dead serious. The top ones train year-round to give the boisterous crowds a bone-crushing good time. The atmosphere at the fights rivals boxing matches. It’s a sport, albeit a bloody one.

“You have to be able to wrestle, strike and do submission,” UFC lightweight champion Chuck Liddell said. “You have to be good at all three or you won’t last long. The fighters have evolved.”

Already sanctioned in more than 20 states, UFC has ambitions as big as the casinos in which its fighters duke it out.

The organization wants to legalize the sport nationwide, including New York, one of the biggest and most lucrative fight markets, and take its show to European arenas starting with a London office slated to open in October.

Surprise hirings
The UFC surprised the boxing world, hiring Marc Ratner, longtime executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, and John Mulkey, a former managing director at Wachovia Securities and Bear Stearns Co.

Ratner, who began in May, serves as vice president of Zuffa LLC, UFC’s parent company, while Mulkey was named chief financial officer.

Ratner brings credibility to the UFC, which has been trying to prove it’s a safe and serious sport and one worthy of coverage.

Brazilian Royce Gracie, a Jiu-Jitsu master, helped start UFC in 1993. Back then, the no-holds barred UFC was brutal, with fighters using all sorts of now-banned practices like head butting.

Fights were held in small venues such as Indian casinos and backwater towns. Liddell said his first UFC fight was held about eight years ago in Louisiana in front of a couple thousand folks. Liddell, a slugger with a devastating right hand, couldn’t remember the town.

“Somewhere in the middle of nowhere,” said Liddell, who’s nicknamed “The Iceman.”

Ratner recalled watching CNN in the 1990’s while Ken Shamrock, one of the UFC’s biggest stars, debated the organization’s biggest detractor, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. After the show, Ratner remembered thinking Nevada would never allow the sport.

But it was Ratner, ironically, who helped thrust the UFC into the mainstream when he decided the sport had to be regulated while he was with the NAC. The commission approved the sport in 2001.

Skilled fighters
Out went bloody head butts and other vicious blows that could cause serious harm. In came a skilled and conditioned fighter.

“The biggest misconception that I’ve seen is that some people still think it’s anything goes and there are no rules,” Ratner said. “These guys are tremendous athletes.”

Still, the UFC struggled. The deep pockets of Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta — who bought the UFC for $2 million along with White — allowed the company to stay afloat.

White said UFC almost folded in 2003. But its fortunes began to change with a reality show on Spike TV called “Ultimate Fighter” that has given UFC its biggest stage, averaging 2.2 million viewers in its third season.

“Spike was a perfect fit for us,” White said. “We know who we are going after.”

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