From Blood Sport To Big Time

The organization known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC for short, has weathered an arduous and uncertain relationship with the American media, the general public, politicians, it's own fighters, and even its entrepreneurial financiers throughout its short life. Despite the many set backs and obstacles, the UFC has emerged as one of the fastest growing markets in modern sports franchise history garnering the respect and admiration of not only fight fans, but corporate executives and athletes, professional and amateur alike. Like most success stories, what seems to the public at large to be a fairytale, overnight success story was fraught with challenges, hardships, and near bankruptcy. Looking at any sport from a business perspective, especially on the front of marketing, exposes one to the grit and grime which lies hidden to the average viewer. Hidden from view by the strobe lights, pyrotechnics, and flashy marquees we'll examine the set backs and the successes of one of the fastest growing phenomena the entertainment industry has ever seen curbed only by human limitation and a coalition of politicians, executives, and promoters still hell-bent on destroying the adolescent sport for its apparent brutality and the competition it presents to other, more well established organizations.