What are the numbers for Powerslap i don’t even know anything about the financials. I can’t believe that shit is even sanctioned or is it? Most of the events i have seen are from overseas. Total shitshow, i see slappers coming in like 15lbs overweight and KO someone with nothing but the loss of 20% of their purse. There is some entertainment value in watching a couple of dumb fucks throw haymaker slaps at each other but i honestly don’t like the brain damage they are doing to themselves that will affect them later in life. Should be banned imo.
The UFC had first mover advantage. Despite the cable boycotts, they were a “household” name. Those early UFCs were selling some 250,000 PPVs at their peak, IIRC.
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The UFC was banned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission when it was run by SEG during the cable boycott era. The Fertittas, on the advice of Dana, bought it at a fire-sale price. The Fertittas then used their connections to get it OKed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
You’re right, though. Art Davies and the SEG guys couldn’t make it happen, b/c they didn’t have those connections. The Fertittas bought the UFC, b/c they could.
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Yes, I’m aware.
SinCityHustler could literally write a book on all the stuff he could talk about regarding Dana and the inner workings of the UFC. Too bad he’s long gone from these forums.
It seems certain business people don’t want to answer directly to the public. They don’t put themselves out there, but get someone instead to be their press secretary, so to speak. That’s Dana. It’s kind of like when people hate on Google, they hate on the company, but when people hate on Amazon, they hate on Jeff Bezos specifically.
IMO, the Fertittas where the brains and the money behind the operation. They made Dana the face of the company so all public discourse would be directed through him and keep the Fertittas immune from the public, so to speak.
Countless people have already said through the years that the biggest star the UFC has ever created is Dana White.
Ari and company kept Dana on board, b/c they understand that he is very much a key part of the UFC’s branding. If you dump him and the UFC sputters, you get all the heat for screwing up. If you keep him and the UFC sputters, he takes the blame.
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He was pretty lucky in terms of timing. By the time they took over, MMA has enough exposure where it had the chance to explode. Had he been even 3 years earlier, he would’ve failed and been a nobody like the rest of us.
However, TUF was brilliant and he pushed the right early champs like Chuck, Randy, Hughes and GSP. He deserves a lot of credit for where the sport is today.
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Even more traditional businesses face challenges. Take mining where less than 1% of all exploration projects become an actual mine, or oil exploration where you spend tens of millions drilling a single hole you already know has a low 5-10% chance of success. Lots of venture capital go up in smoke never to be seen again, but it’s the one successful project that’ll pay for all the failures and generate profit on top of it. Those odds, of course, make little sense to gamble your life savings and mortgage the house on, but with “unlimited” funds, you place multiple “stupid” high risk/high reward bets and sometimes one of them will pay off. With all the silly shit that’s been on TV for the past 25 years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an ultimate fighter show with surfers becoming a hit. 
That said, it’s not unheard of that someone who was in the right place at the right time and made a lot of money disregard luck having anything to do with it and get involved in terrible ventures where they lose money. In the case of the UFC, I think Dana was in the right place at the right time. UFC wouldn’t be UFC without Dana. But it wouldn’t be UFC without the Fertittas either.
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