Pound For Pound: UFC 100

Congratulations are certainly in order.

As the Ultimate Fighting Championship prepares a gala celebration for this Saturday’s UFC 100  it’s difficult not to marvel at how far the company (and by extension) the sport have come during the last 15-plus years.

From the inauspicious beginnings of Bill “Superfoot” Wallace’s introductory belch and Teila Tuli’s tooth skittering into the audience during UFC 1, somehow a multi-million dollar enterprise has blossomed. In contrast to that humble debut, UFC 100 and its exorbitant ticket prices have already sold out the Mandalay Bay event center in Las Vegas. It will also feature a star-studded, two-day fan expo and a “Playboy” bunny serving as a “celebrity” Octagon girl.

This pay-per-view extravaganza caps an extraordinary run for current owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta and President/Point man Dana White. After a relatively small initial investment back in 2001, the Fertittas and White rode out a storm of seven-figure debt to see the UFC become the unstoppable cash cow that it is today.

And as much as next Saturday’s UFC 100 card is designed to celebrate the brand’s first 15-plus years promoting mixed martial arts cards in America, it also has no choice but to look to the future, with this event signaling a major test for the crop of new stars theyboys hope can carry them through the next 100.

Actually, it’s been a bit more than 130 events so far, but who’s counting?  I mean, besides the good people at Wikipedia.

Where in the past the UFC would’ve been loathe to throw together a pay-per-view without attaching names like Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes and Randy Couture to the top billing, the July 11th show features a bevy of “next generation” attractions like Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, Thiago Alves and Michael Bisping.

That these guys have been able to seamlessly slide into their rolls as main-event stars speaks volumes of the strength of the UFC brand. That many mainstream media types still believe the name of the sport is “Ultimate Fighting” isn’t too shabby either, at least from the UFC’s perspective.

White and the Fertittas have long espoused the virtues of promoting the company instead of the fighters and – though I’ve disagreed with this philosophy in the past – it’s worked. While the corporate masters have certainly been guilty of treating the hired help like, well, hired help more often than not, the strategy has certainly paid off for the men at the top.

For White, the personal transformation has been just as remarkable. The company’s bombastic, chrome-domed front man has come a long way from the slightly pudgy, horseshoe bald former boxer who began his MMA career as the manager for fighters like Liddell and Tito Ortiz.

Today White is a bonafide celebrity, a media dreamboat who’s proven to be a skilled promoter and the kind of guy who might say anything, any time, anywhere. He’s also unquestionably the most powerful man in MMA, the type who seemingly has no problem making or breaking careers on a whim.

He’s become a more polarizing figure than perhaps any of the fighters under his employ. There is not a lot of middle ground with White, though I suspect if you added up all the bad and all the good he’s done for the sport (not for the humans involved, perhaps, but the sport itself) the good might still be in the lead.

Taking pot shots at the UFC is easy to do. God knows, I’ve done my share. The company is the biggest kid on the MMA block and the way the powers that be choose to run their promotion invites criticism. On the eve of UFC 100, however, I’m content to sit back and marvel at the empire the UFC has somehow managed to build on ground that some said was too unstable, too violent to ever hold the fort.

Great work, guys. I hope to see you at 200.

Chad Dundas edits the blog www.mma-america.com and writes a weekly MMA column for CraveOnline. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.