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 Until 2005 UFC was close to going under. It
didn’t start making profits until after season one of the Ultimate Fighter. UFC
was carrying major debt and if a show was cancelled or something bad happened at
a show then it’s possible that Shane McMahon would have talked his father into
buying it. On 9/27/2002 UFC could have been the last show the promotion had ever
done due to one fighter. The main event of UFC 39 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in
Uncasville, Connecticut was a heavyweight title fight between Randy Couture and
Ricco Rodriguez. Rodriguez beat Couture that night but damn near killed the
promotion. Back then MMA wasn’t a mainstream sport so fighters didn’t make that
much and the money now made with TV deals, PPV ticket sales, gyms and
merchandise was a minor part of the sport. So fighters did what they could to
make extra money but promoting companies like Condom Depot or Tap Out on their
gear. That night Rodriguez thought it was a great idea to get a temporary tattoo
on his back advertising Golden Palace online casino. On the Real Quick with Mike
Swick podcast UFC President Dana White revealed, “Everybody knew that because we
were at a casino, you couldn’t have a casino sponsor, and that’s the time that
Golden Palace and all that stuff was doing that. And what does this damn idiot
do? Forget a t-shirt, he goes out and tattoos it on his back. Right? He gets a
tattoo. So what happened was, the tribe there, the tribe said ‘we’re shutting
down the show. We’re not having it.’ It was the main event. So Lorenzo Fertitta
and I got in a room with these guys and worked it out with them but he almost
shut down the show. Back in those days, a show getting shut down like that
could’ve put us out of business. You got to understand, when we do those things,
we’re fronting all the money. We’re putting up a couple million bucks and
fronting all this money to put on a show. And if these guys would’ve shut that
show down that might have been the end of us. ” |
