-Let's get it on!
-What is drawing millions of modern Americans
to the bloody games?
-It's not a sport... It's barbarism.
-They're being soccer kicked in the face.
I'm seeing teeth flying out.
-We're going to continue to fight to make it illegal.
-The brutal and bloody competition
inside the octagon...
-And this baby's getting good!
-It didn't look like a sport. It looked like street fighting.
- leaves the UFC battling powerful opponents
outside of the ring.
-Most people don't want it in their states.
-Struggling to stay on its feet...
-The world's most dangerous man!
-Well, they weren't able to pay me.
-Can't pay the fighters, you can't have a show.
-The UFC was in pretty bad shape.
- the UFC gets one last chance to avoid a knockout.
-Practically down and out,
Ultimate Fighting is trying to become a legitimate sport.
-I was told we're not gonna get approved,
and if we're not approved, then we're done done.
♪♪
[ Dial-up modems screeching ]
♪♪
[ Crowd cheering ]
-In the '90s, U.S. audiences get their first look
at mixed martial arts.
MMA is a full-contact sport with fighters each using
their own style of hand-to-hand combat.
-Medina grabs the leg.
-People were always wondering like, "Okay, well,
in a real fight, like, who would win this?
What discipline is the best?"
-The brutal nature of these cage fights
is both terrifying... - That's intense, folks.
- and a can't-look-away display of unbridled violence.
-That's what it's all about.
-This outrageous mix of competing fighting styles
is the brainchild of a feisty entrepreneur.
-The only two restrictions...
No biting and no eye gouging.
I'm Art Davie,
and I'm the creator and founder of the UFC.
-Davie partners with jiujitsu expert Rorion Gracie
to create an MMA league
known as the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
-No judges' scores and no time limit.
-The marketing people were selling carnage.
They were selling no holds barred.
They were selling teeth flying out of mouths.
-But not everyone is buying.
The bloody wars fought in the octagon
spark political backlash,
spearheaded by a former war hero...
Arizona Senator John McCain.
-It appeals to the lowest common denominator in our society.
There's just no place for it.
-All of these states were starting to come up
with ways of trying to stop the events.
-Under constant attacks from government officials,
the UFC's creators throw in the towel.
After just five tournaments, Davie and Gracie
sell the company to Semaphore Entertainment Group founder
Bob Meyrowitz.
-So, Bob made me a seven-figure offer,
and it was a good seven-figure offer,
and I said yes.
And then I stayed on as the UFC commissioner.
♪♪
-The new owner has a plan to save the business.
-The UFC is back. The speed, the power...
-Meyrowitz will transform the UFC into a legitimate sport
by winning over state legislators and governors,
starting in New York State.
But his plan leads to one of the fiercest showdowns
in the UFC's history.
-Bob Meyrowitz hired a lobbyist
and he actually got the governor of New York to sign into law
that MMA was legal.
Hi, I'm "Big" John McCarthy.
I'm known as one of the original referees
and officials for the UFC.
♪♪
Bob Meyrowitz had agreed with the politicians
that he would not bring the UFC into the city of New York
until they were comfortable with it.
He would go to the outlying areas.
He would go to Albany. He would go to Niagara.
♪♪
-True to his word, Meyrowitz quickly announces
the next tournament, UFC 12,
will take place in Niagara Falls.
But three weeks before the event,
there's an unexpected setback.
♪♪
Hearing that New York State has legalized MMA fighting,
a competing company, Extreme Fighting Battlecade,
books an event in New York City.
It's exactly what Meyrowitz promised
the governor of New York would not happen.
-A real, man-to-man, all-out war.
-Extreme Fighting says, "We're going to Madison Square Garden."
The politicians quickly said, "Whoa, whoa."
Bob Meyrowitz goes, "I'm not in control of that one."
-It doesn't matter.
News of the event at Madison Square Garden
sparks a public outcry.
-This is promoting violence
in an already totally violent society.
-The New York Times had an editorial
in which they called it the most barbaric show
in the history of television.
-Organizers at the UFC are stunned
when New York Governor George Pataki
suddenly reverses his opinion on mixed martial arts.
-People call it a sport. It's not a sport.
It's barbarism.
-We had already sold several thousand tickets.
At the last minute, the legislature in New York
decided that they wouldn't allow this to come.
-With the MMA law already on the books,
it's the New York State Athletic Commission that steps in,
just days before the event in Niagara Falls,
and enacts new rules for mixed martial arts,
including a requirement that the 32-foot octagon
be widened to 40 feet in diameter.
It's an impossible task on such short notice.
-They're saying these are what our rules are.
It was a 114-page rulebook.
If you don't follow them,
then yes, your show is gonna get shut down.
-Semaphore Entertainment files a last-minute appeal
in federal court, but it's thrown out by the judge.
The show in Niagara Falls is canceled.
-That was just brutal. We all had to load everything.
The octagon, all the gear, and all the people.
My name is Mark Lucas, and I was the first
live TV director of the Ultimate Fighting Championships.
-If organizers have a backup plan, it hasn't been shared
with the Ultimate Fighters on the card,
including a one-time amateur wrestler known as "The Beast."
-You're there, and now you're not welcome here.
You got to go!
Hello, this is Dan "The Beast" Severn here.
I'm probably one of the most decorated
UFC competitors in their history,
a Triple Crown Champion from the NHB,
which stands for no-holds-barred era.
-Dan "The Beast" Severn. He always looked cool.
I'm Robin Black, and I'm a practicing martial artist.
I analyze and commentate fighting all over the world.
Dan looked like he was from the '70s.
Kind of the hair and the mustache.
He looked like somebody you should not... with.
♪♪
-I was a freakish farm boy, is what I was.
I throw bales of hay around,
I should be able to throw somebody around.
-Severn's trying for a reversal.
And gets his 2 points.
-I would come at you with such an onslaught,
and I'd overwhelm most people.
-Doing a nice job trying to get this turn.
-After failing to qualify for the 1984 Olympic wrestling team,
a disappointed Severn decides to try a career in pro wrestling.
♪♪
He easily gets work on the independent wrestling circuit.
But in the early '90s,
Severn is turned on to the new competition
gaining favor with fight fans.
-I didn't know that the UFC even exists.
A friend of mine who watched the first two,
he copied them on an old VHS tape.
Viewers of this eventually will go, "What's a VHS tape?"
♪♪
-Throughout the '90s, as VHS players arrive
in millions of Americans' living rooms,
selling and sharing bootlegged VHS recordings
of movies and other forms of entertainment is booming.
This underground market helps build awareness of the UFC.
-Besides that 85,000 or 90,000 that saw it on pay-per-view,
there were 300,000 VHSes being sent all over the world.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-He showed them to me and he says,
"You ought to think about doing this."
So I watch it, I'm seeing some of these athletes,
they're being soccer kicked in the face.
I'm seeing teeth flying out. I thinking, you know...
I said to him, "I'll give it a try."
-Art Davie, the co-creator
of the Ultimate Fighting Championship
and its chief matchmaker,
is impressed by Severn's wrestling experience.
And in 1994, he puts the fighter on the card
for the UFC's fourth tournament.
-Now, did I tell a single family member?
No!
[ Crowd cheering ]
My kids simply knew that...
Dad worked every weekend.
-Severn continues to work.
Takes an elbow to the head.
-I didn't want them to worry.
-Again, you see, steps up too hard...
-It's an astonishing debut.
Severn then goes on to win not one but three championships,
including a beatdown of the UFC's biggest superstar,
Ken Shamrock.
-Ka-kush!
When are you gonna... Ka-kush!
Going to... ka-kush!
Tap?
Ka-kush!
♪♪
[ Laughing ] I'm the guy that,
I'm gonna grab you by the scruff of the neck
and I'm gonna shove your face into the cow pie of reality.
-As Severn prepares to capture another championship
in Niagara Falls,
it's the UFC itself that is put into a political chokehold.
With the event officially prohibited in New York,
critics hope the Ultimate Fighting Championship
is down for good.
They soon learned the UFC can take a punch and keep fighting.
-They had an alternate location in Alabama...
Dothan, Alabama.
God knows everybody knows where Dothan, Alabama, is.
-I tried not to get caught up in any of the bullshit.
I have to compete.
-When we land in Dothan,
it was probably like 2:00 in the morning,
and some guys went right to work right there.
-With less than 24 hours before the opening bell,
there isn't even time to sell tickets.
It's kinda like going... Open doors,
whoever wants to come in and watch us...
I mean, it just... they were up against a lot of things.
-Amidst a torrent of controversy
that runs deeper than Niagara Falls,
it's the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
-The following night, as the lights go up
on the octagon in the Dothan Civic Center,
the UFC comes off the mat.
♪♪
-The city of Dothan came out in droves to watch.
The place was packed.
All the people, the fans, they knew what was going on
and they supported what the UFC was trying to do.
They supported the fighters.
Vitor Belfort was a brand-new fighter that no one knew.
-Lands a right to the head.
Another! Another!
That's it!
That's it. It's over.
-And he put on just, you know, a blazing performance
and winning the heavyweight tournament
and just all these things that happened.
-Things including the debut of the UFC's newest commentator.
-Unbelievable victory.
-Comedian Joe Rogan is handpicked
by Semaphore Entertainment's marketing guru.
-I brought him in for UFC 12.
So he got thrown right into the fire.
Hi, I'm Campbell McLaren.
I'm the co-founder of the UFC,
and now I run a great company called Combate Global.
-Folks, it's gonna be a barn burner.
-We were having trouble finding announcers,
and I felt we needed someone for more lighter moments.
You know, I had a background in doing comedy TV, so I knew Joe.
-You're disturbing my erection. Please leave the room.
I'm watching the nice girl in the program.
[ Gibberish ]
-And he did great. He's just a great talent.
-Anything we need to know,
as soon as I find out, you'll know.
Back to you guys.
-But not everyone has such a great night.
-And that's it.
-Coleman's got him!
Coleman choked him...
-Dan Severn loses his much-anticipated Superfight
to three-time UFC champion Mark Coleman
-And there is the mutual respect
shown by two great American wrestlers.
-It's Severn's final Ultimate Fighting Championship
of the '90s.
-Nobody lasts forever,
in no matter what professional-level sport
that you go into.
I've had one hell of a ride, but...
who says I'm done?
♪♪
-The future of the UFC also remains a question.
It may have won the battle against New York,
but its war with athletic commissions and state officials
across the country continues.
-We're going to put in place the most stringent
regulations possible.
-Just weeks after the UFC is forced out of Buffalo,
Governor Pataki signs a new bill into law
that bans no-holds-barred events from the state of New York.
-There was starting to become a backlash of,
"Oh, these guys are... you know, they're pirates out there.
They think that they're untouchable."
'Cause at the time,
the UFC was kind of running from regulation.
-The reason why most people don't want it in their states
is that they are repulsed by it.
-Anywhere that had regulation, we can't go there.
-They were constantly in and out of court,
no matter where we went.
I'm Ken Shamrock, former UFC heavyweight champion
and former Pancrase champion.
A lot of money being spent
trying to keep this thing rolling.
And Bob Meyrowitz was the one
that was, you know, heading that up.
Well, he wasn't able to pay me.
When that happened, I had to make a choice
of whether or not I would stay in the UFC.
♪♪
-It's just a matter of time in Ultimate Fighting
before one opponent damages the other very severely,
up to and including death within the ring.
-In 1997, the Ultimate Fighting Championship
continues to be attacked
by politicians and the mainstream media.
-It's dangerous, certainly to the participants,
but it's more dangerous to us as a society
to glorify or pay people who engage in this activity.
-This story is about us.
What is drawing millions of modern Americans
to the bloody games?
[ Cheering ]
-But its reputation as an outlaw organization
perpetually on the run from state regulators
helps fuel a rising fascination with the sport.
-It was hardly, like, underground.
We were everywhere.
-So, listen, um, my friends were telling me a little bit about
this, um, Ultimate Fighting thing.
-You know, we were in two episodes of "Friends."
-Believe me, I don't want to get hurt, either.
-When Jon Favreau, who's playing Courteney Cox's boyfriend,
decides to join the UFC.
-Let's get it on!
-[ Grunts ]
Ugh!
-Cover of Mad magazine.
We were super mainstream, super mainstream.
-Mainstream or not,
the cable companies that carry the sport
face increasing political pressure
to drop the UFC from their pay-per-view services.
-Back then, cable's dirty little secret
was about one-third of their revenue was coming from porn.
There wasn't the Internet, right?
It was a different time.
So, there was rumblings in Congress
that Congress was gonna look at the adult programming.
And cable goes, "Well, we don't want
to give that up, 'cause that's, like, serious money.
Let's turn off the UFC and see if they like that."
-The head of the Senate committee
that oversees the cable industry
is none other than John McCain, the UFC's archnemesis.
He raises no objections
when major cable operators unilaterally cut off
their customers' access to UFC content.
Tens of millions of potential pay-per-view customers
vanish in an instant.
-We were in major decline.
We were only on satellite,
which at that time maybe had 10% of global homes.
So we, you know, lost 90% of our audience.
-The UFC also loses one of its biggest stars.
-Ken Shamrock was getting courted by the WWF at the time.
-He left home at the age of 10
and lived in his car when he was a teenager.
He learned to fight on the streets.
-Vince McMahon is there,
and Vince offered him a lot of money.
He's a good-looking guy and he was very popular at the time.
So, you know, he stepped away from the UFC.
-I had kids, I was married,
so I was supporting my family through fighting.
There's one thing that I've done all my life,
and that's fight. [ Crowd cheers ]
If I could do it right, I would be able to showcase
my submission skills and all the things that I did
as a fighter in the pro wrestling ring.
-Oh, he'll make... Oh!
But you... you don't...
Look at that. Right in that arm bar.
Taking him right down.
-Ken arrives at the WWF at the perfect time
during the so-called Attitude Era.
-And a catapult!
Ugh!
Throws him like a javelin!
-The company is moving away
from its traditional family-oriented programming
in favor of edgier,
more physical and controversial content,
courting the same young male demographic
as the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
-This is a conscious effort on our part
to open the creative envelope, so to speak,
in order to entertain you in a more contemporary manner.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-Luckily for me, it worked out.
-Shamrock is an animal.
And McMahon's enjoying this, too!
Nowhere for The Rock to go!
-Ken's departure is a huge loss for the UFC,
leaving it in need of a new lucky shamrock
to help them fill the void.
Fortunately, Ken's adoptive brother is waiting in the wings.
-My name is Frank Shamrock.
I'm the first-ever UFC middleweight champion.
They call me "The Legend."
-Like his brother Ken,
Frank's early years are troubled and tumultuous.
-I left home when I was 11 years old.
I grew up in a home of abuse.
And so I learned to commit crimes
to get out of my home and other situations.
-And just like Ken,
Frank is taken in by Bob Shamrock's ranch for boys
in Susanville, California,
and is eventually adopted by Shamrock.
-Bob Shamrock is the first father figure
and man in my life, and he gave me great advice...
You know, build your body,
build your mind, build your spirit.
-But at 18, Frank isn't ready to hear Bob's guidance
and returns to life on the street.
-I was on a crime spree...
A literal, straight crime spree every day.
I was charged with 20 felony counts of burglary,
stolen property, grand theft,
larceny, everything you can imagine.
-Frank is placed in California's maximum security
Folsom State Prison,
where the 18-year-old quickly learns how to survive.
♪♪
-3 1/2 years of nothing but lifting weights
and stretching and focusing
and studying bodybuilding and biomechanics.
You know, I was incredibly strong.
Nobody ever punked me or got over on me.
And many, many people tried.
I guess the lesson is if you wanna be a great fighter,
go to prison for a few years.
-In 1993, Frank completes his sentence.
Now 21 years old, he's finally ready to listen to Bob's advice.
-Bob Shamrock met me at the gates of Folsom Prison
and said, "Here's the deal."
UFC had just started.
And Ken, my brother, he'd already been in UFC 1.
Everything was exploding in popularity.
And so, you know, Bob, being the dad, was like,
"This is the natural course for you, if you can get
your life together," and then the next day,
he dropped me off at the Lion's Den.
-The Lion's Den is a training facility
that Ken creates during his early days at the UFC,
where he readies a new team of elite mixed martial artists.
Bob wants Frank to be one of them.
-My dad loved him and spoke highly of him
and wanted me to mentor him,
and that was enough for me.
I would do whatever my father wanted to do
to take care of him.
-He absolutely did not want me there.
-He had long hair down to his butt.
And I don't care who you are... When you go into prison,
you come out with an attitude. That's just... you have to.
I treated him hard.
-Ken beat the living shit out of me.
♪♪
-When you're in the Lion's Den, you got no favoritism.
And so I did what I did because he had to respect me.
-It's a brutal initiation
that drives a wedge between the two Shamrocks.
-Ken and I became brothers later in life,
so we didn't have that youth bonding,
you know, that childhood thing that gets really close.
And all of our personal issues got in the way
of what could have been and should have been
just a healthy relationship, you know, brother relationship.
-But Ken's tough love turns his hardworking brother
into a contender.
Following in his brother's footsteps,
Frank starts his mixed martial arts career
at Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling in Japan.
But Frank is reluctant to follow Ken into Ultimate Fighting.
-The UFC was Wild W... There were no rules.
People were just getting jacked up.
It didn't look like a sport.
-He's gotta break that hold that he choked himself out of.
-Honestly, I was terrified.
It looked like street fighting.
-Now making his UFC debut...
-But I'd met Art Davie, and we'd started talking about the UFC
and he sold me on it.
Art was a great salesman.
-...please welcome Frank Shamrock!
-The middleweight division.
Shamrock and Jackson now under way.
-And then, you know, when I fought Kevin Jackson,
it was like beating a child.
-Go right now, right now!
-Devastating knee.
Oh, and there's a submission on Jackson.
Over already!
Frank Shamrock!
-Frank is brought in just as the UFC
is introducing weight classes to the tournaments.
-The first-ever middleweight champion
in the UFC.
It took just 22 seconds.
-It's a Guinness World Record.
And that's when I realized like,
"Wow, I am way ahead of everybody out there."
-Frank is on track to be the most devastating
Ultimate Fighter in the league's brief history.
But when the UFC loses the cable companies,
he wonders if there will even be a league for him to dominate.
-You can't lose 90% of your revenues and audience.
Just, you can't.
You know, as I'm stepping onstage to be a champion,
it's all dying and falling apart.
-Despite the ongoing controversy surrounding the UFC...
-Critics say Ultimate Fighting is a vicious,
bloody spectacle only masquerading as a sport.
- it continues to attract new contenders to the tournament.
- Let's get it on! - And we're looking at
a big size difference here... - At UFC 13,
a last-minute alternate brings a new level
of combat skills to the octagon...
-Couture trying to sink the choke on that big neck.
- and goes on to win
the evening's heavyweight championship.
-Randy Couture!
-Randy Couture is viewed, quite rightly, as a pioneer.
-Punch by Couture. Looking to move.
-Over his career, Couture will blend wrestling, boxing,
and jiujitsu like no other MMA fighter...
- Oh! - There's a takedown.
-...revolutionizing the practice of mixed martial arts.
-He chose to charge.
All I had to really do was change levels.
He walked right into the double leg.
-Couture continuing to punish...
-With the Couture era,
there came a level of athleticism that was just,
you know, the next level.
That was the whole era of Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman.
These guys were monsters.
-Mark Kerr quickly going after his opponent,
Greg "The Ranger" Stott.
The Ranger goes down.
-These fighters dropping bombs out of the sky.
And it was known as ground... Take you to the ground...
And pound... Pound the... out of you.
Ground and pound.
-The UFC's finances are also taking a serious beating,
now that cable companies have pulled
the Ultimate Fighting Championship
from their services.
-Budget cuts happened right away
as soon as we lost our major carriers.
In fact, when I fought Jeremy Horn...
-Here we go.
The middleweight title on the line.
-...we didn't have money for a complete pay-per-view show.
-This is about to be the longest fight
of Frank Shamrock's career.
-So, I fought the first fight of the night...
We recorded it, never told anybody about it.
-And this baby's getting good!
-And then we sold that fight
along with other champions' fight
in a pay-per-view called Night of Champions.
We were trying to get creative
and do whatever we could to keep it going.
-Everything became cheaper. They wanted to renew...
renegotiate my price.
I thought, "Do I want to do this for the rest of my life?"
So I never worked for them again.
How many times can I get close-ups of an open wound,
I mean, and play it back in slow motion?
Eh. Alright.
-It was tough all around, financially.
-Seems as if, that Shamrock has fell into some disfavor
with some WWF fans, but... - [ Screaming ]
-The UFC's dwindling profits led to Ken Shamrock's exit.
But just one year into his new job,
the WWF is proving to be more than he bargained for.
-I thought that when I went into pro wrestling I'd be home more
'cause I didn't have to train as much, right?
That wasn't true. I was actually gone more.
I was not happy. I didn't want to be there.
My marriage is crumbling.
I was getting farther and farther away from my kids.
-Ken also indulges in the kinds of behavior that will bring down
many professional wrestlers in the Attitude Era.
-Everything coming at me, and beautiful women,
drinks on the house.
You're sitting there and you're like,
"Yeah, okay. Why not? It can't hurt me."
It's like, "I'm just doing it for a short time.
I'm just having fun."
Almost takes your soul away,
like you're not the same person you are,
and people see it.
They look at you and think, "Well, you're...
You're slowing down, you're getting older.
You're not the fighter you used to be."
-As Ken's skills deteriorate, so do his fortunes at the WWF
as they begin writing new, less favorable storylines
for the former Ultimate Fighting champion.
-[ Shouting ]
-And there's a DDT!
-I was starting to get beat all the time,
which was really hurting the Ken Shamrock brand.
Ken Shamrock, the Ultimate Fighter.
- Well, he's... - Oh, man!
-He's gonna go down.
-The world champion in Pancrase,
the world champion in the UFC
is now going to be damaged
because now they're starting to beat me on a regular basis.
-With heavy hockey equipment on.
-I couldn't let that happen, because I worked too hard
to get to where I was at.
And so that's when I made the decision
that I was gonna leave.
-But leaving the WWF only deepens Shamrock's feelings
of isolation and depression.
-There was a time I wasn't fighting
and I wasn't doing the WWF
and I was hanging out and I was separated.
I remember ecstasy was a form of a pill that I could take
that would put me in this euphoria.
I would feel good. I could drink, have fun.
I was literally trying to bury, I guess,
the... the insecurity and the loneliness.
♪♪
-Once your purpose
is taken away from you as a professional athlete,
there's a lot of damage to your body,
but it's also very demanding on the psyche.
-I had this house that overlooked the San Diego Stadium
where the Chargers used to play at and the Padres play.
So when you walked out on the balcony,
you'd see out over the stadium.
I was friends with a lot of the guys that ran the club,
some bikers... don't want to mention the names...
And they ran the girls in the strip club in San Diego.
So, all the girls at 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning,
when they'd get off their shifts,
they would come over to my house.
♪♪
We had a stripper pole in the middle of my floor.
We had a Jacuzzi in my bedroom that was marble.
I had this bed that had mirrors that went from one ceiling
all the way around.
It was a Playboy mansion.
It became this weekend thing,
and all of a sudden it turned into five months.
♪♪
I didn't care. I just literally...
The next day was all I looked at.
I didn't have a future.
It got to this point to where I felt like it was over.
-As Ken hits rock bottom,
the MMA league that made him a star
is also imploding.
-I did the most amazing things in this sport,
in the smallest audience we've ever had.
I was like, "No, we can't. We got to fix this."
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-But by the middle of the decade,
the violence inside and outside the squared circle
reaches a new level of brutality.
-He can barely stand up.
-A 1996 match at New York's Madison Square Garden
devolves into a riot, injuring 22 people.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
One year later, Mike Tyson achieves a new level of infamy
after chomping down on Evander Holyfield's ear.
-And it's really getting very nasty.
Some other people are trying to join in.
-But somehow, the so-called sweet science
manages to duck the political fistfight
that hammers the UFC for most of the decade.
-Holyfield bit by a dirty Mike Tyson!
Lane signaling that it's over.
-Two times!
-Look out now!
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-Arizona Senator John McCain
is adamantly opposed to Ultimate Fighting,
even though he's a big fan of boxing.
-You can't have a sport
where you allow blows to the brain stem
in order to paralyze your opponent.
-Senator McCain came out against this very aggressively.
-John McCain said at the time,
"I believe in boxing." He was a boxer.
He would be at boxing events all the time.
-There was a lot of speculation
about why he may have been so adamant
and so opposed to the UFC.
-His family, his wife, you know,
they were part of a distribution company with Budweiser beer,
who was the biggest sponsor for boxing at the time.
-And now Budweiser presents the main event!
-It was Budweiser beer. So he had his reasons.
-Whatever his reasons, the attacks by McCain and others
are crippling the UFC financially.
-UFC was in pretty bad shape,
you know, and I am no longer being consulted
on any part of the business.
-Bob Meyrowitz and I
had become friends, and he just sat me down.
He's like, "Listen, you know, here's the problem.
We got to get back on cable."
So that became my mission.
I became the first talent spokesman that would go meet
with all the cable companies and try to get us back
onto cable to get us back to where we were.
-As Frank is attempting to save the UFC,
his brother Ken is trying to save himself.
-I never used drugs because I had to...
I used drugs because I wanted to.
Till I got to a point to where I just said, "No more.
I'm done."
And I didn't want to be with girls,
I didn't want to be with people.
I wanted to be alone.
-An old friend from his days at Bob Shamrock's ranch for boys
gives Ken a new lease on life.
-Once I got with Tonya, none of this stuff was a factor.
None of it.
I've known her since I was in the group home,
so she's known all my dark secrets,
my skeletons in the closet.
And she was going through a divorce.
We kind of just clinged onto one another.
We were always friends.
When we got together, it gave me a purpose.
It gave me someone who cared for me,
truly understanding what I needed, and was strong.
You got to have somebody that's gonna stand up and say,
"You know where that's gonna go.
Don't do it. I'm not gonna let you do it."
-As Ken builds a new family life for himself,
his brother Frank's ties to the UFC family
are stronger than ever.
Frank even works with owner Bob Meyrowitz
to try and save the organization from a financial disaster.
-A big block from the outside. Frank with an uppercut.
-I knew Bob was hurting for money.
I knew he was paying for it himself.
You know, the money was coming from somewhere, and it was Bob.
-Practically down and out,
Ultimate Fighting is trying to become a legitimate sport.
-I spoke at the Nevada Athletic Commission with Bob Meyrowitz
when he was trying to get Nevada
to give us a license for mixed martial arts.
I presented right there with him... "This is what we are,
this is what we do, please consider us."
And then we were supposed to have a follow-up one,
which was our application and all that stuff.
-Winning a Nevada license is far from a sure bet,
but if successful, it could turn around the finances
at Semaphore Entertainment and save the UFC.
-In this world of ours, Las Vegas, Atlantic City...
that's the bar of credibility in the fight game.
So we feel that when we start doing shows in those places,
we will be respected for the sport that we are.
-But the application with the Nevada Athletic Commission
is suddenly in jeopardy.
-The lobbyist calls Bob as we're having dinner and says,
"Hey, you can't take it to the commission.
It's not gonna pass. Someone has changed their mind.
Don't bring it before the commission.
It'll slow it down forever in getting legalized."
-I was told we're not gonna get approved,
and if we're not approved, then we're done done.
And we backed out.
-It's a crushing blow to the organization.
UFC manages to cobble together another tournament.
And inside the octagon,
Frank Shamrock can still put on a show,
even if it marks the end of the UFC.
-Undefeated, undisputed...
-In 1999, Shamrock defends his middleweight championship
at UFC 22 against newcomer Tito Ortiz.
-Let's get it on!
-I am tingling here. I love both these athletes.
It's gonna be hard to pick a winner.
-It's one of the UFC's classic fights of the '90s.
- Third round. - Third!
[ Cheering ]
-15 seconds. Working Ortiz still.
- And he's down. - And it is over!
-You know, I was a rock star.
-What a gutsy performance by the champ!
-But I was afraid to get hurt.
You know, I was terribly afraid to get hurt.
And I hurt people, you know.
Look at Igor Zinoviev.
He never fought again.
And I heard his neck and collarbone and shoulder breaking
when I slammed him.
This is a job you get in to get out of
as soon as you can.
[ Crowd cheering ]
-Let's have a big hand...
-After two years
as the undefeated middleweight champion,
Frank decides to retire from the UFC.
-This is your belt, my friend.
If you want to retire it, you take it home with you
because you earned it more than anybody else ever has.
The greatest champion in our history.
- Thanks, Bob. - Losing one of its biggest stars
couldn't come at a worse time for Meyrowitz.
The UFC continues to bleed money,
and he has run out of options.
-I know Bob was trying to sell it,
and then all of a sudden, up popped, you know, Dana White.
-Dana was the manager of Tito Ortiz
and was trying to get Tito a new contract
and Bob couldn't pay him.
He says, "You know, I don't have that kind of money."
And he realized... he goes, "These guys are in trouble.
They would sell."
-What begins as a contract negotiation over one fighter
turns into an existential moment for the entire UFC.
Soon, the reign of Bob Meyrowitz
and the no-holds-barred era will come to an end,
and the Ultimate Fighting Championship
will change forever.
-By the decade's end,
Bob Meyrowitz's Ultimate Fighting Championship
is teetering close to bankruptcy.
Seeing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,
manager Dana White approaches Las Vegas casino owners
Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta with the idea of buying the UFC.
The three partners return to Meyrowitz with an offer.
♪♪
-Bob was looking for a partner, and he wanted Lorenzo
to be his partner, and Lorenzo said,
"I'll buy the whole thing or I'll buy nothing."
And you go, "Oh, you dirty bastards."
But that's... that's business.
-Bob always believed. You know, he saw it
and he's like, "Yes, this is... this...
There's something very special about this."
But he couldn't hang onto it, I think, just financially.
I just think it was too much.
-In January of 2001, Bob Meyrowitz sells
his beloved sports franchise to the Fertitta brothers'
newly formed company Zuffa for $2 million.
And manager Dana White gets a new title.
-And joining me now, Dana White,
president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Dana, congratulations on your first show.
That's got to feel good. - Thank you very much, James.
I appreciate it. We're very excited.
-He knows so much what the audience wants
and has so guided the UFC to where it is.
-Basically, what we want to do is we want to make this
the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts.
-State regulators spent years trying to take down the UFC,
but the new owners are well-funded
and know how to play politics.
Lorenzo Fertitta is a former member
of the Nevada State Athletic Commission
and quickly secures the sanctioning
Meyrowitz desperately needed from the commission
but never received.
A return to cable pay-per-view soon follows.
-I gave a lot of credit to the Fertitta brothers,
who had brains, money, and balls
and came in, invested $50 million,
and got it sanctioned in New York, California,
New Jersey, the provinces in Canada.
-As Zuffa stages a huge comeback for the UFC, it coaxes
one of the sport's pioneers back to the octagon.
In 2002, the now-legendary Ken Shamrock
faces off against Tito Ortiz in a highly publicized match.
-Many, many lesser men would've tapped out long ago.
-I fought Tito even though I was past my prime
'cause I felt like this was my legacy.
-Ken suffers a shocking loss.
- They're gonna stop the fight. - Wow!
-It is all over.
-But the grappler's return is a win for White
and the Fertitta brothers,
the event nearly doubling the pay-per-view numbers
of their previous tournaments.
-And now coming to the octagon,
the world's most dangerous man!
-The following year, Ken and his chief rival, Royce Gracie,
become the first inductees into the UFC's Hall of Fame.
-I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.
God bless, and we'll see you back in the ring!
-It's a moment of triumph for both Ken and the UFC.
But as the sport is becoming bigger than ever,
Ken and his brother are forced to say goodbye
to the man who transformed their lives.
-Bob Shamrock ran those homes
and created that family structure,
and it was wonderful for us,
but for him, he didn't take care of himself
and eventually that led to diabetes and then heart failure,
and then he had a series of heart attacks and problems.
Then he moved in with Ken,
and Ken was really looking after him.
-I truly believe that we were able to put him back
in a comfortable state of mind.
♪♪
-I mean, he really changed my life.
♪♪
I just loved him so much.
♪♪
[ Sniffles ]
-Since then, the two brothers have learned
to put the past behind them.
-There was a lot of things that happened that caused Frank
to... to probably be angry.
Um, and not that it was anybody's fault.
It was just the way things happened.
-From a healing standpoint, we were able to both
move through, you know, what had happened and our roles in it
and kind of get back to being brothers again.
And that's where we're at now. You know, where he's my brother.
♪♪
-Throughout the 2010s, the UFC's popularity surges,
surpassing the pay-per-view numbers
of both boxing and the WWE.
♪♪
-♪ There is no substitute ♪
♪ For the ultimate is what's in store ♪
-The new owners even finance a reality show
that introduces millions of Americans to the sport.
-Do you want to be a [bleep] fighter?
That is my question.
-After a nearly 20-year ban on the sport,
New York State legalizes mixed martial arts.
Even Senator John McCain eventually endorses the UFC.
-They have cleaned up their act enormously.
Actually, this Ultimate Fighting now is...
Isn't a heck of a lot different from boxing.
-But it's an unprecedented deal in 2016
that makes headlines around the world.
-Some big news to tell you about at the cross-section
of business and sports this morning.
-The UFC announced Sunday night that the company had been sold.
-And has just clinched a $4 billion sale.
It's the biggest ever in professional sports.
-Is this the happiest birthday yet, after making $4 billion?
-[ Laughs ]
It doesn't suck. [ Laughter ]
-It's an astounding price tag for a sports league
that its founders originally sold off
for a reported seven-figure deal,
a fraction of its current value today.
-I knew it was the right decision to make,
and I had no regrets.
I really didn't do this for money.
-And now a very proud member of UFC Hall of Fame,
the great Art Davie.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You've made a 71-year-old man pretty happy.
God bless you all.
-Look, that's the guy that actually came up with the idea.
He's the guy that actually was able to put
the right people together.
He deserves a ton of credit.
-I remembered seeing a billboard and I looked at that billboard
and thought, "You know, I'm like a divorced father now.
Somebody else is raising my kid,
but they're doing a goddamn good job of it."
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Today, the UFC is huge and it employs thousands
and entertains tens of millions.
It is one of the largest sports properties on planet Earth.
This '90s era, it was ugly and it was imperfect,
but it was innovative and it was new.
-Can you outthink? Can you overthink?
-I literally looked at it as a game of chess,
a physical game of chess where checkmate is gonna hurt.
♪♪
-You see the poetry of somebody overcoming fear
and anxiety and pain to be victorious.
-Let's get it on!
-Combat is a part of the human experience.
-'92, '93... There's no schools that do this.
This didn't exist.
It was no holds barred, anything goes.
And for us to be able to be a part of that
and change the culture was awesome.
I feel like I can fight through anything
and I will eventually win.
I always feel that. That's my heart, that's my soul.
And I will always believe that, till the day I die.
♪♪