For fans new to the sport, it probably just looked like a cheesy photo opportunity. Two middle-aged politicians trying desperately not to look their age, to demonstrate some vigor, to sprinkle a little fun into their stodgy old press conference.
But for longtime MMA fans, watching Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper present a pair of signed UFC gloves to his Japanese counterpart, Yoshihiko Noda, was nothing short of mesmerizing. And the fact that this was no random gift—that Noda is actually a huge fan of Canadian superstar Georges St-Pierre—is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
My mouth hung so wide open looking at this picture you’d have sworn I was front row and center at a 1981 taping of Hee Haw. I can remember with a stark clarity those days when the UFC couldn’t buy a break from politicians, whether local or national.
When Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki and Senator John McCain put the sport in their line of sight and didn’t stop pulling the trigger until they thought it was dead and buried.
The UFC, it turned out, was harder to kill than they thought. There is such a purity to the sport, its concept so simple and beautiful that once it gets stuck in your brain, it’s nearly impossible to get it out. And so, we kept this sport alive in places like Alabama, Mississippi and in the Orient, where it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.
And we waited. We waited for the perfect storm that would catapult our beloved mixed martial arts onto the national stage here in North America. That day soon dawned; the Fertitta brothers and Dana White were the perfect ownership team to take this sport and make sure it got a fair shake. I broke it down in my book, The MMA Encyclopedia:
The Fertitta brothers, Frank Ferttitta III and his younger sibling Lorenzo, were an MMA fan’s dream come true. Heirs to the Station Casino business, the two brothers had aggressively turned their father’s modest Las Vegas casino into a billion dollar real estate and gambling enterprise. They were young, ambitious, and very, very rich. They also had a love for the sport of MMA, as well as close ties to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. If you were creating the perfect UFC owners from scratch, men who could see the UFC through tough times, get the sport approved in Las Vegas (and back on PPV) they would look a lot like Lorenzo and Frank.
White’s passion and work ethic, combined with the Fertittas’ gorge-deep pockets and athletic commission connections, transformed what people thought about this sport—without changing what made it special.
Now, here we are—at a place where new fans can look at a picture of two world leaders holding a framed pair of UFC gloves, smile and say, “Oh, that’s nice.”
Because we have made it. And that’s a good feeling.
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