Many things have changed since WME-IMG made their record purchase of the UFC last year. Matchmaking and building pay-per-views have been altered considerably, and the chase of the almighty dollar appears to be as prominent as anything that suggests MMA is still a sport.
Some athletes under the promotion’s umbrella have shown up in movies or are going to, which is an interesting turn of events. Back in the days when the Fertittas ran things, any cinematic crossovers were purely coincidental and largely focused on the biggest stars the UFC had to offer.
When new ownership took over, they began to tout the possibility of commoditizing their fighters in the Hollywood realm with far greater regularity.
With that process underway, it’s hard not to think that licensing UFC stories for feature length adaptation won’t be far behind. There have been far too many remarkable happenings in the UFC over the years for such a profit-driven ownership group to ignore the potential to generate revenue that those stories have.
Realistically, some guys already have movies about them, and the UFC itself has dipped its toe into the short film waters in the past to great acclaim. It’s not going to be a far trip to start doing features.
If that’s the objective that WME-IMG has in mind and it’s the avenue they plan to go with the UFC, the following five stories might generate a little box office cheddar and get some butts in theatre seats when the time comes.