Selling Violence: Marketing Combat Sports

Hi, I'm Kali. I'm a co-founder of Apostrophe Podcasts alongside Terry Debian Sidney, where a family business that brings you a family of podcasts. We also have a subscription option, where you can listen ad-free, hear bonus episodes like my sit-down with Terry to ask him burning questions, or extended versions of under the influence episodes. Just visit the link in the description to subscribe. On July 3rd, 2025, President Donald Trump was giving a speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. During that speech, he made a surprise announcement. He said the UFC fight would be part of the nation's 250th birthday celebrations. It seemed a bit surreal, an odd, a full UFC event outdoors on the lawn of the White House. Was Trump serious? Was it even possible? Or just a whim? On August 29th, UFC CEO Dana White confirmed it. The White House fight was on. Dana White is a loyal supporter of Trump, as Trump held a few UFC events at his properties 20 years ago. The event has been christened UFC Freedom 250, in keeping with the USA's 250th birthday celebrations. The event is to be held on the South lawn of the White House, and seat between 3,000 to 4,000 people, although no public tickets will be available for security reasons. Screens will be set up at the ellipse, which is capable of hosting 85,000 more fans. Dana White has confirmed that no taxpayer money will be used to stage UFC Freedom 250. The UFC is picking up all expenses, including the cost to restore the South lawn after the event, which alone is estimated to cost between $700,000 and $1,000,000. The event is scheduled to happen on June 14th, which is flag day, and also happens to be Trump's 80th birthday. It will be broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus. The weigh-ins are to be held at the Lincoln Memorial, and believe it or not, its rumored the fighters will walk to the octagon directly from the Oval Office. Estimated cost of the entire event, $60 million. The fight at the White House is a dream come true for Dana White and the UFC. White is a master promoter, and what could generate bigger news than staging a historic, one-of-a-kind fight event on the South lawn of the White House. Marketing combat sports has always been tricky. For years, boxing was illegally many states and provinces, so was mixed martial arts fighting until recently. In the early days, boxing matches were held in the shadows and in the back rooms of saloons. It would take a master promoter with vision to drag boxing out of the shadows and turn it into a national event that would attract thousands, a bevy of celebrities, and revenues that were eye-popping. That blueprint would be the foundation to this day. Tex Rickard was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1871. Rickard was a shrewd man who had a yin for gambling. When the Klondike was roaring, he moved to Alaska to establish a number of gambling houses where he accumulated $500,000, then lost it all to worthless gold claims. Rickard eventually ended up in Nevada where he operated yet another gambling establishment, but it was there that Rickard found his true calling. He staged and promoted his first professional boxing match. In 1906, Rickard staged a lightweight title fight and promised the unheard of amount of $30,000 to the fighters. He then boldly stacked $30,000 in gold coins and put them on display in the window of the local bank. That generated a lot of attention. He went thought Rickard was crazy putting that much money on the line, but he ended up making $62,000 on the fight. With that success, he decided to take up boxing promotion as a profession. Next, he staged a heavyweight title fight between Champion Jack Johnson and the great White Hope, the undefeated James J. Jeffries. It was called The Fight of the Century because it was the first time a Black Boxer fought a White Boxer for the title. Rickard offered a jaw-dropping purse of $101,000, with 75% of that going to the winner, the equivalent of over $3,000,000 today. A crowd of 18,000 attended the fight and watched Johnson knock Jeffries out in the 15th round. That victory led to race riots that broke out across the country for the next few days. Rickard not only ended up with a nice profit, he got a taste for staging big events and was learning how to promote fights using tension as a marketing tool. One day, Tex record laid his eyes on a young upstart boxer named Jack Dempsey. Born in Manassee, Colorado, Dempsey would soon become boxing's superstar. He seemed to be fueled by pure rage. He relentlessly stalked his opponents, pummeling them with a two-fisted attack. Many of his bouts ended with knockouts in the first round, sometimes within seconds of the opening bell. Tex record thought Dempsey had world champion potential and he knew a moneymaker when he saw one. The heavyweight champion of the world in 1919 was a giant named Jess Willard. Willard stood six-six and a half and weighed in at 245 pounds. Jack Dempsey was 6'1, 187. Most didn't think the smaller Dempsey had a chance. Willard was the betting favorite to win. But the pairing of the giant Jess Willard and the upstart brawler Jack Dempsey was a dream come true for Tex record. He advertised the fight as a massive patriotic spectacle holding it on July 4th. He generated hype by guaranteeing Willard $100,000. Rickard had huge bleachers built in an outdoor field for the bout and created special seating for celebrities. Reports say that upwards of 50,000 spectators attended the fight. To the astonishment of the crowd, Dempsey knocked Willard down seven times in the first round alone. By the fourth round, Willard threw in the towel. He had suffered a broken jaw, several broken ribs, and had four missing teeth. Jack Dempsey was now the undisputed, heavyweight champion of the world. He was on his way to becoming as famous as Babe Ruth. Tex Rickard rubbed his hands with delight. Rickard intuitively knew that people were attracted to boxing events, not just because of the boxing match itself, but by the spectacle surrounding it. He framed bouts with importance in meaning. He made big purse money the central anchor, a tactic that has resonated in big fights to this day. He also knew how to use tension, which he demonstrated in his biggest event to date in 1921, the famous bout between Champion Jack Dempsey and European Champion George Carpuncie. The Dempsey Carpuncie Championship Superfight was expected to attract the largest live audience in history. Although Dempsey would later become a revered champion, there was a sign Visible percentage of fight fans who were against him at that time. They called Dempsey a slacker who had dodged the draft during the First World War. They labeled Dempsey "unworthy" of the heavyweight title as a result. Truth was that Dempsey was married at the time and thus was ineligible for the draft. George Carpunciet, on the other hand, was a decorated war hero. The dashing Frenchman was also the reigning light heavyweight champion of Europe. Tex Rickard knew exactly how he was going to promote the fight. He stoked the anti-Dempsey sentiments and promoted Carpunciet's war record. It was the good guy versus the bad guy. A Rickard promotional tactic that would inform combat sports to this day. Looking for the perfect sight for the match, Rickard chose Jersey City, New Jersey. A wooden stadium was constructed specially for the match. Originally, it was to seat 50,000. When the demand for tickets exploded, it was expanded to 70,000 seats. When that was thought to be insufficient, it was modified to seat 90,000 fans. At a time when $10 was a week's wage, 93,000 fans paid the astonishing sum of $1.7 million to watch the battle. It was the first time a boxing match had ever produced $1 million in revenue. When the fight began, it was apparent that Carpunciet was faster, but Dempsey was the heavier puncher. In the fourth round, Dempsey sent Carpunciet to the canvas with a left-right combination. The Frenchman managed to rise on the count of nine, but a few seconds later, Dempsey knocked Carpunciet out. There were 823 reporters present at the fight, and for the first time, a world championship title fight was broadcast on the new medium of radio. Dempsey made $300,000 for his win, the equivalent of $5.4 million in today's dollars. Carpunciet took home $200,000. Tech's record made a profit of $550,000 or $9.9 million. The golden age of sports had begun. When we come back, the WWE tag teams with MTV. If you're enjoying this episode, you might also like the lean, mean, fat-reducing money machine, how marketing affects sports, season six, episode 22, where we tell the amusing story of George Foreman and his lean, mean, fat-reducing grill. We'll find the episode on your favorite podcast app. In 1982, McMahon purchased the World Wrestling Federation, or WWF, as it was then called, from his father. The younger McMahon had a vision. He wanted to turn wrestling into a national, possibly a global phenomenon. And he had a plan. He wanted to blend professional wrestling with high-end entertainment and music. And he wanted to turn his wrestling athletes into larger-than-life celebrities. Just as Tech's record had leveraged radio to reach the masses, the WWF leveraged and unlikely tag team partner, MTV. It all began with a chance meeting. Tech manager David Wolfe met Wrestling Manager Captain Lou Elbano on an airplane. Wolfe was a huge wrestling fan, and he also happened to manage singer Cindy Lopper. He invited Elbano to appear in Lopper's MTV video for the song "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." The wild success of that video took the WWF along with it. Hulk Hogan started to make numerous appearances on MTV. While pairing would lead to a torrent of cross-promotions between MTV and the World Wrestling Federation. MTV then aired a WWF event called "The Brawl To End It All" in 1984. And it became the most watched show in MTV history. It made wrestling hip and cool, and was watched by millions of young hip trendsetters. The network would air various WWF events from that point on, and was instrumental in promoting Vince McMahon's inaugural "Resolmania." In 1985, McMahon held the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden, the famous stadium built and managed by none other than Tech's record 60 years earlier. McMahon's promotional streak came naturally. His grandfather Jess was a boxing matchmaker at Madison Square Garden in the era of Tech's record. While WrestleMania was an enormous financial gamble, McMahon went all out. He arranged the match-ups, he invited Cindy Lopper and Mr. T, star of the A team, and promoted Hulk Hogan as the centerpiece. Hogan and Mr. T had just appeared in Rocky III, so they teamed up to wrestle Rowdy-Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorf in the main-take team extravaganza. McMahon knew that celebrity relationships could take wrestling into the pop culture mainstream. So he invited Muhammad Ali to be a referee, Yankee's manager Billy Martin was the ring announcer, and in a completely unlikely choice, Liberace was the official timekeeper. 19,000 people attended that first WrestleMania and over 1 million watched it via close circuit television, making it the largest close circuit wrestling event in history at that time. WrestleMania took wrestling from a local attraction to a national phenomenon. It was the start of something very, very big. By the time of WrestleMania III, where Hulk Hogan became the first wrestler to body slam the 520-pound Andre The Giant, the WWF was a merchandising empire. McMahon shrewdly used broadcast, cable, and pay-per-view, and soon had 300 television affiliates with some 20 million viewers watching WWF's weekly syndicated shows. The WWF appealed to every age in economic group, from kids and teens to blue collar workers to film stars, lawyers, and bankers. There was even a Saturday morning cartoon series. The WWF created dramatic storylines to promote fights. But because it was scripted by actual WWF writers, the organization had the unique ability to control the characters, the plots, and the outcomes, and tap into anything in the pop culture zeitgeist. Through it all, McMahon leaned heavily on the record formula of heroes and heels. The WWF changed its name in 2002 to become the WWI, and had its share of ups and downs. But it would become a global integrated media and entertainment company. Stars like The Rock and John Cena have gone on to have incredibly successful movie careers. By 2023, the WWI was generating over $1 billion in annual revenue with 90 million fans. Stars' text record could never have imagined. Then someone came knocking. When we come back, the world of combat sports is put into a headlock by Mixed Martial Arts. For a long time, Mixed Martial Arts fights or MMA fights as they are known were illegal in many states and provinces. As an early fan, I remember having to go to Quebec to watch matches as it was allowed there but not in Ontario. MMA events didn't become legal Canada-wide until 2013, and New York was the final state to legalize professional MMA in 2016. The first Mixed Martial Arts Championship event was staged in 1993. It was called the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC for short. The word "ultimate" was a strategic choice. It positioned Mixed Martial Arts above wrestling and boxing. In other words, everything else was south of Ultimate. UFC had only three rules, no biting, no eye gouging, no shots to the groin. Other than that, anything goes. UFC won marketed itself with the quintessential pitch by posing the question, what martial arts fighter and what style was superior? In other words, who would win a battle between Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee? The UFC was the place to find out. The UFC was completely different from boxing and WWE wrestling. Boxing has 12 3-minute rounds. The UFC boats featured 3 5-minute rounds. Championship boats had 5 5-minute rounds. The UFC ring wasn't square. It was an octagon made of fencing material, and it wasn't called a ring. It was called a cage. Boxers train in long-held traditional methods at boxing gyms. MMA fighters train in a mix of styles, including wrestling, kickboxing, karate, judo, and the most dominant style, Brazilian jujitsu. The UFC won over 90,000 people bought the pay-per-view event, and when it was done, fans wanted more. At that event, there were no weight divisions, and fighters kept fighting until only one man remained standing. That man fighters faced 3 or 4 opponents in one exhausting evening. By UFC 9, that format was dropped. Now there were weight divisions, and fighters only faced one opponent in the event. But while it gained popularity over the next few years, the UFC was struggling financially. In 2001, two brothers, Frank and Lorenzo Fertita, purchased the UFC for $2 million. They formed a company called Zufa, which means to fight in Italian, and installed fight promoter Dana White as president. Once then, the rise of the UFC has been nothing short of remarkable. To begin with, Dana White marketed the UFC as a sport with elite athletes. In 2005, Spike TV aired the first season of a reality show titled The Ultimate Fighter. The series followed a group of hopefuls as they competed for a 3-year 6-figure contract with the UFC. The very first episode attracted 1.7 million viewers. The weekly Ultimate Fighter TV series was a powerful marketing tool, as it taught viewers about mixed martial arts and stoked a hunger for the big UFC events. The UFC has groomed its own superstars, from George St. Pierre and Ronda Rousey to John Jones and Connor McGregor, and Dana White has channeled Tex Rickard to stoke those rivalries. To date, there have been over 300 Ultimate Fighting Championship events. There have also been over 700 additional UFC events held in 169 cities and 32 countries as of this writing. In 2022, the UFC generated 1.3 billion dollars in revenue. It was the fastest growing spectator sport in the world, with an estimated global fanbase of 650 million. That year, the Fertida Brothers sold the UFC to a company called TKO for $5 billion. One in 2023, TKO announced that the UFC was merging with the WWE. In September of 2023, the UFC merged with the WWE in a $21.4 billion deal. The UFC was valued at $12.1 billion and the WWE at $9.3 billion, which underlined how remarkable the UFC's growth has been in its short history, compared to the wrestling business, which has been around since the 1950s. TKO is led by Hollywood power player Ari Immanuel, Vince McMahon serves as executive chairman, and Dana White is the chief executive. The crossover potential is unlimited, as the UFC and WWE are now packaging events in the same city on the same weekend. For example, in one city in 2024, WWE's Smackdown was held on June 7th, and the UFC's fight night was held on June 8th. Fans were offered bundle ticket options. Remarkably, boxing is now a bit of a niche sport, having lost its luster to the UFC. But Dana White and company have now started Zufa Boxing, and plan to reimagine the sport of boxing worldwide. Without a doubt, the marketing of combat sports has come a long way since the first Jack Demsey Superfights, but underneath it all, the UFC, the WWE, and boxing is one consistent element, the Tex Rickard Blueprint. Tex Rickard was the origin of the species in combat sports. He instinctively knew how to market fights. He had a good eye for matchups, he pioneered the good guy versus bad guy promotional tension, and he made eye-popping prize money an incredible draw. By the way, in addition to his career as a boxing promoter, Tex Rickard also founded the New York Rangers hockey franchise in 1926, which he owned until his death. He was a man with vision. Fans are his successors. Vince McMahon took the WWE or World Wrestling Entertainment, put an emphasis on the "E" and topped the UFC a thing or two about how to stage a spectacle. Dana White was the ideal face of the UFC. He was big and tough-talking, but he also charted a course for MMA's future. Rickard believed he could take boxing out of the back alleys and market it as a national pastime. McMahon believed he could make wrestling bigger than fight night at a local arena. And Dana White believes there is no limit to where mixed martial arts could go, including the lawn of the White House. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terristry Mobile Recording Studio, producer Debbie O'Reilly, chief sound engineer Jeff Devine, the music by Casey Pick, Jeremiah Pick, and James Aiden. Fans provided by APM Music. Follow me at Terry O'Influence. This podcast is powered by A-Cast.