From a $2 million purchase nobody wanted to half of a listed multi-billion-dollar company — with what our own archive recorded happening in the cage alongside it.
Red bars mark the milestones below
UFC 1 runs in Denver as a one-night, no-weight-class tournament to settle which martial art works. Dana White has nothing to do with it — he is a boxercise instructor in Boston and Las Vegas.
Branded "human cockfighting" by Senator John McCain, the UFC is dropped by cable pay-per-view carriers and pushed to the margins. Events continue in smaller venues under mounting regulatory pressure.
White is managing Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell when he learns the UFC's owner, SEG, is close to broke — and calls his childhood friend Lorenzo Fertitta.
Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III form Zuffa and buy the promotion. Dana White is installed as president. The new owners chase state athletic-commission sanctioning rather than fighting it — the decision the whole sport turns on.
Three years of losses. The Fertittas are reportedly close to selling. Instead they fund one last gamble: a reality series they pay to put on air themselves.
TUF debuts on Spike TV. The season finale on 9 April — Forrest Griffin versus Stephan Bonnar — is still routinely described as the most important fight in company history. Spike orders more, and the UFC finally has an audience.
Liddell–Ortiz II at UFC 66 becomes the promotion's first million-buy pay-per-view. The business the Fertittas nearly sold two years earlier is now profitable.
Zuffa acquires Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships, removing its only global rival and absorbing a roster that includes some of the sport's biggest names.
Zuffa buys Strikeforce in March, then announces a seven-year broadcast agreement with Fox in August. The UFC moves from pay-per-view curiosity to network television.
Having said for years it would never happen, White signs Ronda Rousey and puts her in the main event. Rousey versus Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 in February is the promotion's first women's bout.
WME-IMG leads a group buying the UFC in what was then the largest transaction in sports-franchise history. White stays on as president and retains an ownership stake.
A broadcast and streaming agreement with ESPN is announced, later expanded to move pay-per-views onto ESPN+. Distribution shifts decisively to streaming.
The UFC is the first major promotion back to live competition, staging UFC 249 in May behind closed doors and then building "Fight Island" in Abu Dhabi to keep international fighters competing.
Endeavor merges the UFC with WWE into a single listed company, TKO Group Holdings. The promotion White took over for $2 million is now half of a multi-billion-dollar entertainment group.