The UFC, as a promotion, rose to prominence through a wild ride since its inception in 1993. It’s the premium MMA extravaganza in the world, hands down, all thanks to Dana White and his associates. However, the UFC CEO claimed to have met with a roadblock when he introduced ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ series to a television network back in the day, but his navigation of the situation saved the UFC from bankruptcy.

A conversation with Dr. Phil revealed that the UFC had lost around $40 million, three years after The Fertittas bought it for $2 million. That was a heavy deficit, and in the pursuit of keeping the company alive, the 55-year-old decided to launch ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality series in 2005. However, none of the networks wanted to collaborate with White’s promotion.

“So we started shopping this thing around. Nobody liked it. Then, at the time the Nashville Network just switched over to Spike TV, which they were calling the men’s network,” Dana White told Dr. Phil. When the UFC CEO got in touch with Spike TV, things initially looked dim, but when the UFC offered to pay for the whole show, the network officials didn’t hesitate any longer. Also, if this had gone haywire, White might have had to bid farewell to the Fertitta brothers.

“We went and met with those guys. They hated it and didn’t wanna pay for it, and we said, ‘Well, what if we put up the money?’ It cost $10 million for the show,” Dana White further stated. “They liked that idea better, and what was amazing was, we put up the $10 million and it was the last $10 million that the Fertittas were ever going to invest in that sport.”

How do you think the show turned out? Well, if you remember Forrest Griffin’s epic scrap against Stephan Bonnar in the inaugural TUF finale, then you’d remember that the show did much better by exceeding everyone’s expectations. The head honcho has acknowledged the fight to have saved the UFC from doom. Dana White, meanwhile, claims that spending those $10 million in setting up the debut TUF season also worked in his favor.

The $10 million helped Dana White and Co. keep the rights to ‘The Ultimate Fighter’s content

From the brink of collapse to emerging as the world’s leader in promoting mixed martial fights, Dana White has witnessed everything that the UFC went through. Hence, he was happy to see that the $10 million the Zuffa owners put in ultimately worked out. It didn’t just help put ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ on the map, but it also helped the promotion retain all the content of the reality, which the UFC CEO claims was a “blessing.”

“The thing blows up, and because we paid for it, we owned 100 percent of everything. All the right, you know. It was actually a blessing that they didn’t like it,” Dana White added. However, in recent times, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ has somewhat gone stale, and the last season that gained a respectable viewership was when Conor McGregor stood opposite Michael Chandler as a coach.

They may not be able to replicate the same success again with the show, but the promotion is operating at a whole new level, holding events almost every week. What do you think about Dana White’s effort with the $10 million gamble? Drop your comments below.