UFC's $10M Turning Point

A story about how the Fertitta brothers almost gave up on the UFC after losing $40M, but decided to invest another $10M which led to their breakthrough.

"They had put $40M into it and it just wasn't working yet. Lorenzo calls and says 'I can't do this anymore, I can't keep bleeding money like this. Can you try to sell this thing?'

Dana calls everybody and calls back Lorenzo the next day saying 'There's not a lot of appetite for this thing. I think the best we could do is get 6 or 7 million dollars for this.'

Lorenzo says 'Let me call you tomorrow.' Next day he calls and says 'F*** it, let's keep going. Let's put in another 10 million, one last chance to turn this business around.'

That's what they used to create The Ultimate Fighter. They were 50 million in, funded by the family's casino and previous successes. It was a significant sum for them - they were really rich but not rich enough that 50 million wasn't a big deal.

Years later, when it sold for 4 billion dollars, the brothers each owned 40% of the business, and Dana made 360 million on the sale with a 10% kicker."