business

Much of the mystique of UFC co-owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta stems from the fact that we don't see them cursing and making outlandish statements every day like their president and public face. Not that Lorenzo Fertitta's statements are any less outlandish, but when he shows up to the occasional press conference or does the rare interview, we tend to pay a little more attention; clearly, the man has decided to speak because he has something important to say. In this interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Lorenzo — ranked 380th on Forbes Magazine's most recent list of the 400 richest Americans, with an estimated fortune of $1.3 billion — discusses the state of the UFC's business and whether Dana White ever embarrasses him with his big mouth. We've gone and excerpted the best parts below.

On MMA being the country's "fastest growing sport": "A lot of people talk about the growth of MMA. I don't believe in that. I don't know where anybody can show me there is this great success in MMA outside of the UFC. There has been explosive growth for the UFC, but MMA in general, nobody is making a breakthrough. The biggest non-UFC pay-per-view, you might know better than me, but it's something like 25,000, maybe 30,000 buys. There is a bit of a misnomer there. It's not the growth of MMA. It's the growth of the UFC."