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Zuffa not happy with CNBC
By Zach Arnold | December 27, 2007
Dave Meltzer reports the following news item:
There is a big issue today at CNBC regarding the piece on UFC and Bob Meyrowitz’s allegation that Lorenzo Fertitta voted against sanctioning UFC in Nevada in 1999 and then bought the company. Fertitta has said the story isn’t true and CNBC pulled the allegation from subsequent airings as noted in the Observer last week. However, Fertitta wants CNBC to do a full retraction.
As I noted when I did a review of the CNBC show on ‘ultimate fighting,’ the Meyrowitz story is one that he has told before in the past and continues to tell. So, it should have not come as a surprise at all that he would make the remarks that he did.
What did surprise me is that CNBC showed those remarks on the hour-long documentary and that the editing of Lorenzo’s response after those remarks basically gave the impression that there was no objection to what Meyrowitz said.
Given how the CNBC special on ‘ultimate fighting’ was (in my opinion) an infomercial for UFC, I’m surprised that Zuffa is raising a stink about the Meyrowitz comments.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Interesting allegation and I would certainly not be surprised if it was true lol… Anywho, it was an infomercial for the UFC, a good infomercial.
I thought this was common knowledge for quite some time. It has been well documented that Fertitta voted down the sanctioning of MMA in Nevada. I know I’ve seen interviews where he even explained why he voted that way. The retraction request must be for something else because it is a known fact that Lorenzo was involved in keeping MMA sanctioning out of NSAC.
The ‘allegation’ that this was a dirty deal to lower the value of UFC so the Fertitta’s could then buy the organization at a cut rate, THEN get it sanctioned in Nevada and look like the good guy can only be speculated upon. But if someone doesn’t believe that is what actually happened, I’ve got some well dressed men in Tokyo with missing pinkies who would like to do business with you.
This is the US version of the yakuza scandal, although nowhere near the level of lawlessness.
Well, it’s common knowledge, but is it actually true?
These meetings have minutes, they’re public records…
I have never seen the minutes to the meeting. However, it was widely spread news that Fertitta was the deciding vote and turned it down. Eddie Goldman had talked about that multiple times on his show. If it is true (and I believe it is), then Fertitta really doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
IIRC, everyone is confusing one key point of what actually happened:
There never was a vote. Fertitta was going to be the deciding vote against. But, before the vote happened, Meyerovitz was told that he didn’t have the votes. And that if he applied for sanctioning and was rejected, then it would be almost impossible for UFC to be approved at a later time. (Being unsanctioned apparently being preferred to being rejected for sanctioning approval.) At that point Meyerovitz withdrew his sanctioning request. And, soon, Fertitta purchased the company.
Now this is remembered purely from my recollection of reading other accounts of the story, so I may be inaccurate also.
But I believe that there is a difference between voting against and indicating intent to vote against. The end result is usually the same, but the difference is that the latter often results in a negotiated settlement that is more agreeable to all parties.
I am going to repost something from Cindy Ortiz, something she posted on the MMAWeekly forum that includes some interview comments from Fertitta and talks about the timeline of all this:
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Here are excerpts from an interview Lorenzo did with Joel Gold (Full Contact Fighter) in 2001.
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Original link: http://www.fcfighter.com/news0103.htm (begins about one third of the way down the page)
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(How Lorenzo became interested in the UFC)
FCF: How does someone like yourself get interested in buying the UFC. You currently own casinos here in Las Vegas [amongst many other holdings]; please give us a little background. How does it start?
LF: Previously to getting involved in the Mixed Martial Arts world, I served on the Nevada State Athletic Commission for four years. During that time when I was on the Commission, Mixed Martial Arts was brought to us and introduced to the Commission a couple of different times. When it was brought forward to us, I started doing a lot of research on the sport.
I literally rented every videotape and bought every videotape that I could possibly find. Watched all of them and during that time of investigation I went to a UFC fight in Iowa. At that fight, I met a gentleman named John Lewis, a Mixed Martial Arts fighter who has fought in the UFC and Extreme [Battlecade] and happens to live in Las Vegas; I started sharing some thoughts with him. He gave me the invitation to actually get on the mat and roll with him to learn more about what was happening in the Octagon. I came back to Las Vegas and took him up on that, and I would have to say that John Lewis opened my eyes to the world of Mixed Martial Arts and the UFC. I became avid about it, started rolling with him 3 times a week, doing private lessons, trying to learn as much as I possibly can and through that I became a fan. Watched every UFC, traveled to most of the UFCs, was introduced to a lot of the fighters in the UFC…kind of a whole Mixed Martial Arts community and I became enthralled with it.
During that time, I met Bob Meyrowitz. I had been introduced to him numerous times and had built a relationship with him. It was brought to my attention that he had an interest in selling the UFC and I called him. I guess the rest is history. We put together a deal very rapidly and I think it worked out very well.
(About the alleged vote meeting for sanctioning by the NSAC):
FCF: When you were a member on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, I came out to Vegas along with the UFC and their lawyer. As it was told to me, there was to be a vote on whether the Nevada State Athletic Commission was going to approve the UFC. But a vote never did take place; can you tell me why a vote never happened and what was your feeling about the UFC at that time?
LF: I think there lies miscommunication. As far as the Commission was concerned, there never was supposed to be a vote; it was only an agenda item for discussion. We had never even discussed Mixed Martial Arts. We had never talked about it. We knew nothing about it. All of a sudden, it showed up on our agenda and, for whatever reason, people were expecting a vote and that is just not how the process works. What you have to understand is the reason that Nevada is looked at as one of the premier regulatory bodies throughout the world is because they do the homework. And that was not necessarily a time for a vote, but the time that got the ball rolling to start doing the homework.
What that means is myself and a fellow Commissioner and the head of the medical advisory board flew out to a UFC fight in Iowa and we started collecting data relative to Mixed Martial Arts, watching videos, reading publications and just trying to learn as much as we could about it, but I think that is where there was a little bit of miscommunication. There was never supposed to be a vote regarding Mixed Martial Arts.
FCF: I would like to clarify; going back to the time when this matter came before the Commission, what were your feelings about the sport at the time? Did you even think it was a sport? Did you have a problem with the sport? There is some confusion on the matter.
LF: One thing that I think I need to clarify is that there was never a problem. I never had a problem with the sport; it was…I don\’t think anyone necessarily had a problem with it. As I said before, it was just digesting it, trying to understand it better. The Commission is put in a position where, you have to make a decision and you are talking about something that the Commission holds very dear-which is safety-and it takes time to understand the safety aspects, of any sport. Boxing has evolved decade after decade and safety is something that I think has gotten better over time.
Under this scenario, I think the Commission just wanted to understand it as best as possible. At the time, I had an open mind; I had seen most of the UFC fights when they were on cable. So I had been introduced to it through that. I think I had also seen a few of the Extreme Fighting [Battlecade] shows as well. Those shows, if you go back and look at them today relative to what we have now-which is a full fledged sport, worked totally different and I think that\’s what we need to do to educate people. When it was originally put on, there were a lot of things that were not in place. You did not have a full spectrum of rules and regulations that had been adopted by a state regulatory body. There were athletes that were certainly world class, but not every one on the card was world class and there were a few mismatches in there and I think that is what I remembered about the sport at the time.
When I started to do more investigation and study it more, I was blown away at how much the sport had actually progressed and become a full fledged sport and how much the fighters had progressed and their level of athleticism, professionalism and I just developed a tremendous amount of respect for the guys who were getting in the ring and doing what they are doing. There is so much strategy involved. They are so much more evolved. It is not about guys getting in an octagon trying to hurt each other; it has nothing to do with that. I learned that it is about world-class athletes fighting with strategies that they had in mind, it is very technical. It is a beautiful sport and afterwards everyone shows great sportsmanship, everybody is well educated and all those things coming together really opened my eyes.
(How Lorenzo came to serve on the NSAC and why he stopped):
FCF: Getting back to the boxing…how do you become a member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission?
LF: As I mentioned before, growing up, I was a huge boxing fan and being on the Nevada State Athletic Commission is a very sought out position, being named one of the five members. Governor Bob Miller who I\’ve known over a number of years, asked me to sit on the board. I had known him for a long time. He knew growing up I was a huge boxing fan and he felt I would do a good job, so he appointed me there.
FCF: How long did you sit on the board?
LF: I sat on the board for 4 years and the last year, I sat on the board as the vice chairman.
FCF: Why are you no longer on the board?
LF: I stepped down. The reason I stepped down was I took on a full time position with Station Casinos. Previous to being full time, I was on the Board of Directors and I ran Fertitta Enterprises. Fertitta Enterprises is a family office that runs other business interests outside of Station Casinos-there is no affiliation there. In August of the year 2000, I was asked to come aboard at Station Casinos and run the company as President and I felt that the time constraints that were going to be put on me were not going to allow me to do the job that I needed to do on the Athletic Commission. The Athletic Commission took some weeks literally 40-plus hours a week to do the job in the right fashion, and I just didn\’t feel that I could do both.
(About sanctioning of the UFC under the new ownership of Zuffa and PPV airtime):
FCF: Okay, the question that needs to be asked…what is the likelihood of the UFC coming to Vegas and getting approved by the Commission?
LF: The true answer is, I really have no idea. Whether it will ever be passed, or what the timing will be if it will get passed. What I can tell you is that the Commission is made up of 5 very smart individuals who I know and whom I have served with. I can tell you they will do the homework, they have open minds and they will work on their own time frame and we will do whatever we can to try to help educate them, to try and answer any questions they may have, but as far as when, and if, Mixed Martial Arts will ever be in Nevada, I have no idea.
FCF: As a smart businessman, you know for this to be a profitable company, you have to get back on mainstream cable again. What is the likelihood of this happening?
LF: I really don\’t know when or if that will happen either. I can tell you that I am very hopeful, certainly with the fact that the State of New Jersey has approved Mixed Martial Arts. They regulate it no different than boxing. It is my belief that just the fact that the State of New Jersey has come forward and has embraced the sport the way that they have lends a tremendous amount of creditability to the sport and hopefully the world of cable will see that and understand that and make the sport available to everyone around the country.
FCF: Are any talks underway? Have you made any communication letting the cable companies know there is a new owner in town?
LF: There have been no meetings or communication with cable.
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Joel Gold\’s closing statement:
Leaving the interview, I had a good feeling about the future of the UFC. This company has the money to make things happen. Better pay to attract better fighters and a promotion campaign that needs to go along with it for essential growth. They seemed to be big fans of the sport as well as having great energy heading towards accomplishing their goals. It is too early to tell if all that is said will be done, but I witnessed the ball already beginning to roll in the right direction. My concern for the UFC as I see it now, is listing to bad advice as the previous owner did. Looking within the company for previous mistakes and bad advice and having the courage fix the problem will help with the growth of this sleeping giant.
(The announcement of new UFC ownership Bob Meyrowitz made):
UFC Going To Vegas
http://www.fcfighter.com/news0101.htm
Friday January 12, 2001
\”It is great news for the UFC, it is truly a sad day for me…\”, that\’s how Bob Meyrowitz, CEO of eYada and SEG, began his announcement that has sold the UFC. Yesterday on Eddie Goldman\’s eYada show, Meyrowitz stated that he has sold all of his interests in the UFC to Lorenzo Fertitta and his Las Vegas based company Zuffa. Zuffa is an Italian word that means \”to scrap\” or \”to fight.\” Fertitta, 31, owns the company in a partnership with his brother Frank and his brother-in-law Blake Sartini.
It does in fact look to be excellent news for Mixed Martial Arts, besides being a big MMA fan, Fertitta served on the Nevada State Athletic Commission from December of 1996 until this earlier year. Fertitta\’s spot on the Commission was taken by Dr. Edwin \”Flip\” Homansky when Fertitta quit to due to the time demands in his new job as president of Station Casinos. According to Fertitta, he will continue with his responsibilities at Station Casinos and Dana White, Tito Ortiz\’s former manager, will run the company. Meyrowitz stated that he feels that Mr. Fertitta will take the UFC to the great heights it deserves, and he no longer had the time or the energy to give the UFC what it needs due to his job at eYada. Meyrowitz also said that he guarantees that within 6 months the UFC will bigger and better and will be available to fans everywhere. He said that he is completely out of the UFC, and that his only involvement will be that he will buying every show on PPV, but, \”I will be buying it on DirecTV and never on cable.\”
Mr. Fertitta is a huge fan of the sport and this looks like the beginning of some very exciting developments for Mixed Martial Arts.
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Bob made the claim in the CNBC piece that he was \”told\” the NSAC intended to grant his request for sanctioning of the UFC. Around midnight the night before the meeting, Bob claims he got a phone call and was told Lorenzo was changing his vote to \’no\’ therefore the UFC would not be approved for sanctioning in NV after all.
Lorenzo claimed (in the interview with Joel Gold from Full Contact Fighter I posted yesterday) the meeting was an agenda item where the request for sanctioning of MMA in NV would be openly discussed but NOT put to a vote. There was much work to be done by the commission before they would be in a position to make a decision since MMA was new.
When the CNBC piece ran last week and the comments Bob made about Lorenzo aired the sh!t hit the fan. In short, CNBC was made aware that Bob\’s accusation about Lorenzo \”changing his vote to no\” to keep SEG from getting sanctioned, only to turn around and buy the company the following year (and got it sanctioned in NV) wasn\’t accurate.
CNBC immediately went on a fact finding mission on both sides and in the end, BM wasn\’t able to provide them with a stitch of proof that his on-air comments were true. On the other hand, Zuffa was able to offer irrefutable proof that Bob was lying.
The powers that be at CNBC didn\’t hesitate to immediately pull the documentary before it could be re-aired (was scheduled to be rebroadcast six more times) and omitted BM\’s allegation that Lorenzo acted underhandedly.
The revised doc is what has been aired ever since.
Bob has never been able to prove a vote was scheduled to decide the fate of MMA/UFC in Nevada during his watch.
He has never been able (or willing) to disclose the identity of the mysterious midnight caller the evening before this \”meeting\” was to go down informing him Lorenzo was changing his vote.
Now, here\’s where it gets a bit ridiculous. Ivan ran this on his blog but it was written by the sources noted:
http://www.ivansblog.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
Mr. Ivan Trembow recently published the following, {According to the Wrestling Observer and with edits made in brackets to fill in context or correct grammar, and with a timeline clarification courtesy of Whaledog.com:
\”Meyrowitz [former UFC president Bob Meyrowitz] would go to InDemand [the PPV company] and ask what he needed to do to get back on InDemand, and they said the UFC needed to get sanctioned [by a major sanctioning body]. He got sanctioned in New Jersey, and was basically told that he needed to get it sanctioned in Nevada, as that was the most influential athletic commission in the country. [Meyrowitz] set up a meeting in Las Vegas, and at the time, sanctioning was going to happen based on what inside sources were telling both Meyrowitz and InDemand. Suddenly, the night before the approval that was going to be the step to put the UFC back on the map, Meyrowitz was told that he was going to be voted down [the next day, when his request was scheduled to be voted on by the members of the Nevada State Athletic Commission]. He didn\’t have the votes. He was also told that if he followed through the next day, and was voted down, he would never have an opportunity to be sanctioned. So, he pulled out, they created some cover reason as to why he was pulling his attempt at sanctioning, and basically he was screwed. Lorenzo Fertitta [the current co-owner of the UFC] was an influential member of the Nevada commission at the time. [Approximately one year later], Fertitta purchased the UFC [for $2 million], then got sanctioning in Nevada, and then got on PPV.\”}
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This doesn\’t make sense because of the time line:
Lorenzo made the decision to step down from the NSAC when approached to serve as president of Station Casino 8/00.
The above quote states:
\”Meyrowitz [former UFC president Bob Meyrowitz] would go to InDemand [the PPV company] and ask what he needed to do to get back on InDemand, and they said the UFC needed to get sanctioned [by a major sanctioning body].He got sanctioned in New Jersey…\”
*** MMA was sanctioned in NJ beginning 9/30/00 and Bob ran a UFC event there in 11/17/00.
\”cont…and was then told that he needed to get it sanctioned in Nevada, as that was the most influential athletic commission in the country.\”
So… if BM went back to InDemand after running his show in NJ and was then told he needed to get NV on board, too, in order to get PPV reinstated for the UFC, what does this have to do with Lorenzo? We\’re talking a window of about 6-7 weeks from the night BM ran his 11/17/00 event in Atlantic City, went back to InDemand and was given another task to get NV on board, and the time he sold the promotion to Zuffa mid January 2001.
Next head scratcher from above:
\”Lorenzo Fertitta [the current co-owner of the UFC] was an influential member of the Nevada commission at the time. [Approximately one year later], Fertitta purchased the UFC [for $2 million], then got sanctioning in Nevada, and then got on PPV.\”
*** WTF??? If InDemand presented BM with the NV obstacle after sanctioning in NJ was successful, how could Lorenzo have impacted any kind of vote (as claimed above) when he was no longer serving on the commission?
BM sold the UFC to Zuffa 1/01 and as of March 2001 when the interview with Full Contact Fighter took place, Fertitta had no clue if or when MMA would become sanctioned in NV. He also stated Zuffa was not in talks with cable companies to get PPV broadcasting restored (at the time of the interview).
The UFC (under Zuffa) ran three more shows in NJ before gaining sanctioning in Nevada which happened 7/27/01.
The next live show was 9/28/01 (UFC 33) and held in NV. This event also marked the reinstatement of PPV;)
Some of this does not seem to jive. According to the Meltzer peice, this happened in 1999. But it says that BM got sanctioning in NJ before going to the NSAC. NJ sanctioned MMA in Sept, 2000. That is later than what BM is saying (or at least that Meltzer is reporting).
If he went to the NSAC after getting sanctioning in NJ, Fertitta would have already stepped down or have been in the process of stepping down.
Does anyone have an exact timeline as to when BM said everything took place?
Wow, I always thought there was a vote.
When Zuffa first bought the company, I was very vocal about how they would ruin the sport. Boy, was I wrong.
Whether or not there was trickery in the purchase of the company, I am happy that the purchase was made. There was no future for the UFC with BM owning it. Only somebody with deep pockets like the Fertitta’s had a remote chance at making it work.
In the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer, Meltzer says that Fertitta was not the one that changed his mind at the last minute.
Great investigative work, Jeremy. Until someone else have “proof” that this happened, let this myth end here.
I am still amazed at the generated hate for Zuffa when they single-handed brought MMA back from the brink of extinction. All these new MMA promotions would not exist had the Fertittas not had the foresight to continue sinking money after the 40 million dollars they lost in a supposedly losing proposition. Why? Because they believed in the sport and were true fans.
Only a fan could’ve done what they did. What corporation would do that today? It’s akin to McMahon continue running the XFL for three more seasons even after the disastrous first season. Hate Dana White all you want, but the Fertittas deserve the credit.