Dana White Pens Op-Ed: Seeks Global Domination By 2020

UFC President Dana White has written an opinion-editorial for the Las Vegas Sun that reasserts his desire to make MMA the world's preeminent sport within the next ten years. That may sound like crazy-talk and it's true that cage-fighting probably can't overtake basketball, much less soccer, in that time span, but if the sport of MMA keeps growing at anywhere near its current trajectory there really is no telling where it will top out.

From Dana's article (click for more):

The UFC will be on network television in the coming years, but we’re not going to go out and do a stupid deal because we don’t need them. We built this thing without help from anybody, and that’s why the UFC has been able to flourish even in these hard times.

The sport was just sanctioned in Massachusetts and Vancouver. We’re going to get it done in Ontario and New York in 2010. And we’re already working on taking the UFC global. We’ve already done Germany, England and Ireland, and we just sold 22,000 seats for an event in Australia in 15 minutes.

One thing Dana neglects to mention is the UFC's plan to finance seasons of The Ultimate Fighter all over the world, with the winners from every country earning a shot in the real octagon. Personally, I think that plan is pure genius both from the "Trojan horse" perspective that made the reality show a success in North America and from a nationalistic marketing angle. I mean, what red-blooded Indian, Pakistani, Korean, or Thai wouldn't want to see their best upcoming fighter take on the world's elite.