‘They Wanted Us To Fight For Free’

The Ultimate Fighter reality show saved the UFC from going under, but almost fell apart when the contestants refused to fight on the show for free.

VICE TV’s ‘Dark Side of the Cage’ returned for its fourth episode last night (Wed. Jan 29th) and this time the show delved into the make or break moment where the UFC put on The Ultimate Fighter.

It’s hard for new fans these days to understand just how badly the UFC was doing in the early 2000s after political pressure had resulted in the company being banned in many states and pushed off most pay-per-view providers. Hardcore pornography? Fine. Mixed martial arts? No way.

UFC president Dana White and his business partners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta had bought the UFC for $2 million and had burned another $40 million trying to make it happen, but it just wasn’t working. It got to the point where the Fertittas asked White to find a buyer, and White had found someone willing to take it off their hands for $7 million. Rather than sell, Lorenzo decided to go all in on a reality show called ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’

The Fertittas ended up paying Spike TV to air The Ultimate Fighter, effectively making it little different than the Slap Chop and ShamWoW programming that aired later at night. But even after paying for the timeslot, they were told not to show any matches until the finale to avoid potential backlash.

That didn’t last too long as producers quickly realized everything they were filming was boring as hell. So changes were made to the format, and a fight tournament was set up.

“We went through the first five challenges and then were told ‘In a couple of days, you guys are gonna have to fight,” TUF contestant Bobby Southworth told Dark Side of the Cage. “The contract stated that we would go through these challenges and whoever was left, both two finalists in each weight class would fight for the contract. But then they changed that.”

In an early example of why fighters joke that UFC stands for ‘U Fight Cheap,’ the situation changed but the pay did not. So Southworth organized a protest.

“This is bulls**t, they want us to fight for free,” he recalled. “It just didn’t seem right. I was going around telling everybody ‘Don’t talk, don’t talk. We’re gonna sit around with our thumbs up our asses and not do anything and make it super boring.’ The reaction from the production crew, everyone was exasperated because no one was doing anything. It probably lasted for six or seven hours and then the production people called up Dana.”

“Dana was always the looming threat,” TUF contestant Nate Quarry said. “Because he’s the one that really holds the key to your future in the sport of MMA. If he liked you, he’d give you an opportunity and if he didn’t, then you’d be gone.”

Dana White showed up and gave the fighters a speech — half pep talk and half threats — that would go on to be known as the ‘Do you want to be a f**king fighter?’ speech. While The Ultimate Fighter portrayed that as the lynchpin that turned the tide, Dark Side of the Cage showed what really happened. Southworth talked with White and worked out a deal.

“I told him, ‘Dana, that’s why I’m here, I want to be in the UFC. But we don’t want to fight for free,’” Southworth said. “They came back to us and said ‘Okay, we came up with a solution. You guys are going to fight and if you finish the fight by KO or submission, you’ll get a $5000 check.’”

“At the time, my biggest payday might have been $10,000. $5000 for the fight seemed like a pretty good idea, and all the other guys thought that as well, like ‘Okay, that’s decent money.’ So everyone was into it.”

The Ultimate Fighter would go on to become the tipping point that led to the UFC’s growth into a multi-billion dollar promotion. After weeks of solid ratings, the finale headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Ken Shamrock drew crazy numbers. But it was a slobberknocker between light heavyweight finalists Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin that showed those tuning in just how exciting the sport could be, and put the UFC on the path to becoming the unstoppable force it is today.

This news first appeared on MMA Mania. Read the original article.