In 2001, Ultimate Fighting was sold for $2 million to the Fertitta brothers, Frank III and Lorenzo, megarich owners of a string of Las Vegas casinos and close friends of a phenomenal huckster named Dana White. What ensued was one of the greatest feats of financial alchemy in the history of sports, the transformation of cage fighting into a $1 billion-plus business.

But lucrative as it is, Ultimate Fighting remains confined to a narrow demographic niche, those three initials not yet familiar in most American households. On Saturday night, however, the U.F.C. will seek to make its way into the mainstream, appearing for the first time on network television. The event: a heavyweight championship fight broadcast on Fox.

“This is the fastest-growing sport in the world,” Eric Shanks, the president of Fox Sports, said hopefully of his network’s venture into the octagon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/sports/ultimate-fighting-championship-comes-of-age-financially.html?_r=1&hp