Ohio Athletic Commission readies for UFC return, continued MMA growth
Ohio Athletic Commission Executive Director Bernie Profato vividly remembers his introduction to big-time MMA.
For the first time in the organization's history, the Ultimate Fighting Championship ventured to a major Midwest market. The March 2007 event, UFC 68, featured a title fight between reigning heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia and UFC hall-of-famer Randy Couture.
The fight took place at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and set a North American MMA attendance record with 19,079 spectators. Additionally, a boisterous crowd shattered the venue's attendance, live gate and merchandise-sales records.
Although Profato had seen the regional scene explode in popularity after the state began regulating MMA in 2005, he had seen nothing like the UFC up close.
"When I went to that first UFC event at Nationwide, when I got home after the event, my wife thought something was wrong," Profato told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "She wanted to take me to the doctor. She said, 'Are you on drugs or something?' It was just such a high, and it felt like it took 10 days to come down from it.
"For a guy in his 60s, that probably shouldn't be happening, but it was the most exciting damn thing I've been involved with in sports."
And that's saying something.
Profato, a lifelong participant and administrator in the sports world, amassed a 54-6-1 career record as an amateur boxer and picked up two Golden Gloves titles in the 1960s. For 18 years he was the third man in the ring while refereeing fights with boxing legends Hector Camacho, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, "Sugar" Ray Leonard and others. He was also the first American to referee a bout in China, and his work in high school and college football, softball and baseball has earned him numerous hall-of-fame inductions.
Admittedly, though, none of that really compared to UFC 68, an event that jumpstarted Ohio's recent ascent toward the top of the MMA world.
Profato, who was named OAC executive director in 2004, said the commission and the UFC both knew very early on that UFC 68 was going to be hit. Soon after tickets went on sale, the phone calls from UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner followed.
"Ratner would call and say, 'Holy cow, they're up to 10,000 (tickets) for the first day of sales,'" he said. "Then it was 12,000 in three days. It was 15,000 soon after. He was just going on and on. Even they were shocked."
The final tally was 19,079 -- 814 more than a March 2006 Strikeforce event that previously held the North American MMA attendance record. The live gate was a staggering $2.47 million.
Aiding the UFC's efforts was the Arnold Sports Festival, which also took place in Columbus the same weekend as UFC 68. The annual festival (named after Arnold Schwarzenegger) began in 1989 as a bodybuilding competition but has since grown to include competitions and exhibitions in everything from powerlifting to wrestling to grappling to cheerleading. The three-day event annually draws approximately 15,000 athletes and 125,000 spectators.
"I don't think there's a better marriage in sports -- in this type of sport, anyway," Profato said. "The Arnold and the UFC is a perfect marriage. The types of fans who go to the Arnold are also followers of MMA. The kind of energy that produces, it's just perfect."
The success of that initial UFC event has prompted return trips to the Buckeye State. With hometown hero Rich Franklin hoping to reclaim his middleweight title from Anderson Silva, UFC 77 took place in Cincinnati in October 2007 with 16,054 attendees and a $2.5 million live gate. Six months later, the Arnold Sports Festival -- and the UFC -- returned to Columbus for another solid hit (16,431 attendees for a $2.2 million gate).
It was Ohio's third UFC event in just a 12-month span. Only Nevada hosted more events during that time frame.
"There's something about Ohio," UFC President Dana White said after UFC 82. "[They] just know how to pack 'em in."
And, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported this past weekend, preliminary talks have begun to bring the UFC back to Columbus and Nationwide Arena on March 7, 2009.
(Not surprisingly, the Arnold Sports Festival will be held the same weekend.)
Profato won't say it's a done deal, but "it's looking good."
While he knows the fees, taxes and tourism will mean a boon for the commission and local businesses -- a recent study concluded that UFC 82 pumped $11 million into the local economy -- he also knows the UFC's presence in Ohio directly benefits the local fight scene, one that's drawn amateur fighters from New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Canada and other locales at which amateur MMA hasn't been regulated.
"We have about 3,000 amateur fighters licensed by the state," Profato said. "If you ask them, about 98.6 percent are going to say they want to fight in the UFC. By [the UFC] coming here, you're going to help the local organizations and also give the state even more recognition."
That's right: recognition. With far more than half of U.S. states now regulating the sport -- and top MMA executives expecting all 50 to be on board in the coming years -- Ohio has become one of MMA's most influential commissions. After all, Ohio's 11.5 million residents (seventh most in the U.S.) quickly embraced the sport once the OAC began drawing up rules and regulations in December 2004.
Just four regulated events were held in 2004, according to Profato. Three years later, in 2007, the state hosted an astounding 114.
This year, as of August, The OAC had already overseen 89. That's 48 more than any other commission, according to Profato.
"And it's only going to get bigger," he said.
With a burgeoning pro circuit that's seen organizations such as the NAAFS and Bushi Combat thrive, nearly 250 professional fighters licensed in the state, and with the UFC's obvious endorsement, Ohio is now wielding some serious power.
"In the top four state commissions, Ohio's right there with California, Nevada and New Jersey," Profato said. "And you could make a case for many states, including Ohio, being in the top spot when it comes to amateur MMA."
Yet, Profato sees one major difference between Ohio and those other power brokers.
"We're the only state without casinos," he said. "[The UFC] came here without the casinos paying for rooms and this and that. That's another expense the UFC occurred by taking a chance on Ohio. The other three states all have casinos and their built-in marketing [channels]. We don't, but we're right there with them."
Sure, Las Vegas will always be the Fight Capital of the World under the direction of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. And, in many ways, NSAC executive director Keith Kizer, California's Armando Garcia and New Jersey executive Nick Lembo have been the godfathers of MMA's regulators. But Profato now calls them friends and colleagues, and he and the Ohio commission have become part of the family.
"I've learned so much from the kid in less than a year that I can't even fathom it," Profato said of Lembo, who was recently appointed the head of the Association of Boxing Commissioners' new MMA committee. "There are just so many sharp people in this industry."
With their recent success, Profato can't even begin to imagine how big MMA could get in Ohio. But he won't take any of the credit for the past success and instead attributes it to the many referees, doctors, inspectors, fighters, trainers and coaches throughout the state.
"We haven't had one unregulated event since 2005," Profato said. "You think one person can handle that? You see, the fighters won't even compete at an event -- they'll call (the commission) if they don't see it on our calendar we have on the website. The next thing you know, the guy in charge is calling and saying he needs a promoter's license.
"That's been the key to our success. They all want regulation because, God forbid, if someone gets killed at an unsanctioned event, it's going to kill the sport here. And no one wants to see that.
"Everyone here wants MMA to succeed."
