Global expansion. Perception change. A new sporting landscape.
Lorenzo Fertitta, owner and chairman of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Garry Cook, Managing Director EMEA of the combat sport brand - known more readily by its acronym UFC - were headline speakers Wednesday in London at the 6th annual Leaders Sport Summit.
Delegates were offered an insight into the juggernaut that the sport has become, fuelled by a small group of individuals who fell in love with a form of fighting which has become, with alacrity, a sport known as mixed martial arts. It hasn’t been easy. It has been some journey. But they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Fertitta and Cook joined an eclectic, entrepreneurial group at the summit at Chelsea Football Club. The likes of Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, with football chiefs from across the globe: Andrea Agnelli, the President of Juventus Football Club; Unal Aysal, President, of Turkish club Galatasaray, Didac Lee, Director of Technology and Board Member, FC Barcelona; Luis Alvaro, President, Santos FC.
In an interview with Telegraph Sport, the man behind the muscle behind the brand outlined how the world’s leading mixed martial arts organisation, which now hosts the top-ranked fighters across the globe, has shown itself as impervious and recession-proof.
