Five days before he’s due to induct a man he’s still not speaking to into the UFC Hall of Fame, UFC President Dana White did his best to explain to the media why he thinks Stephan Bonnar is deserving of the honor. “The way I’m looking at it is, I’m inducting Forrest [Griffin], and Stephan goes with him,” White said. “Those two – it wasn’t just Forrest – both of those guys took us to this next level.” In other words, it’s because of that one fight, which we all pretty much already knew. What we don’t seem to appreciate, at least in White’s eyes, is what that one fight truly meant for the UFC, which came into the very first live finale for “The Ultimate Fighter” with an uncertain future, and left with a deal that would at least ensure that it could keep the lights on for a little while longer. You know this chapter of the origin story by now. The UFC, down to the last of the small fortune that the Fertitta family was willing to pump into it, bought its way onto Spike TV with an MMA reality show that White hoped would be the steppingstone to success. A gambler at heart, the UFC president bet everything on that first season
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