The current issue of Business Week features The Power 100: The Most Influential People in Sports. UFC President Dana White was named # 61. White is featured prominently in a cartoon accompanying the piece emblazoned on a UFC title belt alongside Casey Wasserman and Danica Patrick. The caption to his listing reads, “led by UFC, mixed martial arts is shoving boxing aside as the biggest draw for fight fans.”
As a demonstration of the publication’s belief that MMA is supplanting boxing, Ross Greenberg, President of HBO Sports and the current power broker in boxing, comes in five slots behind White at # 66.
Other players connected to the MMA industry cracking the list include Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavricks and HDNet, at # 44. Tony Ponturo, VP of Global Media and Sports Marketing for Anhueser-Busch, is # 14 with a description that is of some significance to the MMA industry: “all eyes will be on the man who controls the biggest ad budget in sports–to see what the brewer’s new owner will spend.”
Casey Wasserman, CEO of Wasserman Media Group, checks in at # 46. WMG is a recent entrant into the MMA industry counting Randy Couture, Gina Carano, and MMARated.com among its portfolio in the sport.