King of the Cage founder explains why WWE and boxing targeted UFC with "smear campaign" during early years
King of the Cage founder Terry Trebilcock recently claimed that WWE and pro boxing had a hand in the early smear campaigns against the UFC and explained why they targeted them. He noted that the MMA promotion was a disrupter in the pay-per-view business, which certainly got the attention of the sports and entertainment entities.
The UFC famously were labeled as being "human cock fighting" by former US senator John McCain and were constantly battling local governments and commissions whenever they hosted their events. The legal battles eventually set them back financially and were unable to retain the services of some of their top competitors, which resulted in the sale to Zuffa in 2001.
During his appearance on Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson's JAXXON PODCAST, the King of the Cage founder noted that the UFC had done very well with their pay-per-view buyrates, which took away some of the market share occupied by boxing and Vince McMahon's WWE.
Trebilcock mentioned that it resulted in UFC's competitors teaming up and getting McCain on board. Their sole aim was to target the promotion in an attempt to diminish their impact on their respective businesses. He said:
"WWE was taking a huge percentage of that [pay-per-view market share] as was professional boxing. And then all of a sudden this new sport comes in that the rules are kind of questionable. They're trying to keep it out and it got 3-400,000 buys. At that point, people were like, 'This is competitive, we gotta get these guys out'. And they got John McCain...to get behind them on a smear campaign." [37:50 - 38:20]
Check out Terry Trebilcock's comments below:
Terry Trebilcock claims King of the Cage and UFC were battling for same opportunities on television
In addition to explaining how the WWE and pro boxing went after the UFC during their early years, Terry Trebilcock claimed that his King of the Cage promotion had been battling with the MMA leader for the same opportunities on television.
During the aforementioned appearance, Trebilcock mentioned that he was involved in the same conversations as the UFC as it pertains to their potential TV partners:
"We walked into the meetings right after [the Fertitta brothers] left the meetings. We were battling for a lot of the same things. 'The Best Damn Sports Show'...we pitched that to [them]. They came back and said, 'That's great but we need $180,000 to do the production'...We left, the Fertittas were walking in. They paid $900,000 for the same spot." [30:37 - 31:13]
Check out the segment featuring Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture on 'The Best Damn Sports Show Period' below: