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Lorenzo Fertitta said Muhammad Ali shaped the way he promotes UFC

Lorenzo Fertitta said Muhammad Ali shaped the way he promotes UFC

Lorenzo Fertitta was no different Friday than millions of people around the world: The UFC CEO was remembering the legendary late heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali.

Fertitta grew up in Las Vegas and was a hard-core boxing fan. His first major event he attended came in 1978, a month after his 10th birthday. He attended the Ali-Leon Spinks bout at the Las Vegas Hilton in which an out-of-shape and disinterested Ali lost his title in one of the greatest upsets in the sport's history.

"I was a young and impressionable kid and I was overtaken by the overall magnitude of the event," Fertitta told Yahoo Sports Friday. "Muhammad Ali was a larger than life figure and this event was quite impactful upon me. I was devastated he lost, but I continued to be a boxing fan and, more importantly, an Ali fan.

"At that time, he controlled the airways from a sports standpoint. He was on television, in newspapers, radio, magazines, everything. He was the biggest sports figure of the time. I fell in love with his persona. As I came to understand more as I matured, I loved what he stood for that went far beyond sports. He had an impact upon civil rights and a great impact on our national culture He was a fascinating figure."

Ali, who was buried Friday in his hometown of Louisville, was probably the greatest promoter in sports. Fertitta said that Ali's masterful ability to bring attention to his fights helped shape the way he decided to promote the UFC when he bought the company in 2001.

Fertitta, who called Ali "my all-time favorite sportsman," said that while he didn't want to copy Ali's tactics, he took Ali's lead in the way he commanded the public's attention.

"He transcended sports and he managed to bring in people who didn't know or care a whole lot about boxing and get them to be interested in his fights," Fertitta said "There's a lot to learn from that from our perspective. ... Ali was able to push his fights into the mainstream and for a company that is trying to do that with our events, particularly one like UFC 200, there is a lot to be learned by watching what he did.

"It's not that we mimic what he did and said. In a general way, though, the showmanship and the entertainment and how his fights became events instead of just a boxing match, that's what we try to remember."

Fertitta's fandom of Ali has never waned. In 2012 at Ali's 70th birthday party at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Fertitta outbid Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for a pair of fight-worn Ali boxing gloves. He paid $1.1 million for the gloves, which Ali wore when he defeated Floyd Patterson at the Las Vegas Convention Center in 1965.

The gloves are in his office at the Red Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

"It was a one of a kind item," Fertitta said. "And honestly, my competitive juices got flowing when Jerry Jones kept bidding on them. We'd all had a few drinks and it was for a good cause, and so I went for it. To me, it''s a unique piece of history from this city and it means a lot to have that."