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Though we’d never really talked, I’d met White a few shows prior and my only impression had been that he was driven. I’d been told he was trying to get Ortiz more money and was playing hardball with Meyrowitz. I knew the figure White was asking for and that he wouldn’t get it because SEG couldn’t afford it.

This night, White asked if I had plans after the show and if I wanted to go out to eat with him and Lorenzo Fertitta. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but lo and behold, there was Fertitta sitting in the first row.

I was curious. Why would Fertitta, a Nevada commissioner, take in another UFC event, especially one in Japan? I agreed to meet them for dinner.

At first, I didn’t get the connection between White the manager and Fertitta the commissioner. Though I didn’t know it, they’d been high school friends. Both Fertitta and White had been studying jiu-jitsu with John Lewis in Las Vegas.

White seemed to defer a lot to Fertitta during our conversation, and he made it clear that Fertitta was his wealthy friend. The two asked me a slew of questions about the UFC, about its history and journey through politically infested waters over the last seven years. What mistakes had Meyrowitz made with the UFC? What had gone well? Who were the good fighters? Why were they leaving for Pride?

I told them that Pride had the money and that there were significant differences between MMA in the United States and in Japan, especially in the way the public viewed the sport and the type of bouts they clamored for. Japan’s culture blurred the line between pro wrestling and MMA, and mismatches happened all the time. Pride, with the majority of top fighters and the bigger audiences, was the number one promotion in the world.

Trying to help the promotion, I mentioned to Fertitta and White that I’d heard Meyrowitz, awash in debt with the UFC, was looking to take on a business partner. Fertitta and White thanked me for the tip. The rest of the night, Fertitta and White never ran out of questions about the ailing business.

I didn’t put two and two together until I ran into Fertitta and White again the next day at the airport. We were booked on the same flight to the United States, and as we sat in the terminal I caught a glimpse of some paperwork. Suddenly, all these little clues added up.

When I got home, I dialed Meyrowitz’s number. “Bob, are you selling the UFC?”

There was a dramatic pause.

“Yes, but you can’t tell anybody yet.”

A McCarthy family vacation in Lake Powell, Utah (1999)

Ushering in a new chapter for the sport: with UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, UFC President Dana White, and UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta

CHANGES

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.

—Winston Churchill

Have I ever been afraid? Yeah, on more than one occasion, though it hasn’t been in the Octagon with fighters charging in my direction or in the dark of night during the Los Angeles Riots with bullets whistling past me. No, the scariest moment of my life was watching my son nearly die.

My family and I were vacationing in Kauai, Hawaii, driving back to the hotel after a day on the far side of the island. The ocean was particularly choppy, and the waves were a little higher than usual. My kids wanted to go in the water again before we returned to the hotel, though, so we pulled over at the beach.

While Elaine played in the surf on the beach with Britney and Johnny, I dove in with our eleven-year-old son, Ron, who wanted to swim a little farther out and bodysurf in.

I caught a wave in myself, but when I came up again, Ron was gone. His head popped up above water a few seconds later about 100 yards out. He was stuck in a riptide, which was dragging him out to sea quickly. I told him to swim sideways, horizontally to the shoreline, as I stroked back out to him. By the time I got to him, we were about 250 yards from shore. I grabbed Ron under his arm and around his neck with one arm and paddled back in the direction of land with my other arm.