You know, the WWE is an interesting case because they're kind of a mature business too.

They've sort of been at a plateau for the last few years and kind of trying to think

about what the next growth catalyst would be for them.

In a way, it's sort of a precursor of where the UFC is heading.

I think the UFC is heading towards a point of saturation also.

I'm Mary Long and that's Michael Thompson, author of the new book, Cage Kings.

How an unlikely group of moguls, champions and hustlers transformed the UFC into a $10 billion industry.

Ricky Mulvey caught up with Thompson to discuss the early days of mixed martial arts,

the upcoming merger between WWE and the UFC, and what it takes to be the alpha of a cage fighting organization.

Today, the UFC is this mixed martial arts conglomerate.

It's something that's regularly on ESPN.

We often associate it with Dana White, the president, but he's not the founder.

It's hard is the story of a corporate turnaround.

I'm hoping you can share with us that story starting with its founder, Art Davies.

Yeah, sure.

So Art Davie originally came up with the idea in the early 90s.

He was a marketing executive in California.

And he had come up with this pitch for one of the clients, this beer importer.

Ironically, it was the same company that distributes Modelo, which is now a big UFC sponsor.

Back then, he was trying to rebrand Modelo and they asked for pitches.

So he came up with the idea of doing this martial arts tournament that pitted different styles against each other.

And they wound up passing, but in the process of researching it and putting it all together,

...