The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), Ari Emanuel’s $12.3 billion dollar juggernaut turns 30 this November. But in early 2000, this Los Angeles concoction was a hair’s breadth away from insolvency. To understand how boxing, wrestling and martial arts intertwined, flourished, and found new purpose in post-World War Two Southern California, you only have to look to its cast of colorful characters and the insatiable Hollywood dream.
