UFC co-creator Bob Meyrowitz will be inducted into the Contributors Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame during the UFC Fan Expo on July 10 in Las Vegas.
Meyrowitz is a visionary figure in media and broadcasting.
He founded and directed The King Biscuit Flower Hour syndicated radio show, which ran from 1973 to 2007. In 1999, Meyrowitz created Eyada.com, the first internet radio station. But he will forever be know to fight fans for being part of a small group that founded the UFC.
In the late 1980s Meyrowitz started and subsequently ran Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG), one of the first groups to develop content for Pay Per View. There was not a lot of content that proved to be successful on PPV at that point, or now, but both pro wrestling a boxing did, so SEG was looking for compelling fight content.
Simultaneously and serendipitously, Art Davie and Rorion Gracie wanted to create an eight-man, single-elimination tournament inspired by the Gracies in Action videos. After securing capital through primary investors, they created WOW Promotions. The company name was an acronym for the new event’s tentative name – War of the Worlds.
Davie and Gracie approached SEG and Meyrowitz, and a partnership was formed. SEG discarded the “War of the Worlds” name for one that you are familiar with – the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The head of programming at SEG was Campbell McLaren. Chief Operating Officer of the new UFC was David Isaacs, who had graduated from Harvard Law School two years before; Isaacs ran the company for the next half decade.
After UFC 5, Davie and Gracie sold their interest to SEG and WOW Productions was disbanded, leaving SEG as the sole owner of the UFC.
The early UFCs had very little rules and soon caught the eye of Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who called it human cockfighting. What followed was 36 states banning the UFC, including the state of New York on the eve of UFC 12, forcing the promotion to move to Dothan, Alabama. Slowly, the UFC began to adopt rules, and started to be sanctioned in several states. The movement helped secure the future of the MMA as a sport, but left SEG bankrupt. Bob Meyrowitz sold the rights to UFC for two million dollars to the Fertitta brothers.
In 2008, Meyrowitz attempted to re-enter the world of MMA, creating YAMMA Pit Fighting, but the company folded after one event.
Meyrowitz currently works a senior partner in the finance advisory service Rudder Capital.
