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From its explosive beginnings in 1993 through the dark days of political pressure and mismanagement to an incredible resurrection and resurgence, as much as anything else the improbable success of the Ultimate Fighting Championship has hung on the passion of the people who ran the business.

This is why mixed martial arts' defining story of 2016 centers on the eye-popping value of the UFC's blood-and-sweat equity and the fallout of an ownership change that shook up a sport.

At $4.02 billion, the purchase price of the UFC in July set a short-lived record for the largest transaction in the history of professional sports. Two months later, Formula One auto racing sold for double that price. However, considering that the UFC business grew by orders of magnitude after being bailed out for $2 million in 2001 by casino owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, there's no debating it's an enormous return on their investment.

The price of the sale of the UFC by Zuffa to talent agency WME/IMG made headlines far and wide, crescendoing an incredible entrepreneurial story, yet the ramifications portend to be far more significant than even the enormity of the closing price.

Under the leadership of the Fertittas and their close friend Dana White, whose desire to grow the business knew no bounds even when it seemed like it wouldn't work at all, the UFC went from surviving to stable to making cage fighting a mainstream sports attraction and global niche.

When Lorenzo Fertitta announced that he would leave his family's casino business to work with the UFC full-time in 2008, White lauded the news as a pivotal point in the history of the company. Incapable of envisioning where the UFC was headed, many people didn't grasp what White meant. Of course, he was proved correct. Under Fertitta's control, the UFC elevated itself in every way imaginable, morphing into a media company that created and packaged thousands of hours of content that landed the UFC on FOX as part of a seven-year television rights agreement that will expire in 2018.

This is one of the reasons WME/IMG, headed by entertainment industry power players Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, moved on the UFC despite potential of briar patches getting in the way.

With Fertitta now gone as chairman and CEO of the UFC, control of MMA's most established and important brand—in some respects the sport itself—has shifted as the business prepares to clash head-on with the growing pains of a budding major sports league.

Labor concerns regarding treatment, compensation and financial protections for the fighters are at the top of the list of likely headaches for new ownership. An antitrust lawsuit persists, and in Congress, legislation is being considered to alter the business of MMA to look more like boxing, which would give athletes in the UFC significant control of their careers in ways they do not have today.

The stars of the sport are already operating with more leverage than they ever have, and even rank-and-file competitors seem to have coalesced around the idea that they weren't getting enough of that $4 billion pie.

The Fertittas get credit for seeing what was coming and selling when they did, and as always, White, who pocketed a reported $360 million on the sale and remains in charge of the day-to-day operation of the UFC, is bullish on the trajectory of the promotion.

—Josh Gross