Paramount announced Monday that it will pay $7.7 billion for the US rights to all UFC events starting next year – a staggering sum for a sport Rhode Island nearly helped ban three decades ago.

That’s right. There’s a Rhode Island angle.

Before the UFC became a multibillion-dollar publicly traded company, it was a fledgling organization that then-US Senator John McCain famously wanted to ban.

In 1996, the UFC’s iconic octagon cage was already in place, but the sport itself was a wild, barely regulated spectacle. Pay-per-view events resembled tough-man tournaments without weight classes and with few rules.

When the UFC announced UFC 10 would be held at the Providence Civic Center, local lawmakers and the state’s Department of Business Regulation (DBR) took action.

Originally scheduled for July 12, 1996, the event was blocked after DBR lawyers challenged the UFC’s licensing in court. Rhode Island required licenses for boxing, wrestling, and kickboxing, but the UFC argued it was something different. Ultimately, Judge Richard J. Israel ruled the UFC was a form of wrestling.

The UFC applied for a license, but the DBR rejected it. The decision was upheld on appeal, forcing the UFC to move the event out of state.

UFC 10 was relocated to Birmingham, Alabama, where future Hall of Famer Mark Coleman won the tournament. Less than a year later, Coleman became the UFC’s first heavyweight champion, as the league began adopting weight classes.

The rest is history.

UFC hasn’t returned to Providence since. But UFC CEO and President Dana White, who wasn’t involved with the league in 1996, probably owes Rhode Island a thank you – and maybe a check –  for helping kickstart the UFC’s journey toward legitimacy.

Shortly after Rhode Island’s legal intervention, the UFC started to clean up its image and increase regulation. States across the country, including Rhode Island, adopted laws to sanction mixed martial arts. By 2005, the UFC was among the fastest-growing sports in the world.
And now the UFC is truly cashing in.

Thanks to Rhode Island’s early stand, the UFC cleaned up its act – leading to today’s global sports powerhouse. From a banned brawl to a multibillion-dollar streaming deal, the UFC’s rise is a story Rhode Islanders helped shape.