Who wrote the Unified Rules of MMA?

If you answered Dana White you are wrong, dead wrong.

For whatever reason the popular history surrounding the UFC is that Dana White and the Fertitta brothers came in a rescued a spectacle and reinvented it into a major sport.

There is truth to this storyline but these individuals didn't create the regulation that is largely credited for saving the sport. The Unified Rules were in fact penned by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission before the Fertitta's bought the UFC.

What the Fertitta's and White did was follow a trend that was established by the previous ownership of the UFC. They were the one's who had created the business plan to legitimize the sport through regulation. The problem was that Lorenzo Fertitta voted against MMA regulation in MMA, effectively killing the promotion. Then Fertitta bought the UFC and the Unified Rules were quickly ratified by Nevada.

Even then the promotion wasn't successful. It wasn't until 2004 and The Ultimate Fighter that things were finally turned around and that was built upon the backs and blood of Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar

The double standard comes to full fruition when one examines the current legal battle in New York. Dana White, the man who is credited with popularizing and legitimizing the sport, could be the most significant obstacle in getting MMA sanctioned in the largest sports market of the nation, New York.

Bob Reilly, the chief opponent of MMA regulation in New York, recently said this,

"I don't believe this [Dana White] is a person who really would be a person that you'd want to enter into business with,"

With White's pension for controversy it stands to reason that New York politicians will not want to take up a cause represented by an individual who made homophobic and misogynistic comments.

White is also the piece of an upcoming E:60 piece that has been rumored to articulate the same viewpoint.