How it unfolded
Zuffa had lost tens of millions of dollars in the four years since buying the UFC, and the Fertitta brothers had personally funded the reality series The Ultimate Fighter to get it onto Spike TV. In the season's live finale, two light heavyweight prospects refused to give an inch across a full fifteen minutes. Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar barely clinched or backed off, trading combinations to each other's faces, and by the third round blood from Bonnar's nose was smeared across both men as they kept exchanging until the final horn. All three judges scored it 29-28 for Griffin. Immediately after, Dana White grabbed a microphone and awarded a UFC contract to the loser, Bonnar, as well. Viewers who flipped onto the channel by chance stayed glued to the screen, and this broadcast became the turning point that first widened the UFC's audience to the mainstream. In 2013, both fighters were inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame together on the strength of this single fight.
Why it still matters
The timing mattered more than the result here. A UFC on the brink of bankruptcy met a mainstream audience for the first time through a cable reality show, and fifteen minutes of nonstop exchanges did more to explain the sport than any promotional material could have. The Ultimate Fighter went on to run more than twenty seasons, becoming both a fighter pipeline and a growth engine for the UFC.