UFC on FOX: UFC Is Getting "Closer and Closer" to Dana White's Ultimate Dream

The UFC's debut on FOX on November 12th is small potatoes when compared with UFC president Dana White's vision of the future, a future where the UFC spans the globe.

"For this fight on FOX we’ve got…16 countries taking this fight live," White said at the UFC on FOX media conference call.

Sixteen sounds like an impressive number considering that the UFC debuted on Spike TV in 2006 and is now on FOX not only in the United States, but in various countries around the world.

However, White's long-term vision isn't fulfilled yet.

First of all, he would like to expand the UFC's popularity in the Mexican market.

"We’ve been working on Mexico for a long time, believe me. Mexico is a very important market to us. If you remember, when we first started this thing the three no-brainers for me were the United States, Mexico and the UK. Mexico is taking a little longer than we planned. But yeah, we’re aggressively working on Mexico."

When prodded as to why the UFC hasn't taken Mexico by storm the same way it conquered America's northern neighbor, Canada, White cited the numerous difficulties of running a global promotion as the primary reason.

"Getting out there and maneuvering in different countries isn’t easy...When you do business in all these different countries, from Brazil to China, from here to there, it’s tough to maneuver and get things done."

Also, White and the UFC are waiting for the right deal to open up.

"We don’t just wanna roll into these countries on some goofy network somewhere," he said. "We want to be on the real deal, so it takes time."

But even expansion into Mexico seems trivial when compared to Dana White's ultimate dream for the UFC and MMA: a global "World Cup" of The Ultimate Fighter.

"It’s going to get very interesting," said White.

"My goal is to get The Ultimate Fighter running in all these different countries at the same time. Then, when you have a winner, we do like the World Cup where each guy from each country fights each other and you end up with one winner. So we’re getting closer and closer to this dream I’ve had for the last five years."

Is the dream of a global Ultimate Fighter realistic though? Has the UFC's expansion really come that far?

White seemed to think so.

"Mixed martial arts is the new martial art. Kids grow up taking it. Its really spread like wildfire all over the world. There literally isn’t a country that you could point your finger on the map that we couldn’t get a fighter from. I think we’ve done a great job of finding and cultivating great talent from all these different countries."

UFC on FOX is a milestone for the sport, but it's just that, a milestone on a journey to the very top of the sports world that will, in White's hopes and dreams, see the UFC atop the globe.