MMA pioneer credits UFC Hall of Famer for foreseeing opportunities for the sport to be a lucrative career prior to Dana White's involvement

An MMA pioneer recently credited a UFC Hall of Famer for foreseeing the opportunities for the sport to be a lucrative career for all involved, prior to Dana White's involvement. The sport had a very negative perception in the United States, however, ended up gaining mainstream popularity.

MMA pioneer Gary Goodridge competed in the earlier years of the UFC, when the promotion was owned by SEG. At the time, the events were centered around no holds barred tournaments rather than weight classes and championship bouts that fans are accustomed to seeing today.

Aside from the UFC, there was also Japanese-based promotion Pride FC, which was a lucrative alternative for many competitors including Goodridge.

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Goodridge credited former foe and friend Don Frye for his vision of the sport being a lucrative full-time career. 'Big Daddy' mentioned that the UFC Hall of Famer proved it despite the sport being fairly new:

"Don was the only guy that knew how this was a new sport going somewhere. Back then, I was thinking it was just like, the tough man competition, here one minute, gone the next. [Frye] said, 'I'm gonna make a career out of this'. I remember his specific words."

Check out Gary Goodridge's comments regarding Don Frye foreseeing MMA as a full-time career prior to Dana White's involvement below:

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When was Dana White introduced as UFC president?

The UFC was sold to Zuffa in 2001, which saw Dana White get introduced as the promotion's president at UFC 30.

White was introduced on the broadcast and outlined his bold vision for the UFC. He mentioned that he wanted to bring more legitimacy and fanfare to their product and takeover the sport:

"We're very excited. We've got a sell out crowd, 5000 people revved and ready to go... Basically, what we want to do is we want to make this the Super Bowl of mixed martial arts. We want to make it more fan friendly. We want to get the crowd involved in it and we want to bring back the best fighters in the world."

Check out Dana White's comments below: