Marc Ratner was surprised by UFC Hall of Fame honor

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Marc Ratner was surprised by UFC Hall of Fame honor

In hindsight, perhaps Marc Ratner should have suspected something was up the morning of UFC 255.

The rest of his family in Las Vegas disappeared sometime during the morning while Ratner got ready to head out to the UFC Apex for the show.

Later, during the evening’s main card, the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs was completely surprised to find out he had been named to the 2020 class of the UFC Hall of Fame — and that his family was there to share the moment.

“I was just siting there as we do, monitoring the fights, getting ready for the Valentina (Shevchenko) fight,” Ratner recently told MMA Junkie Radio. “And one of our guys, Hunter Campbell, said, ‘Take off your mask for a minute.’ All of a sudden, on the screens around there was this video and I see a whole bunch of credentials and I thought, ‘That looks like my credentials.’ And I heard the announcers say something about the Hall of Fame and I was shocked.

“The most amazing thing is that somehow, sometime my wife and children left in the morning and went to go to breakfast and got COVID tested without my knowledge, and so after the video, there they were. The whole thing was surreal. And the video, I don’t know where they got all the pictures from – some in my office I guess, but (others) somewhere else. That made it special.”

Ratner, one of the most universally well-liked and regarded figures in combat sports, has been with the UFC since 2006 after a distinguished career with the Nevada Athletic Commission during which he served in several roles before eventually becoming executive director.

He played a pivotal role in the sanctioning of mixed martial arts in states and provinces around North America, using his connections to open doors that previously had been closed, though he’s quick to share the credit.

“It’s much more than me. There were other people who traveled with me, including Dana (White) and Lorenzo (Fertitta), and my lawyer who was working with us at the time, Mike Mersch. I don’t want to take the credit for it because it was a team, and I want to let people know that. I might have been the face, but there were a lot of people involved.”

The biggest prize was New York, which symbolically became the last state to legalize the sport in 2016 after eight years of intense lobbying efforts.

“As I look back on it, and certainly when we finally got approved in 2016, it made those eight years go by in a second and it was all well worth it,” Ratner said. “New York is one of the biggest markets for us and it’s still a thrill when we go to (Madison Square) Garden or even Barclays (Center). You can’t be a major sport unless you have New York, and I’m really happy we can go there.”

There were other memorable struggles, including one that culminated in a memorable debut: a sold-out Rogers Centre in Toronto for Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields at UFC 129 in 2011, which was the first card after Ontario legalization.

“Massachusetts was a tough one, (and) Connecticut. But New York was by far the toughest,” Ratner said. “Toronto, I think it was more the commission there. They didn’t believe in it, even though the director was a martial artist. Maybe they didn’t want to work as hard. And finally when we got it approved and we went to Ottawa and met with the senators and those types, the first fight was 55,000 (fans) with St-Pierre. There was pent-up demand, and what a great start there.”

To hear more from Ratner, watch his full interview with MMA Junkie Radio above.

Marc Ratner was surprised by UFC Hall of Fame honor