China and India

Favorito says UFC and MMA may have benefited from the decline of professional boxing but "especially in the digital space they control an audience and a demographic that every brand, every sport in the world, finds desirable which is 18 to 34."

The championship stages events around the world, such as UFC 198, scheduled for May 14 in Brazil in a football stadium with more than 40,000 seats.

Fight Pass, which lets people watch fights online, is available in 200 countries and territories.

UFC says it is looking into staging its first fight in China and also considering opportunities in India.

To win over naysayers, UFC is counting on educating people as to what mixed martial arts are.

"New York being the most important city in the world in many ways particularly with the media I think it will change perceptions," says Lorenzo Fertitta.

"Is it violent? Of course it's violent. Is it controlled? Much much more so than it ever was before," says Favorito.

"Our thing is, just judge us after you get a chance, after you experience the sport," says Fertitta.