MMAjunkie.com Magazine Names 25 Most Powerful People in MMA

News provided by

Aug 20, 2013, 09:00 ET

UFC co-owners Dana White, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta top the list; Matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby, former middleweight champion Anderson Silva,Fox Sports execs Eric Shanks and Randy Freer and UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre round out top five

--Complete in-depth report available in special print edition of MMAjunkie.com Magazine, on newsstands today--

MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MMAjunkie.com, one of the world's most popular destinations for news and information from throughout the mixed martial arts world, today released its first-ever list of the 25 Most Powerful People in MMA, part of an in-depth, 71-page feature in a special print edition of MMAjunkie.com magazine, available at newsstands nationwide today.

The list, compiled by Editor-in-Chief Dann Stupp and the editorial staff of MMAjunkie.com, is topped by UFC co-owners Dana White and Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who detail the UFC's rise to become a billion-dollar global sports powerhouse as part of the report.

They are followed at No. 2 by UFC matchmakers Joe Silva and Sean Shelby, who granted MMAjunkie.com magazine a rare sitdown interview, with former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (No. 3), Fox Sports Media Group co-presidents Eric Shanks and Randy Freer (No. 4), and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre rounding out the top five.

Produced by USA TODAY Sports, the 148-page, glossy print edition of MMAjunkie magazine also includes:

A feature on Ronda Rousey and the rise of women's MMA
A look at the next generation of top fighters in the sport under the age of 25
Ten pages of all-time UFC records, encompassing everything from most career fights and wins through most career cage time
A preview of what's in store for UFC in the coming months, including UFC 164 and what role UFC will play in the launch of the new Fox Sports 1 network
Bold, vivid photography from USA TODAY Sports Images

MMAjunkie magazine ($7.99) is also available for purchase online at USA TODAY'S online store (http://onlinestore.usatoday.com/professional-sports-c1161.aspx).

"A list of the 25 most powerful people in MMA would have been laughable 15 years ago," said Stupp. "Especially because, for years, the most powerful people were the ones looking to eradicate the sport. Today, though, it's the fastest-growing sport in the world, with lots of new entrepreneurs who have joined with the early pioneers and visionaries to help move the sport forward. We thought this was the right time to take a look at the men and women who are most responsible for making MMA what it is now, and shaping what its future looks like."

Below is a list of the top 10 men and women on MMAjunkie.com magazine's list of the 25 Most Powerful People in MMA:

Dana White, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta (UFC co-owners)
Joe Silva, Sean Shelby (UFC matchmakers)
Anderson Silva (former UFC middleweight champion)
Eric Shanks, Randy Freer (Fox Sports Media Group co-presidents)
Georges St-Pierre (UFC welterweight champion)
Jon Jones (UFC light heavyweight champion)
Bjorn Rebney (Bellator CEO)
Marc Ratner (UFC VP of regulatory affairs and government relations)
Kevin Kay, Jon Slusser (Spike TV executives)
Ronda Rousey (UFC women's bantamweight champion)

The complete list of the Top 25 Most Powerful People in MMA is available in the special print edition of MMAjunkie.com magazine, available nationwide today.

About USA TODAY Sports Media Group:
The USA TODAY Sports Media Group encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY Sports and Gannett's more than 100 well-known local media brands. It also includes the sports photography wire service USA TODAY Sports Images, leading high school sports destination USA TODAY High School Sports; For The Win, the first mainstream sports media property focused exclusively on "social news," and designed specifically to resonate on social networks and non-traditional media channels and platforms; Sports On Earth, a joint venture with MLB Advanced Media dedicated to great sports writing in all its forms; and the hundreds of sites within USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties, such as thebiglead.com and mixed martial arts site MMAjunkie.com, among others. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI).