http://www.tsn.ca/mma/story/?id=353542

TORONTO -- Toronto has embraced the UFC with record-breaking arms, setting marks for attendance and an eight-digit gate for the April 30 show at the Rogers Centre.

Not one to rest on its laurels, the mixed martial arts juggernaut is looking to move onwards and upwards.

A return to Brazil is set for this summer and UFC president Dana White says a show in Japan will likely happen before the year is out. Denmark and the Netherlands are possible new European venues. And China and India, the two most populous countries on the planet, are on the drawing board.

"We're going everywhere," is one of White's constant rallying cries. "We're taking this thing to every major country, every major city all over the world."

Cowboys Stadium in suburban Dallas, with a capacity of 80,000-plus, is a destination of interest. And the UFC is still fighting to get the sport sanctioned in New York, home to Yankee Stadium and other name venues.

"When we do get to New York and we will, I think the success here in Toronto really kind of opens up a whole bunch of different potentials, doesn't it," said Tom Wright, the UFC's director of Canadian operations.

The UFC is also looking to social media and the Internet to carry its message, offering undercard fights from recent cards on Facebook. White has long said the future is the Internet, with the whole world looking in.

When it comes to its worldwide map, the UFC can now put a big fat push pin into Toronto. And it can truly say the eyes of the world -- via broadcasts in 137 countries and territories -- will be watching the Rogers Centre on fight night.

UFC 129 became an official sellout Saturday morning at 55,000, with a gate in excess of $10 million.

And that's only part of the financial story. The historic stadium show is expected to attract a pay-per-view bonanza.

UFC 100 reportedly drew a UFC-record 1.6 million pay-per-view buys. At the current $49.99 a shot, that's $80 million in revenue -- more if viewers opted for the $59.99 HD version.

While part of that money goes to the pay-per-view provider, the numbers show just what kind of bumper night the UFC can look forward to April 30.

And they illustrate the amazing growth of a company that White and brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta bought for $2 million in 2001 -- and almost dumped several years later before deciding to give it one more shot.

A boxing aficionado who became a convert to jiu-jitsu and MMA, Lorenzo Fertitta remembers going to see his first UFC show -- UFC 27 in New Orleans in September 2000.

There was no hype or buzz, he recalled in a speech to fans at UFC 100.

"The fight was at this arena at the University of New Orleans campus. We walked in and there were maybe 800 or 900 people there. You couldn't buy a T-shirt, you couldn't buy a program. There was just nothing there. It felt like the brand and the sport had just dwindled.

"At that time, me and Dana and Frank had no intention of getting involved in the business, we weren't even talking about it. But we sat in the stand, me and Dana and Frank, and we said 'You know what? Either there's something really wrong with us that we like this so much or something from a business standpoint is not being done right.'

"And we started to talk as we sat there. Gosh what if we put in bigger screens and we fed some of the broadcast that the guys at home are going to get, so that the fans could experience it? What if we turned up the music? What if we really focus on the fighter walk-ins and really made this a fun event?"

Two or three months later, White called Lorenzo Fertitta to give him a head's up that the UFC was to be sold. Fertitta called then owner Bob Meyrowitz, who initially wanted $1 million for 50 per cent of the business.

The Fertittas talked it over and went back with a $2-million offer for the whole company.

"And there you go, we made a deal," said Lorenzo. "And within four months we were in the promotions business and had no idea what we're doing. Had no idea. We had never done it before. I come from a casino background.

"But we did have one thing. We were fans. We loved the sport. And I think that's the key to really what has made the UFC grow and its success -- is the fact that we get giddy every time the fights start."

For Fertitta, the secret of the UFC's success is that fighting -- unlike cricket -- is universal.

"You put two guys in the Octagon. Let them use any martial art they want to (to) compete. Instantaneously everybody gets it all around the world, every culture, it breaks every language barrier. It truly is the only international sport."

They get it in Toronto where Wright described the response to tickets going on sale as "overwhelming."

More than 40,000 tickets went Thursday in the first day of a pre-sale to members of the UFC Fight Club, prompting the UFC to put more on the market.

The rest were snapped up Friday, in another pre-sale, and Saturday, when tickets were made available to the general public.

Fifteen seconds after online sales started at 10 a.m. ET Saturday, there was a queue of 4,000 people waiting to buy, according to Wright.

Online tickets were snapped up in seven minutes. Wright says it would have been quicker but a certain amount of time was needed to process ************.

Now the spotlight switches to the secondary ticket market. StubHub, a ticket reseller, was offering seats from $143 to $9,999 Saturday.

Tickets originally ranged in price from $50 to $800.

The Rogers Centre show doubles the largest gate and attendance records in UFC history. It has also set a single-day event gate record for the domed stadium.

"I think it really is an important milestone for the organization because we've now demonstrated we can sell out big big venues," said Wright.

The previous UFC attendance mark was 23,152 for UFC 124 at Montreal's Bell Centre in December. The old gate record was $5.4 million, set in December 2006 in Las Vegas at UFC 66.

The Toronto show will have five times as many fans as at the 10,893 who attended the UFC's last show, UFC 126, at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas on Jan. 1. That card produced a gate of $3.6 million.

The UFC expects to bring more fans into Toronto via a Fan Expo.

The Rogers Centre card will be the UFC's sixth in Canada. Montreal has hosted UFC 83, 97, 113 and 124 while Vancouver hosted UFC 115.

The main event features welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre of Montreal against Jake Shields. Mark (The Machine) Hominick of Thamesford, Ont., takes on featherweight champion Jose Aldo in the co-main event.

The Rogers Centre says its capacity is 46,105 for baseball and 46,374 for football, not including luxury suite seats.

WrestleMania X8 attracted 68,237 in March 2002 to the then SkyDome. Bands like AC/DC have drawn crowds of 45,000.