Dana White, thirty-something with a shaved head and a seemingly permanent smirk, brought his message to a Minneapolis gathering of the nation's sports editors this summer. From his podium, White preached the popularity of mixed martial arts with Don King's flair and Simon Cowell's arrogance.

"As human beings, fighting is in our DNA," White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, said. "We get it."

Indeed, a sport once described as human cockfighting and virtually dead a decade ago is back -- in a big way -- with the nation's fight fans.

The UFC, the premier organization for mixed martial arts, will host a summer extravaganza Saturday at the Target Center. The card will feature a pair of local fighters: former University of Minnesota and NCAA wrestling champion Brock Lesnar and Roger Huerta, one of the top UFC fighters.

More than 12,000 tickets (expected capacity about 13,000) at an average of $188 -- tickets range from $50 to $600 -- have been sold. The card has already generated more than $2.2 million in gross ticket sales, a bigger gate than Prince, the Timberwolves, U2 or Bruce Springsteen ever had at a single event at Target Center.

"Not only do we sell them out, we break arena records," White said. "The gate, merchandise, concessions. We're Number 1. The Rolling Stones are usually Number 2."

The key demographics are 18-to-34 year-old males. The UFC's TV ratings have occasionally trumped Monday Night Football and consistently top boxing and professional wrestling among that age group.

The popularity is in the explosive nature of the sport. Mixed martial arts features a combination of boxing, wrestling and jiu-jitsu. In the UFC, competitors fight in a cage called "the octagon" and often win their fights by knockouts resulting from kicks, knees, elbows and punches and also, submission maneuvers. If a fight goes the distance -- generally three or five rounds, each lasting five minutes -- the contest is decided by three judges, similar to the scoring in boxing.

Despite the popularity, critics of the sport's violent nature abound. The American Medical Association opposes mixed martial arts events and "encourages states which have not banned these events to pass a law doing so." The British Medical Association has also called for a ban of the sport "because of its no-holds-barred nature" that the association claims leads to myriad injuries.

The state of New York, home of top boxing venue Madison Square Garden, recently voted down a proposal to regulate the sport. "It allows brutality above and beyond what you see in boxing," said New York state assemblyman Bob Reilly, who spearheaded the drive to keep MMA events out of the state.

Minnesota, conversely, has embraced the sport. The state's boxing commission changed its name this year to the Combative Sports Commission to incorporate ultimate fighting events.

Fighters downplay the risks, and White notes that the UFC has never had a death resulting from one of its events. Sam Vasquez, a 35-year-old fighter from Houston, died five weeks after he was critically injured in a non-UFC bout last December. Vasquez' death was the first in a sanctioned mixed martial arts match.

"I feel like when I get in there I can defend myself properly," said Minnesota native and former UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk.

The long road back

The UFC was founded in 1993, and the company created a pay-per-view phenomenon with no-holds barred fights. But in 1997, Sen. John McCain, the Senate Commerce Committee chair at the time and the most outspoken critic of mixed martial arts, sent a letter to all 50 governors, asking them to ban a sport that he called "human cockfighting."

Within a few years, 40 states had shut down mixed martial arts, and pay-per-view providers refused to show it on TV. The UFC was almost bankrupt and essentially consisted of a brand name and a collection of videos.

White, a former amateur boxer, convinced his friends and business partners, casino kingpins Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, to purchase the UFC in 2001 for $2 million. White, who became president and a 10 percent owner, decided the path to financial success was linked to making the sport more palatable for mainstream audiences. They spent nearly $44 million, much of it on marketing the product toward young males.

The UFC also added weight classes and time limits. Rule changes prohibited hair pulling and kicking an opponent in the head when he's on the ground. Soon, the UFC had crept back onto TV and into American homes.

The Fertitta brothers spent another $10 million on what became a hit reality show, "The Ultimate Fighter." More than 2 million people watched the most recent finale of the program on Spike TV -- a cable station geared toward men -- which gives up-and-coming fighters a shot at a UFC contract.

More than 30 states now regulate MMA competitions, and the UFC is continuing its political lobbying to get into other states. Minnesota's decision to regulate the sport has significant financial benefits, with the state getting 4 percent of the gate receipts of any mixed martial arts event.

"MMA has been very explosive and it's passed boxing in popularity," said Scott LeDoux, head of the state's combat sports commission and a former professional boxer.

More than 40 MMA events have been scheduled since the state began regulating it in 2007.

Tony Grygelko, a former pro boxer and current promoter for both boxing and MMA events, said 2,000 people showed up at a recent MMA show in Hinckley that he promoted.

Minnesota's rich wrestling heritage has laid the foundation for a strong amateur and pro mixed martial arts scene. Prior to the growth of MMA, elite amateur wrestlers didn't have many money-making options in their sport after college. Both Huerta and Lesnar are former collegiate wrestlers.

"In this market, there's money to be made," Grygelko said.

There's apparently money to be made in numerous markets. Millions of dollars are made on clothing lines, TV productions and sponsorships connected to MMA, while the actual fighters have attained rock-star status among their fans. Entertainers like Usher and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson have attended events.