Interview: Monte Cox becomes major player in mixed martial arts

Quad-City Times has published an article about Monte Cox. The article starts like this.

His dinner with Mark Cuban was just the tip of the iceberg.

In the past whirlwind week alone, Bettendorf’s Monte Cox has broken bread with the maverick Dallas Mavericks’ owner, participated in another dinner check totalling $4,600, jetted from Amsterdam to Frankfurt to New York City, and been courted by representatives of cable TV giants Showtime, HBO and HDNet.

Monday, he sat for interviews with the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine and even chatted by phone with the newspaper for which he once was sports editor, the Quad-City Times.

After that, Cox stood in front of a news conference in New York attended by 150 news organizations. That’s where he was introduced as president and CEO of M1 Global, a new and significant player in the fast-growing world of mixed martial arts.

And continues just like the typical article about the fellow countryman would do. And I wouldn't even pay your attention to it, if not the next quote.

With a $200 million start-up budget and a contract with sports marketing industry giant SFX Media and Sports, Cox said M1 Global will challenge the biggest of those groups. "When we get a TV deal, we’re No. 2 in the United States," Cox declared.

So now we at least know the budget of this venture. But it would still be nice to know the owner of that money...