UFC president, Anheuser-Busch partner with nutrition company for new energy drink

1st Phorm has hit the big time.

The St. Louis-based sports and nutrition company struck gold with a brand-new partnership with one of beer’s biggest brands – also founded in The Lou – and one of the most successful businessmen on the planet.

Anheuser-Busch (AB), along with UFC President Dana White, have joined forces with 1st Phorm to make an all-new Phorm Energy drink, with natural flavors and caffeine that is sure to help anyone unlock his or her full potential.

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Dana White and Anheuser-Busch partnered with 1st Phorm for a new energy drink. (IMAGN/1st Phorm / IMAGN)

“I’m pumped, man. As a St. Louis kid, just growing up inside the Anheuser-Busch culture, watching it, seeing it and knowing how much it’s meant to St. Louis in general, to have the opportunity to be able to partner with them, which I feel is without question, America’s best brewer, and disrupt the marketplace, we’re extremely excited,” 1st Phorm CEO Sal Frisella said in a recent interview with Fox Business Digital.

Of course, it was a full-circle moment for Frisella, who was also drafted by his hometown St. Louis Cardinals, to partner with AB.

However, it is the presence of White, Frisella feels, that will take his brand and product to the next level.

“A lot of people don’t understand the bandwidth of this man. He’s a tremendous entrepreneur. He’s a fantastic dad. He’s just a great man. And when [Anheuser-Busch CEO] Brendan [Whitworth] had approached us about doing his partnership, he was like, ‘man, Dana be a tremendous add,’” Frisella said. “And we really just felt super, super fortunate and grateful to bring him in just because he’s a wealth of knowledge, he’s a serial energy drink connoisseur, which is kind of funny, but he’s a tremendous entrepreneur in general. He’s a great add, and I always like to think a three-legged stool is way more powerful than a two, and Dana’s just that tremendous add to the partnership.”

1st Phorm founder Sal Frisella, a St. Louis native, was drafted by the Cardinals. (Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-Imagn Images / IMAGN)

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Frisella was trying to make it to the big leagues when in minor league ball, at the age of 23, his career ended when he “snapped my leg in half” after a collision at home plate. 

That was not in Frisella’s plans, but instead of that moment being a forever dark cloud over his head, he instead used it for fuel. He has the jersey he was wearing when that moment occurred as a piece of his own memorabilia collection.

“That jersey hangs in my office as a reminder that life happens to you or for you, and I believe that moment was happening for me. It gave me an opportunity to develop what we have today,” he said. “I’m super passionate about being a great dad and being a great husband. Those are the forefronts of my success. And what I love about business is it gives us the opportunity to be able to recreate that baseball locker room, which is what I love… I think what I learned in baseball is that life is a game of failures and learning how to get back up and get back in the fight. But if you have a great group of people around you, like we do here at 1st Phorm, it makes the journey and the battle well worth it, and it gives us a common purpose to go win at life.”

1st Phorm, as a whole, has plenty of competitors both on the apparel and beverage side. However, it is the St. Louis breeding, the baseball lifestyle and White’s presence that he feels separates his crew from the pack.

“This is the beauty of our partnership,” Frisella said. “At 1st Phorm, we have almost 20 years of supplement manufacturing in the premium space as our DNA. And so it allows us from a better-for-you category to really approach it from a different angle,” Frisella said. “Then partnering with Anheuser-Busch, who has, when you talk about formulation and innovation, I’ve never seen a team work so diligently and be so effective at delivering a better product consistently. We went through almost 400 variations of the drink in just a few months. And then you look at their wholesaler network… the Bud network has been the backbone of distribution for them. So getting them into the fold and getting them bought into this business is extremely important. And then adding Dana White, somebody who’s a tremendous brand-builder in today’s era. 

Dana White speaks during a campaign rally for then-former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, 2024 in New York City. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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“So when you think about what’s different about 1st Phorm Energy, it’s our experience, the Budweiser network, and then having a partner like Dana White who has an unbelievable reach across the world,” he continued. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for us to be really disruptive in the marketplace and bringing a better-for-you drink that I know is fantastic in terms of flavor, how it’s going to perform on the streets, a great new look, new feel, totally new beverage, tremendous partnership, our goal is to be a lot to handle in the marketplace, and I think we’re the right team to do it.”

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