On a recent night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, 200 muscular men crammed into a bar to watch a live broadcast of mixed martial arts bouts. Cheers erupted as the fighters on the screen pinned each other to the mat and drew blood.

The party was hosted by Bio-Engineered Supplements & Nutrition, a Boca Raton company that has emerged as one of the leading manufacturers of sports supplements, with $124 million in sales last year. The company makes its profits by selling weight-loss and energy-boosting products with names like Endorush and Astro-Phex at retailers such as GNC and Vitamin World.

This summer, BSN became the official supplement sponsor of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts promoter.

BSN founder and Chief Executive Chris Ferguson said it's not only his products that distinguish BSN. ''What really elevated this business is the art of marketing,'' said Ferguson, 34.

By associating his company with UFC -- which draws three million male viewers ages 18 to 49 to a fight -- Ferguson hopes BSN supplements will become indispensable to a large swath of the coveted young male demographic.

''We want to be the Gatorade of the UFC,'' said Ferguson.

The fight promoter is equally enthusiastic about BSN. UFC president Dana White said he is a personal fan of the supplements. ''It's great to get a sponsor and great to get paid,'' said White. ``But I used their products before we even did a deal.''

BSN paid roughly $10 million for a three-year sponsorship with UFC. For this, BSN gets its logo inside the distinctive octagonal fight ring and joins some illustrious company. Bud Light and Harley Davidson are other prominent UFC sponsors.

Despite any stigma that may surround ultimate fighting, Ferguson believes mixed martial arts is here to stay. Indeed, this summer CBS broadcast mixed martial arts bouts in a prime-time Saturday night slot. ''In 10 years this will be the biggest sport in the world,'' Ferguson predicted.

BSN's sponsorship of UFC comes just as the company hits its stride. BSN expects sales of $200 million this year, a 61 percent year-over-year leap and a long way from 2004 sales of just $9 million.

The company's trajectory mirrors similarly explosive growth in the larger sports supplements market, which recorded $2.5 billion sales last year, according to Nutrition Business Journal.

''BSN is one of the most popular products in the sports nutrition category,'' said Marvin Barton, sports nutrition category manager for the Vitamin Shoppe. ``They've introduced some category-creating products.''

But in this largely self-regulated industry, safety concerns persist. ''The first problem with supplements is that they are not FDA-controlled,'' said Dr. Jeffrey Bernstein, medical director for the Florida Poison Information Center of Miami and an expert in clinical pharmacology. ``The quality control is not there.''

Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, nutritional supplements do not have to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Instead, supplement makers agree to only use ingredients already being used in other dietary supplements.

This leaves the door open for potentially unsafe concoctions, Bernstein said. ''There is very little science,'' he said. ``A lot of it is based on theory.''

In the case of BSN, Ferguson himself comes up with the formulas for supplements. ''I'm CEO/chief product formulator,'' he said. ``Jack of all trades, master of none.''

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