Only the National Football League spent more on lobbyists than the Ultimate Fighting Championship this past year on Capitol Hill.  The industry-leading fight promotion shelled out $620,000, double the amount of Major League Baseball and nearly five times the National Basketball Association’s payout, according to the Center for Responsible Politics .  The NFL dwarfed all major sporting organizations with $1.14 million.  The UFC’s 2012 figures represent a 51 percent increase from the previous year, in which parent company Zuffa spent $410,000 in Washington, and a 158 percent increase from $240,000 in 2008, when CRP first tracked lobbying records.  This year, Zuffa has spent $110,000. Records for the most recent fiscal quarter are not yet available.  A pair of firms – Brownstein, Hyatt, Faber and Schreck LLP, as well as SB Consulting – represent the UFC. The promotion’s co-chief operating officer, Lawrence Epstein, told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the firms are used to educate legislators on MMA and to push for tougher anti-piracy laws that could stem financial losses from illegal streaming. In late 2011 and early 2012, the lobbyists also discussed Zuffa’s “competition policy,” filings show. Epstein said the designation refers to an anti-trust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which closed in January 2012.  As of late, legislative turnover in both houses of Congress and fierce opposition to recent anti-piracy legislation have made changing the law a tough fight.  “I think we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Epstein said. “There is a general sort of bias that has anything to do with intellectual property because of the fallout from [the Stop Online Piracy Act] and [Protect IP Act].” This past year, Zuffa took a gut punch when the controversial anti-piracy bills were shot down amid public outcry.