UFC SHOCKING News: Company Reportedly Sold for 4 billion Dollars & Causes Dana White to Crap his Pants!

By JM “Shade” Daguio

The UFC is on an upgrade. Literally.

After months of speculation, UFC President Dana White has confirmed the sale of the company from Frank Fertitta III and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta to its new owners WME | IMG with Ariel Emanuel and Patrick Whitesel as the CEOs. White denied the rumors a few months ago and sent a memo to UFC employees asking them to ignore the various reports from the media.

After the UFC 200 event though, the sale was confirmed. White will stay onboard as President, his share of the company were reportedly increased. The Fertitta brothers despite selling the company will remain minority owners. It is well documented how the Fertittas along with White, purchased the cash-strapped Ultimate Fighting Championship from its former owner SEG, the Fertittas bought the company for 2 million dollars, putting all their money on the line with no hope of return of investment. During the Fertittas’ tenure as owners, the company had a rough start no thanks to its violent image and lack of sanctioning, the Fertittas though, worked out the problems with the sport and brought in a new perspective.

Before the UFC was bought by the Fertittas, the sport marketed the no-rules, bloody and violent cagematch, it did not have a long term outlook as to what to do with the spectacle. The Fertittas were smart enough to see that UFC can be a successful platform for this new sport called Mixed Martial Arts, they also started the effort of creating the rules that guide UFC and MMA in general and also having it sanctioned from major athletic commissions. Lorenzo Fertitta was a former commissioner of NSAC had the UFC sanctioned after it adopted the Unified Rules of MMA that disallows strikes to the groin, hair-pulling, eye gouging and small-joint manipulation, among others. weight classes were instituted so as to avoid making the sport a freak show.

After a few years of futility and bleeding out funds, the UFC finally broke out after the first season and finale of the Ultimate Fighter reality show. The UFC also partnered with FOX for its TV deal and brought the sport to different locations all over the world, creating a worldwide fanbase and producing quality athletes from different nations.

Now, the Fertittas have come full circle, the return of their investment has yielded 4 billion dollars after purchasing UFC for 2 million in just a little over a decade and a half.

UFC President Dana White expressed his sadness with the departure of his friends whom he had worked with for 15 years and he assured the fans and fighters that nothing will change except that UFC will go to the “next level”.

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