Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will pay tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant after the retired Los Angeles Laker perished last month when his private helicopter slammed into a foggy hillside near Calabasas, California.
That’s according to promotion president, Dana White, who has something planned for the upcoming UFC 247: “Jones vs. Reyes” pay-per-view (PPV) event this Sat. night (Feb. 8, 2020) inside Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
“This is the first fight since it happened and yes, we’re going to do something for Kobe,” White told TMZ Sports. “He was also an investor in the UFC, and the UFC killed it last year. I mean 2019, when I say 2019 was our best year, others years, 2019 is through the roof. It was massive. So the owners got a distribution, and Kobe got a distribution from the UFC, the Wednesday before the incident, and he was so pumped up and so excited.”
Bryant was just one of several celebrity investors to sign on after the Fertitta brothers sold UFC to WME | IMG — now known as Endeavor — back in summer 2016. Sadly, Conor McGregor was not part of the ownership team after contracts were signed.
“Notorious” can still get on board by making an investment of his own. Sadly, efforts to fistfight “Hollywood actress” Mark Wahlberg for his share of the UFC pie came up short. That said, his offer to throw hands with Conan O’Brien still appears to be on the table.