Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has had a colorful history.
UFC CEO, Dana White, and company have built the promotion up to be a billion-dollar entity. UFC famously sold from Zuffa LLC to Endeavor for $4 billion in 2016 and the value has only increased since.
Before UFC made its biggest change with the lucrative negotiation, there apparently was an attempt from CBS, according to White. The Octagon boss shared his latest untold story in the video embedded above.
“So, CBS tried to come in and make us an offer to buy us at one point, right? And I was in Hawaii on vacation,” White told FOX News. “And ironically, I’m usually late to everything. I was on the call early and the Showtime guys were on the call early because they — I didn’t know they were going to be on. I thought we were talking to Les Moonves.
“By the time Les Moonves and the rest of them got on the phone, me and Showtime were fighting, going at it, literally, ‘F you, F you,’ back and forth, and those guys got on and heard us going back and forth and the call, literally, that was the end of it,” he continued.
“Lorenzo calls me right back immediately and goes, ‘I guess, we’re not doing a deal with CBS.’ I said, ‘Yes, sorry,” White added, “We got into it a little bit. I hated the guys at Showtime. A bunch of those guys worked for the UFC when we first started out. I thought their production sucked. I thought they were terrible at what they did. And I was very vocal about it. And then it just so happens, we’re talking about CBS making us a billion-dollar offer to possibly buy the company. By the time that Lorenzo and Les Moonves get on, full-blown war on the phone.”