Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President, Dana White, can pretty much do and say what he wants with little repercussion (just ask Loretta Hunt) because the promotion is privately owned and nobody in the front office has to answer to shareholders.
Yet.
But there are reports that have Endeavor LLC, parent company of UFC following 2016’s $4 billion sale, is planning to go public by the end of 2019, which means Conor McGregor (and the rest of the world) can finally own a piece of the combat sports pie.
And he won’t even have to fight Mark Wahlberg to get it.
“I’ve never been a fan of the UFC going public,” White told 8 Las Vegas. “Can you picture me running a public company? No, I can’t either. Let’s take some bets on how long I’ll last in a public company. What’s the over-under on that one?”
I would love to see him explain this to shareholders.
White has always been a foul-mouthed fight promoter who doesn’t mind burying his own talent in order to protect the brand. How that attitude changes (or stays the same) with a publicly-traded company remains to be seen.
Suddenly those seven years no longer seem like a lock.