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Dana White Says UFC Nearly Doubled In Value From ESPN Deal

Dana White says the UFC is worth an insane amount of money now.

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Dana White says the UFC’s value is growing by leaps and bounds.

The world’s leading MMA promotion was sold for a then-record $4.2 billion in July 2016. Hollywood talent giants Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG) scooped up the UFC and proceeded to go about business in a new way.

Mixed results came when UFC titles seemingly became devalued in favor of so-called “money fights.” Slumping pay-per-view sales in 2017 and 2018 suggested the new strategy perhaps was not working well.

The UFC signed a lucrative television deal with ESPN set to begin next year. The deal is worth $1.5 billion a year over the next five years. Conor McGregor’s massive boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave the UFC their reported biggest year ever, at least financially, in 2017.

A bevy of high-profile fights on the horizon has the UFC trending up. UFC President Dana White says the promotion has nearly doubled in value due to these factors. White said the UFC is worth $7 billion in a recent interview with motivational speaker Anthony Robbins (via MMA Junkie) :

“When you think about it we haven’t even scratched the surface yet of how big this thing can be. We just did a TV deal with ESPN for $1.5 billion for five years. Now the company is worth $7 billion.”

A New Era

There isn’t a ton of concrete evidence to back up White’s claim as of right now, because the promotion is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

The deal with ESPN will bring the UFC and MMA to the homes of millions of more customers. White has been criticized for becoming complacent in the UFC’s new era. He claimed he is still motivated to find new talent, however:

“Obviously this ESPN deal is going to be massive for us, expose us to millions of people just here in the U.S. that haven’t been exposed to the UFC. We’re going to continue to go into markets we haven’t been, we’re going to continue to find the best talent in the world. I love to find up-and-coming talent. I love to find the next guy or girl. Continue to build the sport. That’s it. That’s my focus. It’s not rocket science, it’s nothing crazy. Just continue to do what we do and get bigger and bigger.”

The UFC is certainly headed for greener pastures to close out 2018. Conor McGregor will return at October 6’s UFC 229. The fight is being billed as the biggest in UFC history and legitimately could be. Early indicators suggest it will be.

Fan favorites Nate Diaz and Brock Lesnar are also slated to return in the comings months. So the future is looking bright for the UFC. That should only be amplified by their debut on ESPN.

However, the promotion fared poorly most of this year without any major stars to boost their numbers. Stars like McGregor and Diaz will need to fight consistently in order to attain the level of value White claims they have.

That’s no easy task, as we’ve seen in recent years.

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ESPN and FOX Reportedly Teaming Up to Make Bid for UFC Television Rights

ESPN and FOX are reportedly teaming up to make an offer to obtain the UFC’s television rights with fight cards being split between the two networks. According to the report from Variety, ESPN and FOX have teamed together with plans to split the U…

The post ESPN and FOX Reportedly Teaming Up to Make Bid for UFC Television Rights appeared first on MMA News.

How Endeavor’s Purchase of NeuLion Could Affect The UFC

Last week, the UFC’s parent company Endeavor (formerly known as WME-IMG) announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase stream technology company NeuLion for $250 million U.S. dollars. While most MMA fans likely haven’t heard of Neu…

The post How Endeavor’s Purchase of NeuLion Could Affect The UFC appeared first on MMA News.

Matt Mitrione Says UFC ‘Can’t Get Out Of Its Own Way’ With Fighter Relations

After years of fighting in both the UFC and Bellator, Matt “Meathead” Mitrione knows both sides of the top levels of mixed martial arts (MMA). The former professional football player has always been an outspoken voice in the sport, and it got him into trouble with the UFC at times. But that didn’t stop him […]

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After years of fighting in both the UFC and Bellator, Matt “Meathead” Mitrione knows both sides of the top levels of mixed martial arts (MMA).

The former professional football player has always been an outspoken voice in the sport, and it got him into trouble with the UFC at times. But that didn’t stop him from voicing his concerns about fighter pay and treatment in the UFC, topics that are at the forefront of the current era despite not much, if anything, being done about them by fighters from a collective bargaining standpoint.

The UFC, and especially controversial president Dana White, seem to make headlines with each passing day about how poorly they compensate and accommodate athletes. When you hear White call a current champion “full of s**t” on live television, it’s hard to argue otherwise.

And not surprisingly, Mitrione has how own take on the subject. Having fought for both major MMA promotions, “Meathead” discussed the issue on this week’s episode of The MMA Hour, adding that the UFC is getting in its own way in terms of fighter relations:

“Freedom and obviously the sponsorship dollars. So, I am happy, I mean I can always be happier (with sponsorship ), but I am happy. It’s good business. It’s just nice, man. The UFC can not get out of its own way. I think it’s pretty evident in what they do, their consistent missteps.

“How they handle their guys, the media, like not giving the show money to that cat who made weight. Stuff like that, little tiny things that are just another notch against. I feel like they are, not in a colossal nose dive, but I do not think they are in the right spot. I feel like what Mr. Coker does very casually is what he needs to do to bring fans, eyes over to Bellator. And I think the production is completely different over at Bellator. It’s a spectacle, he took a page out of old Japanese MMA and made it bananas.”

Coker has made an impact on Bellator, especially in terms of Mitrione’s career, as he knocked out all-time legend Fedor Emelianenko last year in their cage.

But claiming he’s made it ‘bananas’ may be a bit of hyperbole meant to build up his new employer, because Bellator, like the UFC, isn’t blowing the roof off in terms of overall ratings during the last couple of MMA-slogged years.

That’s a moot point, however, and overall it seems that the fighters still in the UFC are reaching a breaking point in terms of pay and treatment. If they can eve get organized and do something about it remains to be seen.

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