The UFC and WWE are officially under one roof as a merger bringing the two brands together under a new banner has officially closed. Endeavor, the parent company of both the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment announced on Tuesday that the two global entities will be publicly traded under the newly-launched company, TKO Group. As […]
The UFC and WWE are officially under one roof as a merger bringing the two brands together under a new banner has officially closed.
Endeavor, the parent company of both the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment announced on Tuesday that the two global entities will be publicly traded under the newly-launched company, TKO Group. As reported by ESPN, Endeavor will own 51% of the new company and WWE shareholders will own 49% with a valuation of $21.4 billion. Vince McMahon, the former controlling shareholder and chairman of WWE will act as the executive chairman of TKO with Nick Khan on board as the WWE President.
Instead of holding onto his role as the UFC President, Dana White will now be the UFC CEO while Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel will be CEO of TKO.
“Where we want to get is where every UFC fan is a WWE fan and every WWE fan is a UFC fan,” UFC senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein told ESPN.
Incredible moment in the history of both WWE & UFC, who are now forever linked.
(And perhaps redemption for those media members who have been following both entities, much to the chagrin of others, for a while? ) pic.twitter.com/4FNUdXiSJa
Vince McMahon had been reportedly looking to sell his pro wrestling empire for some time and strongly began to consider Endeavor after attending UFC 276 last year alongside Khan, McMahon’s daughter Stephanie, and the pro wrestling powerhouse’s CCO Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque.
Though their industries may offer vastly different products, both Vince McMahon and Dana White came from humble beginnings and grew their respective businesses into global billion-dollar empires that rely heavily on presentation, promotion, and live events.
“We’ve always thought there was just an incredible opportunity to sort of roll up these two great brands and great organizations in the combat sports space,” Epstein said. “We were a little bit early in our thinking on this thing. And of course, it’s really exciting and really a dream come true to have this come together.”
Can UFC Fans Expect to See Fighters Crossover with WWE and Vice Versa?
At this time, there are no plans for any significant changes with either organization. Dana White will continue to run day-to-day operations for the UFC while Levesque will remain as the creative head for the WWE. One possibility, according to Epstein, is that the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment could begin promoting back-to-back events on the same weekend, selling them to cities as a package deal.
Crossovers could also become more prevalent between the two organizations. In the past, fans have seen current WWE Superstars like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey make their mark inside the Octagon and vice versa. UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier, who is an admittedly big fan of WWE, has even appeared for the promotion in a guest referee role.
“UFC fighters are gonna stay focused on the UFC and WWE superstars obviously do something different in our ring,” Nick Khan said. “… but you also see in the UFC people with big personalities who, once their UFC run is done, once the UFC and the fighter says, ‘Hey, maybe now’s the time to call it a day,’ could those people have a longer life at WWE, an extended life with TKO? We think so.”
Are you excited to see what the future holds for the UFC and the WWE now that they are under the same banner?
The official UFC rankings have been updated in the days following last weekend’s (Sat., September 8, 2018) UFC 228 from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. In the card’s headliner, welterweight champion Tyron Woodley submitted touted rising challenger Darren Till to become the longest-reigning current UFC champion. For his efforts, he earned a massive one […]
The official UFC rankings have been updated in the days following last weekend’s (Sat., September 8, 2018) UFC 228 from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
In the card’s headliner, welterweight champion Tyron Woodley submitted touted rising challenger Darren Till to become the longest-reigning current UFC champion. For his efforts, he earned a massive one spot rise on the pound-for-pound list, putting him behind Conor McGregor, Max Holloway, and Georges St-Pierre.
McGregor has been out of action for almost two years and will return at October’s UFC 229. Holloway had a dominant 2017 but has since seen three high-profile fights fall apart in the first seven months of 2018 with his health now a major question. St-Pierre has fought once in the last nearly five years, most recently defeating a now-retired Michael Bisping before promptly vacating the title last November.
All are amazing fighters to be certain, but it’s also safe to ask if Woodley is getting his fair due as one of the most decorated and dominant champions of the current era. It’s also safe to ask if the UFC rankings are a legitimate picture of what’s really going on in the sport because of it.
But that’s a larger discussion for another time. In terms of other movement, women’s featherweight champion Cris Cybrog and flyweight champion Henry Cejudo moved up one spot each on the pound-for-pound list, pushing middleweight champ Robert Whittaker down two spots.
Two women’s divisions saw a ton of movement in the fallout of UFC 228. Surging strawweight Tatiana Suarez rose five spots to No. 4 for her dominant TKO win over former champion Carla Esparza, who fell two spots to No. 8. Jessica Andrade held firm at No. 2 following her KO of Karolina Kowalkiewicz, who fell one spot to No. 5.
At flyweight, a mess was incited when former champion Nicco Montano was hospitalized before the UFC 228 weigh-ins. The promotion stripped her of the title and her scheduled opponent Valentina Shevchenko became the No. 1-ranked fighter at 125 pounds. Montano fell two spots to No. 2, Sijara Eubanks did the same to No. 4, and the rest of the Top 15 slid as a result.
Check out the fully updated rankings via UFC.com here:
POUND-FOR-POUND 1 Daniel Cormier 2 Conor McGregor 3 TJ Dillashaw 4 Max Holloway 5 Georges St-Pierre 6 Tyron Woodley +1 7 Demetrious Johnson -1 8 Khabib Nurmagomedov 9 Stipe Miocic 10 Cris Cyborg +1 11 Henry Cejudo +1 12 Robert Whittaker -2 13 Tony Ferguson 14 Amanda Nunes 15 Rose Namajunas
FLYWEIGHT Champion: Henry Cejudo 1 Demetrious Johnson 2 Sergio Pettis 3 Joseph Benavidez 4 Ray Borg 5 Jussier Formiga 6 Deiveson Figueiredo 7 John Moraga 8 Wilson Reis 9 Dustin Ortiz +1 10 Alexandre Pantoja -1 11 Brandon Moreno 12 Ben Nguyen 13 Tim Elliott 14 Matheus Nicolau 15 Ulka Sasaki
BANTAMWEIGHT Champion: TJ Dillashaw 1 Cody Garbrandt 2 Dominick Cruz 3 Raphael Assuncao 4 Marlon Moraes 5 Jimmie Rivera 6 John Lineker 7 Aljamain Sterling +1 8 John Dodson -1 9 Pedro Munhoz 10 Cody Stamann 11 Rob Font 12 Alejandro Perez 13 Thomas Almeida 14 Douglas Silva de Andrade 15 Rani Yahya
FEATHERWEIGHT Champion: Max Holloway 1 Brian Ortega 2 Jose Aldo 3 Frankie Edgar 4 Renato Moicano 5 Chad Mendes 6 Jeremy Stephens 7 Cub Swanson 8 Josh Emmett 8 Mirsad Bektic +1 10 Chan Sung Jung 11 Alexander Volkanovski 12 Ricardo Lamas 13 Darren Elkins 14 Zabit Magomedsharipov +1 15 Yair Rodriguez -1
LIGHTWEIGHT Champion: Khabib Nurmagomedov 1 Conor McGregor 2 Tony Ferguson 3 Dustin Poirier 4 Eddie Alvarez 5 Kevin Lee 6 Edson Barboza 7 Justin Gaethje 8 Anthony Pettis 9 Al Iaquinta 10 Nate Diaz 11 Michael Chiesa 12 James Vick 13 Alexander Hernandez 14 Dan Hooker 15 Islam Makhachev
WELTERWEIGHT Champion: Tyron Woodley 1 Colby Covington (Interim Champion) 2 Darren Till 3 Rafael Dos Anjos 4 Stephen Thompson 5 Robbie Lawler 6 Kamaru Usman 7 Demian Maia 8 Neil Magny 9 Jorge Masvidal 10 Santiago Ponzinibbio 11 Leon Edwards 12 Donald Cerrone 13 Gunnar Nelson 14 Alex Oliveira 15 Curtis Millender
MIDDLEWEIGHT Champion : Robert Whittaker 1 Yoel Romero 2 Luke Rockhold 3 Chris Weidman 4 Kelvin Gastelum 5 Jacare Souza 6 Derek Brunson 7 David Branch 8 Paulo Costa 9 Israel Adesanya 10 Brad Tavares 11 Antonio Carlos Junior 12 Thiago Santos 13 Uriah Hall 14 Elias Theodorou 15 Krzysztof Jotko
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT Champion: Daniel Cormier 1 Alexander Gustafsson 2 Volkan Oezdemir 3 Ilir Latifi 4 Jan Blachowicz 5 Jimi Manuwa 6 Corey Anderson 7 Ovince Saint Preux 8 Glover Teixeira 9 Anthony Smith 10 Misha Cirkunov 11 Mauricio Rua 12 Dominick Reyes 13 Patrick Cummins 14 Tyson Pedro 15 Sam Alvey
HEAVYWEIGHT Champion: Daniel Cormier 1 Stipe Miocic 2 Derrick Lewis 3 Curtis Blaydes 4 Francis Ngannou 5 Alexander Volkov 6 Alistair Overeem 7 Junior Dos Santos 8 Mark Hunt 9 Marcin Tybura 10 Tai Tuivasa 11 Aleksei Oleinik 12 Andrei Arlovski 13 Stefan Struve 14 Shamil Abdurakhimov 15 Justin Willis
(“What was your question? Are we looking to buy the entire Internet? I mean, yeah, we’ll see what happens.”/Photo via Getty)
UFC’s digital subscription service, Fight Pass, has its fair share of pros and cons. The cost isn’t all that damaging to the wallet, but it’s not exactly the game-changer promotion officials thought it would be.
Without knowing too much about subscriber info and profits, the network allows you to watch free UFC cards, including FOX Sports 1 events, preliminary fights, and exclusive Fight Pass broadcasts that usually take place outside of North America. It also has an extensive UFC library, containing an abundance of full main cards from UFC, Pride, WEC, EliteXC, and those two Affliction MMA cards that were surprisingly fun.
(“What was your question? Are we looking to buy the entire Internet? I mean, yeah, we’ll see what happens.”/ Photo via Getty)
UFC’s digital subscription service, Fight Pass, has its fair share of pros and cons. The cost isn’t all that damaging to the wallet, but it’s not exactly the game-changer that promotion officials thought it would be.
The network allows you to watch free UFC cards, including FOX Sports 1 events, preliminary fights, and exclusive Fight Pass broadcasts that usually take place outside of North America. It also carries an extensive UFC library, containing an abundance of full main cards from UFC, as well as Pride, WEC, EliteXC, and those two Affliction MMA cards that were surprisingly fun, among others.
UFC Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik announced the news in a press conference on Saturday, revealing that over 13,000 individual bouts are slated to be added to Fight Pass this upcoming spring. The content comes from the brain of UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, who apparently made his own list of what promotions he wanted to see on the digital service (according to MMA Fighting).
After news broke that hackers stole login info and credit card numbers from tens of thousands of subscribers a few days ago (which really speaks volumes about the lack of security), fight fans were met with a better announcement, as Zuffa announced hours before UFC 182 it has acquired eight fight libraries from renown and regional promotions, including legendary Japanese promotion Pancrase (complete library), King of The Cage, HookNShoot, TKO, Cage Rage, Extreme Challenge, Ultimate Challenge MMA (UCMMA), and XFO.
But there’s still a lot to complain about, after the jump:
(“What was your question? Are we looking to buy the entire Internet? I mean, yeah, we’ll see what happens.”/ Photo via Getty)
UFC’s digital subscription service, Fight Pass, has its fair share of pros and cons. The cost isn’t all that damaging to the wallet, but it’s not exactly the game-changer that promotion officials thought it would be.
The network allows you to watch free UFC cards, including FOX Sports 1 events, preliminary fights, and exclusive Fight Pass broadcasts that usually take place outside of North America. It also carries an extensive UFC library, containing an abundance of full main cards from UFC, as well as Pride, WEC, EliteXC, and those two Affliction MMA cards that were surprisingly fun, among others.
UFC Chief Content Officer Marshall Zelaznik announced the news in a press conference on Saturday, revealing that over 13,000 individual bouts are slated to be added to Fight Pass this upcoming spring. The content comes from the brain of UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, who apparently made his own list of what promotions he wanted to see on the digital service (according to MMA Fighting).
Now, the Pancrase library certainly gets us giddy, seeing that their current events are pretty difficult to find, without the availability to download those events after they take place. The rest is a nice treat, yet we’re still holding out for Yamma and Rhode Island Vale Tudo. With that said, Fight Pass is starting to shape up as definitive library of MMA fights from the most important promotions, and it’s apparently still growing.
This comes not too long after UFC’s inclusion of Invicta FC events, providing streaming of live events and past showcases from the leading all-female MMA promotion. We could really do without exclusive shows like The Ultimate Fighter: Whatever Country We’re In and MMA Mindset, but variety is never a bad thing.
On the other hand, this also means a boatload of free content will likely be pulled from YouTube and other free streaming sites. Zuffa legal teams will be out in full force and prohibiting fans from watching some old Bas Rutten and Frank Shamrock Pancrase fights because they now own that material.
In spite of that, it still feels like Fight Pass is “under construction,” since the search tool is fairly problematic; you’d think the service could at least rank the bouts you’re looking for in chronological order. It’s also incredibly glitchy, with a lot of complaints about getting bounced out of a live broadcast, only to have to sign back in. There are rewind functions, but it’s kind of annoying to be asked to log in again after the site freezes and have to reenter your password during the critical moments of a fight.
Also, for those that think pro wrestling isn’t direct competition to MMA, think again. Fight Pass was overshadowed by the WWE Network days after its launch, which isn’t doing so good itself, according to pundits. The reason WWE stole the glory was their inclusion of the 12 PPV events they put on a year (including WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series), not to mention countless hours of WCW and ECW footage. By comparison, the UFC didn’t even have their complete fight library posted at first (nor did they have as much Pride material, which is sort of a deal-breaker if you’re going to monopolize the online MMA world). For what it’s worth, Japan’s top wrestling promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling, launched its own digital network a few weeks ago, called NJPW World. The cost is similar, and since Puroresu is rising in North America, it’s a lot more compelling to watch old Antonio Inoki contests from decades ago, instead of an Ultimate Bigfoot Silva collection.
If that’s not enough, there’s no indication the new additions will help generate more subscribers. It’s a nice bonus for the MMA diehards who are already staying up all night to watch international UFC cards on the Internet, but is it a true selling point for those who are still on the fence? If the UFC was willing to take a little bit of a pay cut to include a couple of PPV events on the network, then the service would be a must for your typical UFC enthusiast. But apparently, PPV isn’t dead, despite more and more people cancelling their cable subscriptions in favor of laptops and HDMI wires.
King Mo was defeated via TKO after first being caught with a nice series of offense from the Brazilian. First Mo drove Feijao into the cage and followed with a great body shot. Feijao has the Thai clinch and delivers two knees to Mo’s head. The first one misses, the second one staggers Mo. He […]
King Mo was defeated via TKO after first being caught with a nice series of offense from the Brazilian. First Mo drove Feijao into the cage and followed with a great body shot. Feijao has the Thai clinch and delivers two knees to Mo’s head. The first one misses, the second one staggers Mo. He stumbles backwards and Feijao grazes Mo’s chin with a reaching hook. It was probably more of a stumble, but Mo was rocked badly. Feijao follows with rabbit punches that keep Mo dazed, but the wrestler goes to what he knows and secures a single leg and pushes Feijao to the cage. Feijao kicks his hips out with Mo leaning on Feijao all the while Feijao is dropping hammerfists and now moves to elbows to the side of Mo’s noggin. Mo is doing nothing and then his arm goes limp. Big John McCarthy stops the fight in the second round.
Other fight recaps:
Tim Kennedy got robbed against Jacare Souza (in my opinion), but it was a razor close fight. However, Kennedy did the most variety of things.
George Gurgel got manhandled by KJ Noons and was KOd.
Bobby Lashley was beat by Chad Griggs in a 2nd round TKO. Very similar fight in the King Mo Fejao fight. Both guys were beaten while attempting and leaning in for a double leg while getting hammer fisted and elbowed from above. Weird.
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