UFC News: With Company’s $4 Billion Sale, Here Are The Biggest Changes Fans Can Expect


UFC news has slowed down quite a bit since the much-rumored sale went down about a week ago to the tune of $4 billion.

The primary investor in the buyout was WME-IMG, and Fox Sports has an in-depth look at who these people are as well as what they could possibly hope to gain by paying that much money for an MMA company.

The short version: WME-IMG stands for William Morris Endeavor-International Marketing Group, and some of its major players are Ari Emanuel, co-CEO; Patrick Whitesell, also co-CEO; Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm investing primarily in technology; Egon Durban, managing partner and managing director at Silver Lake; Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a multinational private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts; and MSD Capital, think Michael S. Dell, the guy who created Dell computers.

Also not to be left out in this bit of UFC news is Dana White, who will continue to oversee the company in the same role he’s been in since the $2 million Zuffa buyout of 2002.

So with the players now identified, what other UFC news can fans expect as a result of the buyout? In other words, how will Ultimate Fighting Championship look any differently than it currently does?

Here are two things to expect over the next few years.

1. A continued emphasis on pay-per-view.

By most accounts, the PPV model is dying. That’s why WWE got out of the arena with its WWE Network in 2014.

Of course, the reason it’s dying is because more things are going online and fragmenting into a la carte options.

UFC, however, has yet to get the message. It still generates record numbers of pay-per-view buys, and that’s despite charging $60 per event where the top-billed fights are often over in less than a round.

Even though, in a bit of shocking UFC news, 200 failed to beat the numbers of UFC 100, 193, and 196 — hat tip BJ Penn — the model is still booming.

UFC 200 is an outlier in the sense that Jon Jones got popped on a doping violation and the original main event had to be canceled.

Factor in the uncertainty of Brock Lesnar getting promoted to co-main event standing — Brock hadn’t fought in five years and hadn’t fought well in longer than that — and it’s easy to see why last minute buyers held off.

The real story for why PPV still works for the company is in the successes of UFC 193 and 196, which were both held less than a year ago and set record numbers.

The company does a better job creating stars of anyone else in MMA, and since it controls the business, it controls delivery.

WWE did as well, but for the sports entertainment company, PPV numbers had been slumping and the Network made more sense for building ongoing revenue.

Translation: expect the big UFC news — at least for the next five years — to still place a heavy emphasis on the uber-expensive fight cards.

2. Look for more UFC fights on major networks.

Mixed martial arts in general had a huge hill to climb when it came to regulators, but now with New York — the last remaining holdout — on board for MMA, it’s clear that UFC has won out in earning the sport mainstream acceptance.

The only thing it really lacks are the big ticket television deals with broadcast networks like NBC, ABC, and CBS.

Expect that to change in the next two years. You will see occasional primetime fight cards on the big networks. Premier Boxing Champions has already built the blueprint for how to get boxing into more places — Showtime, ESPN, NBC — future UFC news will find the new owners pursuing a similar path while holding onto the staples of UFC FightPass, pay-per-view events, and The Ultimate Fighter.

While these factors won’t necessarily make WME-IMG money overnight on the purchase of UFC, it will certainly push the promotion and sport further into legitimacy and Super Bowl-like acceptance.

In other words, the new owners are no fools; and as pricey as the purchase was, don’t expect bankruptcy filings anytime soon.

[Image via UFC]

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