Dana White Says UFC Turned Down a $5 Billion Offer for the Company

Dana White says UFC turned down a $5 billion offer for the company, instead taking the paltry $4.2 billion it eventually went for.

UFC president Dana White in attendance during UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center.
USA Today Sports

Image via USA Today Sports/Mark J. Rebilas

UFC president Dana White in attendance during UFC Fight Night at Toyota Center.

Last year, less than a month after Dana White proclaimed "The UFC is not for sale," the world's foremost fighting organization was sold for a staggering $4.2 billion (the largest deal for any franchise in the history of sport). After that transaction was finalized, the new co-owners of the league became WME-IMG co-CEO's Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell.

While that would seem to be a whopping total by any standard, according to White they left $800 million on the table after they turned down an even more obscene offer of $5 billion.

"I was never in this for the money ever," White said, which you can either choose to believe or not. "When we bought this thing, we bought it for $2 million and then we were upside down and everything else. For me it’s always taking it to the next level."

"Let me be honest with you, when we were doing this deal there were two groups that came in for more money than Ari [Emanual]. There was one [offer] for $5 billion."

White made those statements during an interview on UFC Fight Pass.

He also added that UFC primary shareholders, the Fertitta brothers, figured that selling to Emanuel and Whitesell made more sense if the league was going to continue its monumental success well into the future. White felt that the new co-owners could use their entertainment contacts to really take UFC to the next level.

"If you look at what Lorenzo [and] Frank [Fertitta] and I accomplished when we had no production experience, no connections to Hollywood, L.A., television isn’t what we did, we’ve never been in the pay-per-view business before. You look at what we did,” White said. “Now we’re with a guy who is the king of Hollywood. Doing deals like this is what he does. It’s just going to be so much bigger for the sport, obviously for the brand and for the fighters."

In addition to saying that Emaneul has "huge balls" and a "really great plan for the sport," White also stated that while he only signed a five-year deal to stay the UFC president, he doesn't plan on leaving his helm after that contract runs out.

"Me and Ari could not be in a better place. I could not be a bigger believer in what we’re going to do over the next five years and what these guys bring to the table" he said. "I’m in. I love this. I’m not going anywhere."

Sounds like there are going to be plenty of pay-per-views to blow your dough on for the foreseeable future.

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