Dana White promises he’s not leaving the UFC any time soon
WME-IMG will soon receive an additional $1.1 billion in funding from two different sources that will help fund buyouts from several “minority partners” who still own a piece of the UFC.
Last year, WME-IMG purchased the UFC for a whopping $4 billion sale price but there were still several owners attached to the promotion including the Abu Dhabi based Flash Entertainment, who purchased 10-percent of the promotion in 2010, as well as Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and UFC president Dana White all holding onto a small sliver of shares in the company.
The funding received by WME-IMG will reportedly be used to buy out several of those partners so they can maintain a 51-percent ownership stake in the company, but there were rumors that White may be amongst those getting edged out of his ownership shares.
Despite speculation, White promises that he’s not going anywhere but back to the office to work on the next big thing for the UFC.
“I’m not going anywhere, brother,” White told the LA Times. “Not only am I not going anywhere, I’m actually making moves in the office and doing [stuff] and changing things for the way I really want it. I’m burrowing myself in like a tick.”
The UFC just recently opened the new Performance Institute in Las Vegas where fighters are able to train and receive physical therapy, nutrition help and other services at no cost to them.
Conor McGregor is currently holding his training camp for Floyd Mayweather inside the new UFC Performance Institute and just recently Kelvin Gastelum spent the majority of his time getting ready for Chris Weidman at the same facility.
White promises that’s just the tip of the iceberg of plans he has in motion working alongside WME-IMG CEO Ari Emanuel to continue growing the UFC for many years to come.
“Ari and I are partners. We’re getting involved in more [stuff]. We’re not going to spend a lot of money and not change things,” White said. “I’m making a lot of changes in this new building for things I want changed.”
The new funding that will help WME-IMG buy out the minority owners could also stave off numerous rumors that the powerhouse agency was contemplating going public at some point in 2017 or 2018.
Of course that could still happen down the road, but for now it appears WME-IMG is just concerned about gaining full control over the UFC while continuing to build the promotion as they prepare to embark on negotiations for a new television deal in 2018.
