White: Zuffa turned down $5B offer before selling UFC to WME-IMG
It turns out the UFC wasn't sold to the highest bidder.
The world's premier MMA promotion was scooped up for north of $4 billion by talent agency WME-IMG last summer, but as UFC president Dana White recently told Megan Olivi on "The Exchange," the record-setting price tag was $1 billion shy of the biggest offer the company had fielded.
"Let me be honest with you, when we were doing this deal there were two groups that came in for more money than (WME-IMG co-head) Ari (Emanuel). There was one (offer) for $5 billion," White said, according to Damon Martin of FOX Sports.
White's former partners and the company's chief shareholders - Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta - ultimately deemed WME-IMG's vision for the UFC reason enough to sell their crown jewel to the outfit led by Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell.
"There’s people who I believe add value," White said. "One of the million things I respect about the Fertittas, they weren’t just going to let this thing go for the money. They were going to make sure it went to somebody who could actually take it and bring it to the next level."
White and the Fertittas took over the UFC in early 2001 for just $2 million and groomed it into the world's preeminent fight factory, learning as they went. With Emanuel and Co. well-versed in the ins and outs of show business, White trusts the brand he helped build has been left in good hands.
"If you look at what Lorenzo, Frank, 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. 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."
WME-IMG kept White in the fold on a five-year deal after purchasing the promotion, and if the longtime head honcho has anything to say about it, he won't be walking away from the fight business anytime soon.
"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.
"I’m in. I love this. I’m not going anywhere."