On the day in July that a group of investors led by WME-IMG purchased the UFC, a reporter asked Dana White if fight fans should be concerned about the company’s future under its new corporate overlords.
“Exact opposite,” the UFC president said, according to ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto. “Sport is going to the next level.”
Despite White’s bullish attitude—he personally made an estimated $360 million on the sale, according to MoneyNation—concerns were understandable. After a decade-and-a-half of wildfire growth and seat-of-the-pants evolution under previous majority owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, the MMA industry had grown accustomed to having things a certain way.