When the Fertittas and Dana White sold the UFC to WME-IMG for over four billion dollars earlier this year, one of the first things they started to do was cut back on staff. Gone were the heads of their international outposts, along with a bunch of office staff. And eventually, they even axed two men that Dana White said would have “jobs for life” under him - retired superstars Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes.
Both were given jobs by White after they retired, mostly just as ambassadors for the company. White stated after they were released that since it wasn’t his company anymore, he didn’t have the power to keep them around.