According to mixedmartialarts.com:
“From a very reliable source, rumor has it that a group of investors led by Dana White have agreed in principle to purchase the UFC from Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for an undisclosed amount. Included in this investment group is WWE’s Vince McMahon who will now own a minority stake in the company. They also have plans on taking the company public by years end.
At the press conference also expect Dana to announce that with the help of McMahon, who has extensive connections in the New York State Athletic Commission, they were able to get the UFC sanctioned in New York, and plan on having a show sometime in the winter at Madison Square Garden. That is all I have right now.”
However, over at MMA Rated they have another idea of what the big announcement may be:
“Zuffa has sold the UFC to FOX: Ah yes, the big (and most logical) one which comes to us from a reliable source. We’ve heard the UFC on FOX rumors for quite some time and we’ve also heard the rumors that the promotion was on sale. We also know that the UFC was not willing to work with a network unless they had full production control. However, what if a network bought them for a hefty price? Then, all of a sudden, that issue is, well, an non-issue. The bottom line is that this is the kind of announcement you rent a secret location for.
Is the Zuffa/UFC era about to end? Have the Fertittas and White cashed out? Thursday can’t come soon enough.”
Actually, this rumor about the UFC possibly being sold to FOX makes alot of sense to me. It makes sense when you think about all the fighters they’ve recently released and when you think about this year’s previous rumors about the UFC looking for buyers. Combine that with how successful Elite XC on CBS was then it’s very conceiveable that the “big announcement” could be that FOX is buying the UFC.
The “big announcement” was supposed to be tomorrow, June 12, but evidently Dana has postponed the announcement until next week. I guess he’s noticed all the world going nuts over what this could be and it’s gaining so much publicity that he’s either postponed it to garner even more publicity or maybe the deal possibly hasn’t been finalized.
(Edit: It seems the legalization of MMA in New York ran into a small snag today and was not passed. Coincidently, the UFC press conference scheduled for June 12 was also postponed. Most likely these two events will both coincide next week. It’s almost certain that one of Dana’s announcements will involve a Madison Square Gardens UFC event.)
That’s retarded!!! Why would Dana hype and make a big deal about this huge announcement and what they have planned if he sold the company and is “getting out”. That makes absolutely no sense at all.
i agree with you. I don’t know what to believe now. Dana is pretty sneaky though, so who the hell knows.
This exact article has showed up on many different sites.
It’s wrong, plain and simple. Why would this change MMA for the next ‘5’ years? It would change the UFC forever, and not only that but it’s supposedly something from ‘left field’ as Dana stated and if all of this has been speculated and rumored I wouldn’t exactly call it left field.
The thing about them selling to Fox is Dana could still stay on as President and run things. Considering many many things behind the scenes this is very conceiveable. Even on Sherdog today Greg Savage said he also thought they were selling to Fox; so it’s not like it’s just some random hypothesis. But when you look at today in New York the legalization of MMA was not passed but put on hold and they will revote on it probably next week; I think that had to do with the Madison Square Gardens deal and Dana postponing the press conference until all is final with the legalization process in NY. It’s all educated guesses at this point.