Last week UFC, a Mixed Martial Arts company, was bought for a whopping $4bn by WME-IMG
WME-IMG are a Hollywood talent agency, and are looking to develop the UFC into a well-run organisation. This is something UFC have failed to achieve in the past, with a history of drug-cheats and headliners pulling out of events at the last minute.
In the previous year two headliners, Brock Lesnar & Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, have been found to be doping, signalling a huge problem in the sport.
Dana White, the president of UFC, will carry on in his role. However the two men he bought the UFC with, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, have left their roles as majority owners after 16 years.
The UFC was founded in 1993 but got off to a very rough start. It gained a reputation as an inhumane, ‘human cockfighting’ sport. When Dana White and the Feritta’s bought UFC in 2001 they started to gain a new reputation for the sport. They targeted youth and since 2001 UFC has become very popular in America and Europe- gaining millions upon millions of views in every year of their existence.
Although recently the UFC has come across as poorly-organised, maybe one of the reasons it was sold. The new owners will be hoping to expand their brand in more and more countries. The UFC has been reportedly very interested in expanding the interest of UFC in Japan, Korea and China.
