Vince McMahon Criticizes Dana White’s Business Model Before the $4B UFC Sale Despite Shane’s Glaring Ambition

Dana White has made what UFC is today along with the Fertitta brothers. As the fans are aware, they acquired it when UFC was nothing. However, Vince McMahon, the former CEO of WWE also had the opportunity to acquire UFC in its infancy. All UFC buffs are aware of TKO group holdings since UFC is under the company right now. However, did you know that even WWE is under the same banner? TKO is an American conglomerate and is a part of a merger between World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) and Zuffa, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). But why is this important? It’s because the former CEO of WWE was Vince McMahon who was asked to acquire UFC when the latter was slowly dwindling in popularity. You know what he did? He declined the offer.

Now he is opening up on why he declined the offer and how his son Shane McMahon was interested in acquiring the promotion which now has a whopping US $1.1 billion worth. However, the former CEO had his reasons and stated them clearly. When asked about the reason, he said, “When we were presented to buy UFC, I did not like their business model because with our business model, you can create characters like Disney or someone else and we can use them forever, as opposed to boxers/UFC. Once you are beaten, you know, once you’re hurt your career is over. We show business and that is a sport.” So his main issue was that the fighters were genuinely hurt while fighting and there was a lesser amount of theatrics and more original combat which was not WWE’s niche.

Yet his son Shane, loved the business model and said that their company had every resource to operate UFC. He said, “At that time, UFC began some financial problems and came to us and said, would you like to purchase UFC? I said this is cool. I said Dad let’s just go for this one. I thought we could really grow that brand because it’s tailor-made for what we do. We have a production team, we have a live event team, have a merchandising team. We have all of it, you know? Just ready to go. So to me, it was plug-and-play. “

However, they decided not to purchase the promotion and then Dana White along with the Fertitta brothers took over UFC. It is safe to say that the McMahons lost the chance to acquire a promotion that was cashed for a sum of $4 billion back in May 2014. Dana White and Vince McMahon have had a complex relationship over the years and White even said that the former WWE CEO tried to hinder UFC’s growth. However, he had also sung praises for his old foe.

Dana White complimented Vince McMahon for securing a deal for UFC

WWE successfully wrapped up The Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2023. After that, UFC was ready for the next turn to showcase its power in the Middle East. However, White credited McMahon Sr. for the chance UFC was getting.

He said to Sports Business Journal, “It was Vince McMahon (who arranged UFC’s Saudi deal). It was 100 percent Vince McMahon. He made every call. He didn’t make one move without picking up the phone and calling me, getting me in the loop, and seeing if I was cool with this and that. And he went from being, oddly enough, I don’t know why, an enemy (of UFC’s), to being an unbelievable, incredible partner.”

The two business tycoons hail from opposite sides of the combat sports industry but this time they acted as a team. Following the WWE and UFC merger, things took better shape between them but White did say that McMahon was very competitive before. He noted that the WWE king had blown up a deal with NBC by not giving his affirmation to the contract paper. This was one of the few times he had ruined the MMA promotion. However, their relationship improved over time. Now that White is going into boxing, do you think the two head honchos might do business closer together?