Rumours have been circulating for months that the UFC have been circulating for months that the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was for sale, it looks like that sale could finally be complete.
Despite UFC president Dana White denying that the world's largest MMA organisation was for sale on multiple occasion - sources close to Bjpenn.com told the website that the that the deal is done.
UFC sale definitely progressing. Terms unclear at the moment, but lots of talk from very reliable sources today. Not 100% done, though.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 14, 2016
The deal is apparently done!#UFC #MMAhttps://t.co/byKSrfes3t
— BJ PENN (@bjpenndotcom) June 15, 2016
It was reported in May that a sale of the company was in its late stages, but White has consistently shot down the rumour.
The rumours were suggesting that the UFC was in talks with potential Chinese buyers, with a valuation of $6 billion. Dana White told the Dan Patrick Show then that:
We're always working on deals and our expansion globally. I've been saying since this thing came out, no, we're not for sale, but let me tell you what. If somebody shows up with $4 billion, we can talk. We can definitely talk."
"Obviously, if I'm in the middle of a deal right now, there's a lot of confidentiality involved in it," White said. "We're working on expanding. We're working on growing the company and moving into other territories like China and Japan, Korea. So, yeah, we're always working on deals.
"As far as the UFC being for sale, I've said this a million times, we get offers on the UFC all the time. It started in 2010. We got our first offer for the company, which was over $1 billion and we turned it down."
It remains to be seen whether these rumours are true or not, but it looks like we will likely here a response from the UFC in the coming day - with multiple credible sources reporting the deal is close.
