A story regarding the UFC being sold for $4.2 milion continues to rumble on with more twists and turns than a season of ‘Game Of Thrones’.
Yesterday, Jeremy Botter of Flosports.com doubled down on his original claim that the UFC had been sold to the WME-IMG group, even going as far as to suggest that the basics of the deal had been finalized on Sunday during a dinner meeting Hollywood that included high-power executives like UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and William Morris Endeavor’s CEO Ari Emanuel.
However, TMZ Sports, who appear to have strong sources within the UFC these days, have countered that by suggesting that while negotiations have taken place, “a deal isn’t even close.”
Their sources also claimed that discussions so far haven’t even nailed down whether whether 100% of the company would be up for grabs, or what the price would be.
In fact, they state that in addition to there being no chance that the UFC would be sold this week, it’s still entirely possible that it may never be.
Pouring further cold water on the details of Botter’s story, TMZ Sports claim that WME CEO Emanuel was actually flying home from an out-of-country Bar Mitzvah on Sunday when an alleged deal was supposed to be going down in L.A, while Lorenzo and his brother Frank Fertitta, along with Dana White, were all in Las Vegas.
The UFC also issued an internal statement at the weekend assuring employees that the company hadn’t been sold, while Dana White also stated on the debut episode of the company’s official ‘UFC Unfiltered’ podcast this week that it was nothing to be concerned about.
“Don’t even worry about stuff like that,” White told Matt Serra and Jim Norton. “It’s the last thing anybody who works here needs to worry about. It’s just crazy. It’s just the world we live in today. With absolutely no proof or evidence whatsoever, people can just go out and say whatever they want. It’s (expletive) nuts.”
There’s no smoke without fire though, so we’ll be continuing to report on this developing story in the days and weeks ahead.
