Dana White Continues to Shoot Down UFC Sale, but Hints at a ‘Deal’

If UFC president Dana White’s comment to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday denying the sale of the Ultimate Fighting Championship weren’t enough, he reiterated his position on Wednesday, all the while hinting at what might have sparked the story in the first place.

“We’re not up for sale,” White repeated on Wednesday’s The Dan Patrick Show. “We’re always working on deals in our expansion globally. No we’re not for sale, but let me tell you, if someone shows up with 4 billion dollars, we can talk.”

The 4-billion-dollar number was sparked by Tuesday’s ESPN report that Goldman Sachs was representing the UFC in “advanced talks” with several suitors, the leading option allegedly being a Chinese company. The report put the company’s valuation in the $3.5 to $4 billion range.

RELATED > ESPN Report Says the UFC is For Sale, Could Sell for $3.5-4 Billion

While White has been quick to shoot down the report of the UFC being for sale, he did little to dispel the notion that there might be some sort of deal in the works, which could possibly include an ownership stake in the company. After all, when the UFC expanded to operating events in Abu Dhabi, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and White sold 10-percent of the company to Flash Entertainment, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government.

It isn’t unlikely that the rumblings about a sale could be due, at least in part, to the possibility that the UFC is looking for new partners to help it reach further into the emerging Chinese market, as well as other Asian countries and Russia; territories where it has had some difficulty in expanding.

“Obviously, if I’m in the middle of a deal right now, there’s a lot of confidentiality involved in it,” said White, skirting around the possibility of a deal to sell a portion of the company. “We’re working on expanding. We’re working on growing the company and moving into other territories like China, Japan, Korea. So yeah, we’re always working on deals.”

The report of a full sale of the company, however, seem to be greatly exaggerated, at least, if White isn’t throwing up a smokescreen. It’s likely that he’s not bluffing either, as there have been rumblings of a UFC sale for years, which he admitted had some foundation in reality, as the company has been approached in the past.

“As far as the UFC being for sale, we get offers on the UFC all the time. It started in 2010, we got our first offer for the company, which was over a billion dollars, and we turned it down,” he said.

Despite admitting that a $4 billion offer would certainly open the door to talks, White doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to step aside.

“The day we decide to sell, I probably don’t want to do this any more. I love this. I love this business. I love this sport. I jump out of bed every day excited to go to work.”

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