Former WWE boss, Vince McMahon, revealed he rejected the chance to buy the UFC for dirt cheap in the early 2000s because it was too much risk for his preferred business model, just years before Dana White made it one of the biggest fighting series in the world.
Created in 1993, the sport has now created stars such as Conor McGregor, Max Holloway and Khabib Nurmagomedov but that wasn’t always the case as it struggled financially in the early 2000s, trying to compete against boxing and wrestling.
In light of this, McMahon’s son, Shane, brought an opportunity to the 79-year-old to purchase the series but he turned against the idea because of the lack of reusability of the combatants involved compared to the storylines of the WWE.
“When it was presented to me about buying the UFC, I didn’t like the business model,” Vince McMahon told Netflix. “Our business model [at WWE] was that we created characters, like Disney or someone else.
“You can then use them forever. As opposed to a boxer or someone in the UFC, once you are boxed or beat, your career is over.”
How would it have worked if he had bought UFC?
The UFC is now one of the largest sports in the world and offers regular, mouth-watering pay-per-view events such as the upcoming UFC 308 which will take place on October 26, 2024 as Ilia Topuria defends his featherweight belt against Holloway.
But a large part of the success of the MMA fighting league is because of the meticulous dedication and shrewd judgement of White, the CEO, who remains heavily involved and uses his good judgement to call which fights should be made.
So how would it have worked if McMahon had gone ahead and bought the UFC? It turns out his son would have been running the project and he felt the storylines and drama could have remained very much involved.
“At the time the UFC had gotten into some financial problems and came to us and said would you like to purchase the UFC,” Shane McMahon added to Netflix. “I felt we could really grow that brand because it is tailor made to what we already to do.
“We had a production team, a live events team, a merchandise team, we have all of it just ready to go. For me it was just plug and play.”
Source: https://www.marca.com/en/wwe/2024/09/25/66f44b97e2704e5d618b45a4.html