Yesterday news broke that the UFC had accepted a $4.2 billion offer to sell the promotion to a group consisting of WME-IMG, the Dalian Wanda Group, The Kraft Group and Tencent Holdings. Rumors had been circling about a potential deal to sell the promotion since May, when ESPN reported there were at least four buyers bidding for the mixed martial arts company.
The UFC vehemently denied the details of that article, and now they’re doing the same with the latest claim than an offer has been accepted. UFC Vice President of Public Relations Dave Sholler sent out a tersely worded email saying none of this was true. Via MMA Junkie:
“FloCombat.com’s report indicating that the UFC has been sold is false,” Sholler told MMAjunkie. “We’ve communicated that to our staff members tonight via an internal memo.”
The email sent out to staffers was equally emphatic and threatened legal action against whoever was leaking sales rumors to the press, which is an interesting thing to do when claiming none of what’s being leaked is true.
“A report today by FloCombat.com indicating that the company has been sold is false,” the email read. “This follows other false speculation in the press recently.
“Such misrepresentation of facts in the media negatively impacts our business, staff members and athletes. We have instructed our attorneys to investigate and take all appropriate legal actions against the parties publishing and contributing to these false stories.
“With International Fight Week and the historic UFC 200 rapidly approaching, we look forward to once again delivering a series of events that our fans won’t soon forget. We appreciate your hard work, diligence and commitment, and thank you for your focus as we continue to take the sport to new heights.”
There are several possible reasons why the UFC is denying the sale has gone through, the most obvious being that maybe it hasn’t. But technically speaking, the emails sent by Sholler only claim the UFC hasn’t been sold – not that an agreement to make the sale hasn’t been agreed upon, which is what Flosports claims. The company could still be negotiating a number of final points before the deal is official, and they may be planning on making the announcement in the final days before UFC 200 to add even more hype to the event.
This wouldn’t be the first time the UFC has straight up denied reports that later turned out to be true. The day before Brock Lesnar’s signing with the UFC was confirmed, UFC president Dana White told ESPN point-blank that there was no truth to the rumors of Lesnar’s return … and that particular deception was just so the UFC could announce the fighter’s return themselves 24 hours later. So there’s a precedent that shows we shouldn’t always believe what’s coming from the UFC in terms of deals like this. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. And there’s a lot of smoke regarding this sale, coming from several reputable sources.
(Via MMA Junkie)
