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UFC president Dana White, Ari Emanuel, and others rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on April 29. They offered the UFC's parent organization Endeavor Group Holdings' stocks to the public at $24 per share. Endeavor is a global entertainment conglomerate that owns a majority stake in the UFC.
White proudly announced the news of Endeavor going public on his social media accounts. However, the UFC boss was not in favor of the promotion going public at Endeavor's first attempt to launch its IPO back in 2019.
During an interview with Chris Maathuis of 8 News Now in 2019, Dana White was asked about his opinion on the UFC becoming a public company. White stated that the way he likes to run things would make it difficult for him to function in that scenario.
He jokingly proposed to invite bets on the amount of time he would survive in the UFC after it went public, alluding that he would get fired soon after. Dana White said:
"I've never been a fan of the UFC going public," White said. "Can you picture me running a public company? No. I can't either. Let's take some bets on how long I last in a public company. What's the over-under on that one?"
Is it time to invite the bets as Dana White proposed?
Endeavor Group Holdings filed confidential paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this year to launch its IPO. Endeavor owned 50.1% of the UFC and filed paperwork to take full control of the MMA promotion.
SEC papers stated that Endeavor was supposed to raise $1.7 billion to purchase the remainder of the UFC before the launch of its IPO. With the stocks now trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Endeavor is in the process of gaining full ownership of the UFC.
It is unknown whether the UFC's brand and its structure will remain unchanged after these developments. However, neither Dana White nor Ari Emanuel of Endeavor have given any updates regarding the changes that might follow.
