The Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment merger is now through and successful giving birth to a new company called TKO Group Holdings worth $21.4 billion.
Earlier this year, it was revealed the UFC and WWE would join forces to create a new company worth £17.3 billion ($21.4 billion), and on Tuesday, TKO Group Holdings began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The newly-combined company is led by Endeavor Chief Executive Ari Emanuel who took the UFC to new heights after purchasing MMA’s best league for $4 billion in 2016.
WWE mogul Vince McMahon will serve the new company as executive chairman. UFC’s president Dana White is now its chief executive officer (CEO), but he insists nothing will change.
“We’ve been kicking ass for however many years now. The WWE is doing well,” White told assembled media members on Tuesday evening.
“This just takes the whole sport and everything to a whole different level. I flew out to that thing last night and did it this morning. It was actually really, really cool. It was cool to be a part of.
“I’m excited about the future and what we’re going to do. And I always am, regardless, but after this merger, we’re just so much more powerful than we were yesterday.
“Everything that goes on here I determine. Nothing has changed, just three letters (CEO) instead of [nine].
“We’re just going to continue to kick ass like we do every single year. For people that are fighters or media or whoever, this just takes this whole thing to another level.
“It’s so much bigger and so much more powerful. When you think about all the things that I want to do before my time is up here, today made that a lot easier and a lot more doable.”
The UFC boss is passionate about creating Performance Institutes and believes new investment will help him do that and make MMA a global sport.
“These PI’s that we open, they’re not cheap. They’re very expensive to run. But I believe truly they are the future of the sport,” White added.
“This is what’s going to make the sport get bigger. Even if you train at a PI as a kid, we go into Africa, we go into Mexico City and other places that I want to do this, you grow up as a kid training in one of these PIs around the world.
“You might not become a fighter, but you become a trainer. You will have something to do with the sport and touch the sport in some way to help it grow.”
