Jake Paul Is Now A Part Owner Of UFC’s Parent Company – Endeavor

Ezra Samuel

Social media superstar turned boxer Jake Paul hasn’t given up on his quest for good publicity. Once the 2nd most hated man on youtube has been winning the publicity fight he started with the UFC president Dana White. And all thanks to how much of a burning issue Fighter’s pay is.

UFC 270 was held in California – in one of the rare jurisdictions that discloses fighter’s pay. Main card fighters received the following amounts:

Francis Ngannou: $600,000 (no win bonus)
Ciryl Gane: $500,000
Deiveson Figueiredo: $150,000 (no win bonus)
Brandon Moreno: $200,000
Michel Pereira: $100,000 ($50,000 win bonus)
Andre Fialho: $12,000
Said Nurmagomedov: $50,000 ($25,000 win bonus)
Cody Stamann: $65,000
Michael Morales: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
Trevin Giles: $45,000

Total amount paid for all the fighters (including ones on the prelim cards) totals to about $1,800,000. And this is a shockingly small amount considering that the promotion would make that money on under 30,000 PPV buys at the current price of $74.99. Even if the card would be on the lower spectrum of the PPV buys – which it likely isn’t – the lowest amount of PPVs UFC sold in the last 3 years was 175,000 for Adesanya vs Anderson Silva event in 2019. If we follow that conservative estimate we’ll find out that the minimum UFC has made on PPV buys for UFC 270 is in the neighborhood of $13 Million. This also doesn’t account for live gate, ads, sponsorships and other revenue streams. While it may seem like UFC’s PPVs are a main source of income for the premier MMA promotion – the recently released data shows different distribution of revenue.

Enter Jake Paul. In order to leverage his social media stardom into the martial arts scene Paul has made it his number 1 priority to irk the UFC by advocating for fighter pay.

Previously, Jake Paul accused UFC president Dana White of not paying his fighters properly. Recently, the 25-year-old boxer announced that he has invested in the UFC’s parent company, Endeavor.

The UFC’s parent company, Endeavor Group Holdings, is an American holding company for talent and media agencies that was founded in 2009. Aside from the UFC, Endeavor also owns Miss Universe. Jake Paul is reportedly invested in this holding company.

Jake Paul took to his Twitter account to announce his investment. He said that he and his business partner, Geoffrey Woo, in the hope to increase the UFC’s ESG standard.

“I’ve invested in EDR (UFC) stock with my partner @geoffreywoo to focus on UFCs ESG standards relating to fighters. We believe EDR can drive long-term economic value by increasing UFC fighter pay & providing them healthcare. Reaching out to @EngineNo_1 to partner on this endeavor.” Wrote Jake Paul on Twitter.

While it’s easy to interpret Paul’s actions as genuine it’s hard to not be cynical – after all the fighter’s pay discussions in media were likely to have affected Endeavor’s price on the stock market.

Endeavor’s price was at a low point at the time Paul purchased the stock.

 

Replying to Jake Paul’s tweet, his business partner, Geofrey Woo, added some extra details.

“Jake Paul, our partners, and I are excited to announce our latest @antifundvc investment — Endeavor (NYSE: EDR), the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship — and our goals for the business as impact investors & venture capitalists.” wrote Woo.

Geoffrey Woo also revealed their goal isn’t solely about raising the UFC fighters’ pay and health benefits, but to fix the business in combat sports to value the athlete as they should be.

“My partner Jake has lead the way in changing the business of combat sports by not just talking about it, but being about it — fighter pay, healthcare, & championing women’s sport. And today is our next step in our vision of revolutionizing the industry.” Woo added.

Jake Paul and Geoffrey Woo could control the company if they own the majority ownership of the company. Majority ownership exists when an investor holds more than 50% of a company’s shares. This gives the investor effective control of the company. The two probably don’t have the majority ownership as of now but it is likely it will happen sooner or later.