It has been announced on Monday, April 3rd that the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will merge to create a new publicly traded company under the Endeavor Group umbrella, a massive multi-billion-dollar deal referred to as ‘UFC 2.0’ by Endeavor CEO, Ari Emanuel.
As the parent company of UFC, Endeavor seeks to create a global live sports and entertainment pureplay that caters to the current industry demands.
Ari Emanuel, founder and CEO of Endeavor, acknowledged the excellence of Vince and his team over the years, emphasizing that the collaboration between WWE and UFC would bring significant value to shareholders.
The newly formed company will have Ari Emanuel as the CEO, while WWE’s majority owner and Executive Chairman will be the Executive Chairman of the company. Additionally, Nick Khan will take up the position of President of the wrestling brand, alongside UFC President Dana White.
“You saw Brock Lesnar go from WWE to UFC, where he become its heavyweight champion, then come back to WWE. You saw Ronda Rousey and her amazing run with the UFC come over to WWE. Daniel Cormier was a special guest referee for us in our October premium live event this past year. Opportunities like that will continue.”
Continuing, Khan spoke of how the operations will move forward:
“That said, both businesses are going to be run separately. Dana White will, of course, continue to run the UFC. We have deep relationships with the guys over there, from Dana to Craig Borsari to Lawrence Epstein. We will be looking to collaborate with them when appropriate. Right now, we want to focus on getting WWE integrated and situated with the company.”
WWE CEO Nick Khan stated in an interview with ‘OutKick’ that the deal would create more opportunities for crossover events between WWE and UFC. The move is similar to what Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey did, which saw them jump from WWE to UFC and back to WWE. It also saw Daniel Cormier become a special guest referee for WWE’s October premium live event last year.
Khan went further to explain that both businesses would continue to run separately, with Dana White leading the UFC. Nevertheless, the two companies would collaborate when necessary, and the priority is to focus on integrating WWE into the newly formed company.