Fertitta brothers sell remaining UFC shares at $5 billion valuation

Noah Kirsch for Forbes reports that brother Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta have sold their remaining shares in the UFC to new owners WME- IMG. The 5.8% they held in the company sold at a $5 billion valuation, approximately 26% higher than the original sale, earning them an additional $60 million or so. The brothers have timing like Anderson Silva.

The two bought the UFC for debt plus $2 million when it was close to extinction. After relentless lobbying for over a decade, the sport is now legal in every state and province in North America. Once dubbed “Human Cockfighting” by Senator John McCain, the sale to WME-IMG was the largest in sports history.

The league received criticism for the Reebok Deal and for splitting revenue with the athletes a rate below that in other major sports. However, without the Fertittas, fighters could have been getting 90% of rev, but it would have been 90% of nothing. And it wouldn’t be 90%. And the Reebok deal, aside from making fighters look like an Uno card, came at a time when fighter sponsorships declined precipitously, and thus may not have been as bad as it felt.

Further, during their tenure, they fought performance enhancing drug use as hard or harder than any group in existence, including the Olympics. And doing so was bad for business. As the WWE will attest, PEDs are good for business – fanboys and presumably fangirls love to see chiseled abs and bulging muscles. PEDs make for faster, stronger fighters, who can train more, and fight better. But they stopped it cold and hard.

The sport continues to have significant problems, most notably from a health and safety point of view with the culture of extreme weight cutting. And with a $4 billion note to cover, the new owners are unlikely to rush into a more equitable fighter revenue share.

Still, the sport of mixed martial arts owes Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta the most profound thanks, because they saved it.

Each brother is now worth approximately $2 billion according to Forbes. Their next step in the combat sports space may be to let WME-IMG continue to do seemingly nothing new, while acquiring massive debt, and then buy it back, say for debt plus $2 million 😉