White on why Liddell and Hughes were let go

In October MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco and Ben Fowlkes obtained a 58-page UFC investor document that detailed how the new owners, WME-IMG planned to make a return on their investment. There was a reference to cost cutting through increased standardization and more rigorous corporate discipline, namely in compensation practices, [travel and expense] policies, long-lived consultants, political contributions, overhead, etc.

The “long-lived consultants” was believed to refer to several retired fighters including Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes, who enjoy largely ceremonial positions with the company. These were instituted by UFC president Dana White as a means to get fighting legends to stop fighting, for their own safety.

Last week, a second round of layoffs hit the UFC, totaling perhaps fifteen employees, including Liddell and Hughes. White appeared recently on Jim Norton and Matt Serra’s UFC Unfiltered podcast, and explained what happened.

“When another company takes over another company, it’s absolutely normal for them to come in and especially at the executive level, to let guys go,” explained White, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “They have guys that they are going to bring in that will fill those positions. Some of those people that have been let go, they have their own people ready for those positions. It’s their company, they roll in and they put in their people, it’s absolutely normal. A lot of our executives were let go, a company as big as WME-IMG, they have a ton of people for these positions.

“The Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes thing, during the ZUFFA era, those were my guys. I wanted them to retire, I respected these guys. They helped build this company when I was growing it and I told them both, I said, ‘Unless I drop dead or it comes to a position some time where I’m not controlling how much money is being spent and all that stuff, you guys will get a paycheck until that day.’ And that day came.

“The thing with Matt and Chuck, it was a loyalty thing for me. It was my gift to them for being the guys that they were when me, Frank and Lorenzo, when it was our money.”

It is a hugely different company now than the one White and Fertitta built. Do not be surprised if one day in the next year White decides to move on, perhaps to the casino business.