UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)

The UFC was created by Bob Meyrowitz and Campbell McLaren, executives of the pay-per-view company Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG), together with Art Davie and Rorion Gracie. On November 12, 1993, the first event, UFC 1, was held in Denver, Colorado, as a one-night single-elimination tournament won by Royce Gracie; it was originally meant to be a one-off, but an unexpectedly large pay-per-view buy rate of 80,000 led the organizers to continue.⁠[1][1][1]

Early events were held in an octagonal chain-link cage, pitting top practitioners of different martial arts against each other; promotion touted “no rules,” and only biting and eye-gouging were forbidden. The events were soon selling out large arenas, and the quarterly tournaments drew about 300,000 pay-per-view subscribers.⁠[2][2][2][2]

In 1996, Arizona Senator John McCain, after watching a UFC tape, called the fights “barbaric” and “not a sport” and wrote to all 50 governors urging them to ban it, popularizing the label “human cockfighting.” Cable operators then dropped the events, and the UFC fell from a national craze to the margins; by the early 2000s it was banned in 36 states and struggled to find venues willing to host it.⁠[2][2][2][3]

From 2000 to 2001, Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City hosted three UFC events.⁠[3]

In January 2001, Las Vegas casino operators Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, together with their brother-in-law Blake Sortini, bought the UFC’s assets for $2 million and formed Zuffa LLC, named for an Italian word meaning “fight,” to run it; Dana WhiteDana WhiteDana White is an American sports executive and the President and Chief Executive Officer of the mixed martial arts promotion UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). In 2001 he and the Fertitta brothers bought the near-bankrupt UFC for $2 million, and the reality show The Ultimate Fighter brought the sport into the mainstream; the UFC was sold in 2016 for about $4 billion and became part of TKO Group Holdings in 2023. He is also a longtime supporter of Donald Trump and has been a director of Meta since late 2024.Open the full entry, the Fertitta brothers’ high school friend and a former fighter manager, became president and ran the day-to-day business. Lorenzo Fertitta said at the time that what he had bought was essentially those three letters and the logo, and that the focus was the athletes.⁠[4][4][4][5][4]

Before the sale, SEG had sought approval for mixed martial arts from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, of which Lorenzo Fertitta was then a member. Former SEG president Meyrowitz later claimed in a CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry documentary that a commissioner had changed his position before the vote; in 2008 Zuffa asked CNBC for a retraction, calling his statements false, and CNBC revised the content in later re-airings.⁠[6][6][6]

Zuffa embraced regulation by state athletic commissions and hired Marc Ratner, formerly of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, to lead its regulatory efforts. Approval in Nevada in 2001 was key to the UFC’s return to cable pay-per-view and helped convince sponsors and corporate America that the sport was fit for mass audiences; the reality series The Ultimate Fighter, which followed contenders competing for a UFC contract, pushed the UFC further into the mainstream.⁠[5][4][4][4]

In 2008, Lorenzo Fertitta left his family’s casino business to join the UFC full-time as chairman and chief executive, after which the UFC expanded from a fight promotion into a content company producing thousands of hours of programming for television and online streaming.⁠[4][4]

In 2010, Flash, a venture of the Abu Dhabi government, bought a 10% stake in the UFC.⁠[4]

On March 12, 2011, Dana White announced that Zuffa had acquired Strikeforce, the San Jose, California–based promotion that was then the UFC’s biggest competitor; deal terms were not disclosed. White said that as the UFC expanded internationally it needed a larger talent pool.⁠[7][7][7][7]

Between December 2014 and March 2015, eleven former UFC fighters filed five substantially identical class-action lawsuits against Zuffa, which were transferred to the federal district court in Nevada and consolidated in June 2015 as Le et al. v. Zuffa. The plaintiffs alleged that Zuffa violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by monopsonizing the market for the services of elite professional MMA fighters, artificially depressing fighter pay. On August 9, 2023, the court certified a damages class covering fighters from December 16, 2010, to June 30, 2017.⁠[8][8][8][8]

Judge Richard Boulware II had earlier rejected a proposed settlement covering both the Le case and another case. On September 26, 2024, the company reached a new $375 million settlement with the Le plaintiffs, payable in installments; the court granted preliminary approval on October 22 of that year and final approval on February 6, 2025, and the company paid $125 million each in October 2024, February 2025, and June 2025. The UFC said at the time that it believed the original settlement was fair but that ending the litigation was in the best interest of all parties.⁠[9][8][8][8][8][8][9]

Three other suits remained pending as of February 2026: the Johnson et al. v. Zuffa case, filed on June 24, 2021, by former fighters over the period from July 1, 2017, with claims similar to the Le case; the Cirkunovs case, filed on May 23, 2025, by former fighters who had signed arbitration clauses and class-action waivers, arguing that those provisions are unenforceable; and the Davis case, filed on May 29, 2025, by Professional Fighters League (PFL) fighter Phil Davis on behalf of fighters for non-UFC promotions, which seeks only injunctive relief.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8]

On July 11, 2016, the UFC announced its sale for about $4 billion to a consortium led by Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG, with backing from private equity firms Silver Lake and KKR and from Michael DellMichael DellMichael Dell is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies. Starting from a direct-sales personal computer business, he led the company’s take-private, its acquisition of EMC, and its return to the public market, and with his wife Susan Dell co-founded a foundation that funds education, health, and children’s investment accounts.Open the full entry’s investment firm; after nearly 16 years in control, the Fertitta brothers left the company while retaining a minority stake, the Abu Dhabi government kept its 10%, and Dana White stayed on as president. WME co-CEO Ari EmanuelAri EmanuelAri Emanuel is a talent agent and entertainment and sports executive. He is executive chair and CEO of TKO, executive chairman of WME, and founder and principal investor of live-events company MARI.Open the full entry announced the deal.⁠[5][5][5][5][5]

At the time of the sale, the UFC had more than 500 athletes under contract, staged about 40 events a year, and was broadcast in more than 150 countries to 1.1 billion television households, and it was building a 180,000-square-foot campus-style headquarters in Las Vegas; earlier that year New York had lifted its ban on MMA, making the sport legal in all 50 U.S. states. The UFC was then airing on Fox under a seven-year deal ending in 2018.⁠[5][5][5][5]

On May 8, 2018, the UFC signed a multi-year deal with ESPN to show events on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service starting in January 2019; terms were not disclosed, but sources estimated it at $150 million a year for five years. From 2019 through 2025, ESPN was the UFC’s exclusive U.S. broadcaster, including pay-per-view events.⁠[10][10][8]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many international fighters were unable to enter the United States because of travel restrictions. In June 2020, Dana White confirmed that a closed “Fight Island” zone would be set up on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island to host UFC 251 and three Fight Night events in July, with fighters, coaches, and staff training and staying inside a safety zone on the island.⁠[11][11][11]

WME-IMG’s parent company had been renamed Endeavor. On February 16, 2021, Endeavor Operating Company signed an agreement with the UFC’s other holders to acquire their equity, giving it 100% ownership of the UFC’s parent; Endeavor had previously owned 50.1% of the parent’s common equity and had consolidated its financial results since the 2016 acquisition.⁠[12][12][12][10]

On April 3, 2023, Endeavor announced that it would combine the UFC with professional wrestling company WWE to create a new publicly traded company with an enterprise value of $21.4 billion, valuing the UFC at $12.1 billion and WWE at $9.3 billion; Endeavor would hold 51% and existing WWE shareholders 49%, Endeavor chief executive Ari Emanuel would lead the new company, and WWE executive chairman Vince McMahon would take the same role there.⁠[13][13][13][13]

On September 12, 2023, TKO Group Holdings, formed by combining the UFC’s parent, Zuffa Parent, with WWE, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.⁠[8][8]

On February 28, 2025, TKO acquired IMG, On Location, and Professional Bull Riders (PBR) from Endeavor; on March 24, Silver Lake completed its take-private acquisition of Endeavor. That same month, TKO formed Zuffa Boxing, a boxing promotion joint venture with Sela Company.⁠[8][8][8][8]

On August 11, 2025, the UFC announced a seven-year agreement with Paramount, which had just completed its merger with Skydance, making Paramount the UFC’s exclusive U.S. broadcaster for $7.7 billion, or $1.1 billion a year on average. Starting in 2026, all 13 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights a year stream on Paramount+, with select numbered events simulcast on CBSCBSCBS is an American commercial broadcast television network. It was founded in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, and grew from a radio network into a television network under William S. Paley. With ABC and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it has been owned in turn by Westinghouse, Viacom, ViacomCBS and Paramount Global, has been owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation since 2025, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry at no additional cost to viewers, ending the UFC’s pay-per-view model on ESPN+.⁠[14][14][8][8][14]

In fiscal 2025, TKO’s UFC segment generated revenue of $1.5022 billion, up 7% from $1.4062 billion in 2024, driven mainly by new sponsors and higher renewal fees; media rights, production, and content contributed $907.7 million, live events and hospitality $232.9 million, partnerships and marketing $314.3 million, and consumer products licensing and other $47.3 million. The segment’s adjusted EBITDA was $851.0 million.⁠[8][8][8][8]

As of December 31, 2025, the UFC had about 650 athletes from more than 70 countries, nearly 20% of them women and 60% from outside the United States; it stages more than 40 live events a year broadcast in more than 170 countries and territories to over 950 million television households, and says it has more than 700 million fans and about 350 million social media followers. Its athletes are independent contractors.⁠[8][8][8][8]

On June 14, 2026, the UFC staged UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, marking Donald Trump’s 80th birthday and the 250th anniversary of American independence; it was the first professional sporting event in White House history. Trump appeared together with UFC chief executive Dana White, and Vice President JD Vance was among those attending; in the main event, Justin Gaethje defeated the previously unbeaten Ilia Topuria to win the lightweight championship.⁠[15][15][16][15]

The venue was a temporary structure with about 4,300 seats; no tickets were sold to the public, and invitations went to political allies, sponsors, and members of the military. The event drew 8.2 million viewers in the United States. TKO cited Freedom 250 as the main driver of the UFC’s higher partnership revenue in the second quarter of 2026, while the absence of ticket sales and higher athlete and production costs cut the UFC segment’s adjusted EBITDA margin from 59% to 52%; TKO said the decline was entirely due to the event.⁠[16][16][17][17][17]

In the second quarter of 2026, UFC revenue rose 29% year over year to $535.7 million, driven mainly by higher media rights fees under the Paramount agreement that took effect in January 2026 and by new sponsors and renewals; live events revenue fell because Freedom 250 had no ticket sales and there was one fewer numbered event.⁠[17][17][17]

UFC: Official website: https://www.ufc.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]

TKO Group Holdings: Official website: https://tkogrp.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[18]