After Confessing Worries About Shaquille O’Neal Type TNT Deal, Dana White Opens Up on Details Behind Latest TV Partnership

There has been news that UFC CEO Dana White is signing a deal with a network to promote Power Slap. Now the thing is, the NBA was also very close to a new broadcasting deal that marked the end of the NBA and TNT’s over four decades-long partnership. Now UFC is thinking of something similar with ESPN. The TNT and NBA partnership is already in shambles as NBC came into the scene. Now Dana White’s contract with ESPN is also at its end and will lapse in 2025.

However, White had said in a UFC 302 post-fight presser that he does not like to go public with his monetary deals. He likes to keep the deals private but in the recent Flagrant podcast episode, he spoke otherwise.

Dana White wants to avoid a TNT-NBA-like fiasco

In the recent Flagrant podcast installment, White spoke to Andrew Schulz about many things including UFC, Conor McGregor’s upcoming fight, and Power Slap. The comedian was curious about how this business was going to fair out into the market and that is when the UFC CEO disclosed his plan.

He said, “Nobody fuc**  believed in this thing and nobody thought it was gonna be fuc**  big. And you know it’s sort of become my thing. It’s what I fuc**  love to do. The same thing with power slap. This thing got sh*t on. This thing’s been around for 15 months. It’s a $750 million business.” So this million-dollar business is getting a lot of traction and White is in talks with a network to make it reach more audience.

ESPN and UFC’s broadcast partnership started in 2018 and they had a 7-year deal with $1.5 billion value at the time of commencement. Now fans are thinking about the future of UFC as the time comes close for the 2025 lapse of the contract. White is already profiting from lucrative fights this year and UFC is on a roll right now.

Meanwhile, The NBA-TNT split will also mean a possible final run of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal‘s show. The MMA community is worried about the same fate happening to ESPN and UFC. However, White assured in the UFC 302 post-fight presser that he does not make deals public and keeps monetary matters private even if he hinted at a network deal in the Flagrant podcast. On top of that, Dana White and Co is about to get huge profits!

UFC is ready to make some serious profits

According to MMA Fighting, TKO Group Holdings president Mark Shapiro said, “As far as multiple partners, one partner, we’ll see what happens when we get there… We’re not looking to get away from them. We’re not looking to reduce our commitments, but at the same time, we have a window, we’ll listen, we’ll talk, and we’ll do what’s in the best interests of the UFC going forward.” TKO Group Holdings is a part of this since it’s the sports company that comprises UFC and WWE.

Along this line, Shapiro discussed other sports industries as well and mentioned NASCAR, WWE, and NBA. He pointed out that every sport has a strong media deal and as for the NBA, the league is going to to crack a big deal with NBC Universal of $76 billion for 11 years. He mentioned that UFC is at that level that it can be considered to be one of the premium sports categories with many media houses doing their bidding.

UFC has great growth potential. The Wall Street Analyst magazine predicted a double profit from a new media deal for UFC. With the pace they are currently on, it is not surprising at all. UFC Louisville just became the highest-grossing Fight Night, months after UFC St.Louis set the record. UFC 303 has already set the record for gate revenue at $20M when the event was more than a month away. Will we see a similar feat with the new broadcast deal? Let’s see what decision Dana White and co take and how UFC fairs in the future!