Dana White Fired Back at Darren Rovell Again

In May, ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell broke the news that UFC ownership was in “advanced talks to sell” the league for a price between $3.5 and $4 billion. White responded that the UFC was “not for sale” and Rovell was “not a fan of facts.”

Rovell tweeted that “once you hire an investment back to give out your financials, it’s hard to say you’re not for sale,” and “We had three different independent sources that said that UFC volunteered a full year EBITDA of in between $200M & $250M to investors.”

Fast forward to today, and Rovell weighed in that the reported $4 billion UFC sale to WME-IMG, news of which emerged on July 11th, is not going swimmingly; White responded curtly:

The UFC has had a very public predicament since the sale. Brock Lesnar, a major draw who was granted an exception in drug testing protocol at the front end of his return to MMA, nonetheless failed two USADA drug tests. The first was drawn on June 28th. But, for reasons that still have not been explained by any one of the institutions involved, Lesnar and the UFC were not notified until July 15th, after both his fight against Mark Hunt and the announcement of the UFC’s sale. (Jon Jones’ failed drug test ahead of UFC 200 was certainly not a comfort to anyone, but it was at least publicly announced before the acquisition was finalized.)

After the acquisition was announced, Rovell reported that White cashed out his 9% equity stake in UFC for $360 million, and that White’s “new deal is for five years and for nine percent of the company’s net profits.”

As far as it pertains to this Twitter squabble between Rovell and White, the latter is pretty confident he could beat the former in the Octagon:

Going forward, we will keep our popcorn ready for any developments, or lack thereof, in the UFC acquisition.