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Conflicting reports emerge online about potential UFC sale

Either the UFC has been sold for $4.2 billion or the organization’s principals are still deciding whether the company even is on the market.

It depends on where one chooses to get his news.

Conflicting reports abound online about the potential sale of the Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts organization.

Despite alleged legal threats from UFC lawyers, FloCombat.com posted a story Wednesday that said the organization had accepted a bid of $4.2 billion from a consortium led by entertainment conglomerate WME/IMG. The story said the deal was expected to be announced in early July.

But TMZ.com disputed the claim.

“It’s just not true,” a story on the site posited. “Sources tell us … there are negotiations, but ‘a deal isn’t even close.’ In fact, we’re told there has not even been an agreement on whether 100 (percent) of the UFC will be sold or just a portion. Nor have the parties agreed on price.

“We’re told if a deal is consummated, it won’t happen this week and it’s possible it will never happen.”

Tyler Hersko of the Los Angeles Times indicated the truth might fall somewhere in the middle. He spoke with an anonymous source who said while talks between the UFC and the WME/IMG group were ongoing, no deal had been reached.

UFC officials strongly denied the FloCombat reports.

“FloCombat.com’s report indicating that the UFC has been sold is false,” UFC vice president of public relations Dave Sholler said in a statement this week. “We’ve communicated that to our staff members (Monday) via an internal memo.”

Rumors of a potential sale have been floated in the past few years, but the intensity picked up after ESPN’s Darren Rovell reported in May that the UFC was in “advanced talks” with several potential groups about purchasing the company Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, operating as Zuffa LLC, bought in 2001 for $2 million.

UFC president Dana White vehemently denied the report.

“The UFC is not for sale,” White told the Review-Journal on May 10. “The ESPN story is overblown. Darren Rovell is not a fan of facts. His facts could not be further off.”

According to the FloCombat report, the new ownership would consist of a group including WME/IMG, two Chinese companies and The Kraft Group. White would be bought out of his current shares of the company, believed to be just less than 9 percent, but receive an approximate 5 percent stake in the new company to remain in his current position.

White appeared on the new UFC-produced podcast “Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra” and addressed the sale reports. Though he never explicitly denied the organization could be sold, he said he wouldn’t be working on so many projects if he expected a new regime to take over.

“This has been one of the most disruptive things ever in the history of the company,” White said. “Imagine (how it is for the fighters), and I have over 400 employees here. Everybody who works for me, let this be the last thing you worry about.”

White expressed frustration with media reports he deems inaccurate.

“It’s just crazy, but it’s the world we live in today,” he said. “With absolutely no proof or evidence whatsoever, people can just go out and say whatever they want. It’s (expletive) nuts.”

After FloCombat’s original report hit the internet Monday, the article’s author, Jeremy Botter, said he was warned by UFC lawyers to tread lightly in pursuit of the story. Instead, he decided to double-down on the report Wednesday.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj

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