Dana White Makes His Big Announcement

Weeks of speculation have come to an end, as Dana White has finally made his "big" announcement.

The announcement? Lorenzo Fertitta, one of the owners of Zuffa, LLC, the parent company that owns the UFC, will be leaving his position as an executive at Station Casinos to help Dana White run the company. Fertitta, who apparently made over $113 million dollars last year running Station Casinos, will be leaving that position because "the growth of the UFC demanded a more significant involvement".

Fertitta will be focusing on expanding the UFC internationally outside of the United States and United Kingdom. Fertitta specifically pointed to markets such as Italy, France and Germany as countries that he wanted to target in the short-term. He went on to say that China, India and Japan are "prime markets" for the company, and that the UFC is going to have a "global footprint" in the not-too-distant future.

People were speculating for weeks as to what the "big announcement" would be. Some thought that the UFC would be bought out by a company like FOX; some thought that the UFC would be announcing a new TV deal with FOX, ESPN or NBC; some thought that Dana White would be taking over the company, with help from Vince McMahon; some thought that the company would be signing Mayweather, Jr.; some thought that the company would be announcing a "supermatch" between Anderson "Spider" Silva and Chuck Liddell; some thought that White would be announcing that Randy Couture was re-joining the company; some thought that Dana White would be announcing that MMA had been legalized in New York and that there would be a major show at MSG. Turns out, everybody was wrong.

White promised that this announcement would "come out of left field", and he was right. No one was expecting this. While this announcement may not be earth-shattering to fans of the sport, it will certainly have a big impact on the business going forward.

Many are wondering what this announcement means for Dana White. Is this an indictment of his leadership so far? Do the Fertitta's not trust him to run the company by himself? Or do they feel that the tremendous growth of the UFC has made it imperative to have more than one person running the company? Has the UFC taken off because of Dana White, or in spite of him?

Source: Bloody Elbow

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