UFC

The UFC was established in 1993 in the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado, by businessman Art Davie and Brazilian mixed martial artist Rorion Gracie. An eight-man single-elimination competition called “War of the Worlds” was Art Davie’s suggestion to John Milius and Rorion Gracie. It was influenced by the “Gracies in Action” video series created by the Gracie family of Brazil, which showed Gracie jiu-jitsu students winning Vale Tudo contests against martial artists from diverse styles, including karate, kung fu, and kickboxing. Additionally, the competition would pit martial artists from various styles against one another in no-holds-barred fighting in an effort to establish which martial art was the finest. Businessman Art Davie and Brazilian mixed martial artist Rorion Gracie formed the UFC, and the inaugural fight took place in Denver, Colorado’s McNichols Sports Arena, in 1993.

The UFC was originally conceived as a tournament to determine the most effective martial art. The first UFC event was held in Denver, Colorado in 1993, and featured fighters from a variety of martial arts disciplines. The early UFC events were often criticized for their violent nature and lack of rules.

UFC 1 was held on November 12, 1993, at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The event was promoted by Art Davie and Rorion Gracie, and featured eight fighters from various martial arts backgrounds, including kickboxing, sumo, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu.

The event was won by Royce Gracie, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter and member of the Gracie family, who submitted all three of his opponents to win the tournament. The event was a commercial success, with a pay-per-view audience of over 86,000 viewers.

UFC 2 was held on March 11, 1994, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event featured a 16-man tournament, with Royce Gracie once again emerging victorious. UFC 3 was held on September 9, 1994, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and featured an 8-man tournament won by Steve Jennum, a replacement fighter who entered the tournament in the semifinals and defeated Harold Howard in the finals.

UFC 4 was held on December 16, 1994, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and featured a 16-man tournament won by Royce Gracie. UFC 5 was held on April 7, 1995, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and featured a 16-man tournament won by Dan Severn, a former Olympic wrestler.

The early UFC events were characterized by their lack of rules and regulations. Fighters were allowed to use any technique they wanted, including strikes to the groin, headbutts, and eye gouging. The events were often criticized by politicians and media outlets for their violent nature.

UFC 5 also included the first singles event, “The Superfight,” a rematch of the original UFC between three-time champion Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock. “The Superfight” originated as a non-tournament event to identify the first reigning UFC Champion to face tournament winners; it then evolved into a match that could feature either championship or non-title matchups. The “Superfight” would eventually phase out tournament matchups entirely.

However, the first “Superfight” at UFC 5 was also deemed a flop. Shamrock knocked Royce to the ground and landed inside his guard in the first minute of the fight. Shamrock was inside Royce’s guard for the next 30 minutes, with the two firing punches and headbutts at each other but little change or activity, with the crowd criticizing the fighters.

The bout was stopped after 30 minutes because it had over the time restriction set for the pay-per-view and was awarded an additional 5 minutes due to spectator protests. After 36 minutes, the bout was called off and a tie was proclaimed. Because of this contentious battle, the UFC later began to implement time limits, judges to adjudicate draws, and authorized referees to stand up competitors and restart the match if there is too much inactivity.

The UFC held its first event outside of the continental United States in 1996, with UFC 8 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and its first foreign event was UFC Brazil in 1998.

The emerging sport’s brutal nature immediately grabbed the attention of US authorities. Senator John McCain of the United States saw a film of the initial UFC events in 1996 and found it revolting. He launched a campaign to outlaw the UFC, referring to it as “human cockfighting,” and wrote letters to the governors of all 50 US states urging them to do so.

36 states passed laws prohibiting “no-holds-barred” fighting, including New York, which passed the legislation on the eve of UFC 12, forcing the organization to relocate to Dothan, Alabama. The UFC continued to air on DirecTV PPV, however, its audience remained small in comparison to the other cable pay-per-view platforms of the time.

In response to the criticism, the UFC strengthened its cooperation with state athletic commissions and changed its regulations to eliminate the less appealing aspects of bouts while preserving the core elements of striking and grappling. Weight divisions were introduced at UFC 12 and fish-hooking was prohibited. Gloves were made required for UFC 14, and kicks to the head of a downed opponent were prohibited. Hair pulling was prohibited at UFC 15, as strikes to the back of the neck and head, headbutting, small-joint manipulations, and groin strikes. With the introduction of five-minute rounds at UFC 21, the UFC steadily reinvented itself as a sport rather than a spectacle.

The UFC continued to collaborate with state athletic commissions, led by UFC commissioner Jeff Blatnick and referee John McCarthy.To assist in getting the UFC sanctioned by athletic commissions, Blatnick, McCarthy, and matchmaker Joe Silva prepared a manual of policies, procedures, codes of conduct, and rules, many of which still exist today. Blatnick and McCarthy traveled around the country, educating authorities and changing perceptions of a vicious and barbaric sport. Their movement had certainly had an impact by April 2000. California was expected to become the first state in the United States to approve a set of codified laws governing MMA. New Jersey quickly adopted the language.

As the UFC began to collaborate with athletic commissions, events were held in smaller U.S. markets and venues such as the Lake Charles Civic Centre. Iowa, Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Alabama were among the markets. These states are primarily rural and are not well-recognized for hosting professional sporting events. SEG was unable to get home video releases for UFC 23-29. With other mixed martial arts promoters vying for U.S. sanctioning, the International Fighting Championships (IFC) secured the first U.S.-sanctioned mixed martial arts event on September 30, 2000, in New Jersey. Only two months later, the UFC hosted its first sanctioned event, UFC 28, under the “Unified Rules” of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board.

SEG was on the verge of bankruptcy after a long battle to get sanctioning when Station Casinos owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, along with their business partner Dana White, approached them in 2000 with an offer to buy the UFC. A month later, in January 2001, the Fertittas paid $2 million for the UFC and established Zuffa, LLC as the parent organization running the UFC.

Along with the trademark, they obtained a wooden octagon and several fighter contracts. Later, they reached a deal with Lionsgate to purchase the UFC’s DVD rights for an extra two million dollars. Zuffa obtained Nevada sanctioning in 2001 thanks to ties to the Nevada State Athletic Commission (Lorenzo Fertitta was a previous member of the NSAC). Soon later, the UFC returned to pay-per-view cable television with UFC 33, which included three championship fights.

Following the Zuffa acquisition, the UFC gradually gained prominence, thanks in part to increased advertising, corporate sponsorship, the return to cable pay-per-view, and later home video and DVD releases.

The UFC secured its first broadcast deal with Fox Sports Net thanks to larger live gates at casino sites such as the Trump Taj Mahal and the MGM Grand Garden Arena. In June 2002, The Best Damn Sports Show Ever presented the first MMA match on American cable television, as well as the main event featuring Chuck Liddell vs. Vitor Belfort at UFC 37.5. Later, FSN would air UFC highlight shows.

UFC 40 proved to be the most pivotal event in the Zuffa era to date. The event drew a near-sellout crowd of 13,022 at the MGM Grand Arena and sold 150,000 pay-per-view tickets, nearly doubling the rate of previous Zuffa events. The event included a championship contest between then-current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Tito Ortiz and former UFC Superfight Champion Ken Shamrock, who had previously left MMA to pursue a career in professional wrestling with the WWE before returning to MMA. It was the UFC’s highest-ever rating since being pushed “underground” in 1997.

UFC 40 also received widespread coverage from media sites such as ESPN and USA Today, which was unprecedented for mixed martial arts at the time. Many believe that the popularity of UFC 40 and the anticipation for Ortiz vs. Shamrock saved the UFC from bankruptcy; past Zuffa shows averaged just 45,000 buys per event, and the organization was losing money. The triumph of UFC 40 provided a ray of optimism for the UFC and maintained the belief that mixed martial arts could become popular.

Beyond the rivalry itself, UFC 40’s success was owed in part to the marketing and outreach power of crossover fighters – from Pro Wrestling to MMA and MMA to Pro Wrestling – a practice that has its roots in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships. Long-time UFC referee John McCarthy stated that he believed UFC 40 was the tipping point in determining whether or not MMA would survive in America. Despite the triumph of UFC 40, the UFC was still in financial trouble. Zuffa has lost $34 million since purchasing the UFC in 2004.

Faced with the risk of collapsing, the UFC ventured outside of pay-per-view and into television. After appearing in the reality television series American Casino and witnessing how successfully it worked as a promotional vehicle, the Fertitta brothers came up with the concept of UFC producing its own reality series.

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) was a concept for a reality television show that featured up-and-coming MMA fighters competing for a six-figure UFC contract, with fighters removed from contention through exhibition mixed martial arts fights. It was offered to many networks, all of which rejected it outright. They didn’t find an outlet until they approached Spike TV and offered to cover the $10 million production costs themselves.

Spike TV debuted The Ultimate Fighter 1 in the timeslot after WWE Raw in January 2005. The program quickly became a hit, culminating in a memorable season finale clash between light heavyweight finalists Forrest Gryphon and Stephan Bonnar, who went toe-to-toe for the opportunity to win the six-figure contract. The season finale’s live broadcast received a very strong 1.9 total rating. Dana White credits TUF 1 with saving the UFC and claims that the contract for the second season was signed on a serviette outside the arena immediately after the conclusion.

Following the Griffin/Bonnar conclusion, a second season of The Ultimate Fighter premiered in August 2005, followed by two more seasons in 2006. Until the program moved to FX in 2012, Spike and the UFC continued to manufacture and telecast new seasons.

Spike took up UFC Unleashed, an hour-long weekly show highlighting chosen fights from prior events, following the popularity of The Ultimate Fighter. Spike also agreed to broadcast live UFC Bout Night, a bout series that debuted in August 2005, as well as Countdown specials to promote upcoming UFC pay-per-view cards.

Spike executives released a statement addressing the end of their partnership with the UFC after a highly successful run on Spike and with the imminent announcement of the UFC’s new agreement with Fox. With the announcement of the UFC’s agreement with Fox in August 2011, The Ultimate Fighter, which began its 14th season in September of that year, was transferred to the FX network to show on Friday nights beginning with season 15 in the spring of 2012. Along with the network move, episodes are now edited and televised within a week of being recorded, rather than many months later, and elimination fights are now shown live.

The UFC’s pay-per-view sales skyrocketed as its profile grew. UFC 52, the first event following the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, drew a pay-per-view audience of 300,000, more than doubling its previous benchmark of 150,000 set at UFC 40. The event featured eventual UFC Hall of Famer: Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell avenging his defeat to fellow eventual Hall of Famer, Randy Couture. The UFC’s bout between Liddell and Couture at UFC 57 attracted an estimated 410,000 pay-per-view sales following the second season of The Ultimate Fighter.

Pay-per-view buy rates continued to skyrocket throughout the rest of 2006, with 620,000 buys for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie—Royce Gracie’s first UFC fight in 11 years—and 775,000 buys for UFC 61, which featured the highly anticipated rematch between Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz, the coaches of The Ultimate Fighter 3. With over 1 million buys for UFC 66, which pitted Ortiz in a rematch versus Liddell, the organization achieved a milestone.

Because of the increase in popularity, the UFC expanded its executive staff. Marc Ratner, former executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, was appointed as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs by the UFC in March 2006. Ratner, a former friend of Senator McCain’s anti-no-holds-barred fighting campaign, pushed various sports commissions to assist in raising the UFC’s media image in a bid to legalize mixed martial arts in jurisdictions both within and outside the United States that had yet to sanction the sport.

Zuffa purchased the northern California-based organization World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) in December 2006 to prevent the International Fight League (IFL) from reaching an agreement with Versus (now NBC Sports Network). The UFC had an exclusive arrangement with Spike at the time, therefore Zuffa’s purchase of the WEC allowed them to exclude the IFL from Versus without breaching their contract. In MMA, the WEC had lesser weight classes, but the UFC featured larger weight classes.

Zuffa also bought its cross-town competitor World Fighting Alliance (WFA) in December 2006. The WFA had signed notable fighters at the time, like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida, but their events were a financial flop. Zuffa purchased several assets from WFA, including fighter contracts, trademarks, and other intellectual property.

The popularity of the sport was also noted by the sports betting industry, with BodogLife.com, an online gambling site, predicting in July 2007 that the UFC will overtake boxing for the first time in terms of betting income in 2007. In reality, the UFC had already surpassed the pay-per-view industry’s all-time revenue records for a single year, grossing nearly $222,766,000 in 2006, beating both WWE and boxing. In May 2007, the UFC continued its meteoric climb from near obscurity, with Roger Huerta on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Chuck Liddell on the cover of ESPN The Magazine.

In Japan, Mixed Martial Arts evolved separately, but convergently, from “shoot wrestling,” a kind of professional wrestling with more realistic-looking movements and contests that deemphasized theatrical elements. By the time the UFC was created, promotions like Shooto and Pancrase had abandoned the scripts and were putting on hybrid fighting events with genuine bouts. Pride Fighting Championships was founded in 1997 as a result of this. Pride was the world’s most popular MMA promotion at its peak, and it helped popularise the sport in Japan and across the world, attracting enormous crowds in large sports venues and being seen by millions of people via free-to-air and pay-per-view television. Meanwhile, the UFC was dealing with political repression, low pay-per-view sales, and holding events in out-of-the-way casinos. Due to more compensation and status, the majority of the UFC’s finest fighters would like to fight in Japan.

However, in 2006, Pride began to have financial difficulties as a result of the cancellation of lucrative contracts with Japanese television owing to a controversy exposing the deep links between Pride and the Yakuza. On March 27, 2007, the UFC and Pride announced a deal in which the UFC’s principal owners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, would buy the Pride brand.

The organization’s initial goals were for them to be managed separately, but they have now integrated with plans to co-promote shows involving champions and top contenders from both organizations, drawing analogies to a “Super Bowl” of MMA.

However, Dana White thought that the Pride model was unsustainable and that the brand had become “toxic” in Japan, making it impossible to get a new broadcast agreement. Many former Pride competitors, like Antônio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira, Maurcio “Shogun” Rua, Dan Henderson, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovi, Wanderlei Silva, and others, have already been realigned under the UFC name. Pride Worldwide closed its Japanese headquarters on October 4, 2007, laying off 20 employees who had been working there since the closure of its parent business Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE).

On June 18, 2008, Lorenzo Fertitta announced his retirement from Station Casinos in order to dedicate his talents to Zuffa’s worldwide commercial expansion, notably the UFC. The move proved crucial, as Fertitta was instrumental in securing TV deals in China, France, Mexico, and Germany, as well as establishing new income sources with a new UFC video game and UFC action figures, among other ventures.

With UFC 100 and the ten events preceding it, including UFC 90, 91, 92, 94, and 98, popularity skyrocketed in 2009. UFC 100 was a success, with 1.6 million buys thanks to former NCAA wrestling and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and his rematch with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir, Canadian Georges St-Pierre facing off against Brazilian Thiago Alves, and American Dan Henderson facing off against British Michael Bisping at middleweight after the two were rival coaches on The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom.

ESPN was interested in covering UFC 100 in the days leading up to and following the event. With the television launch of MMA Live on ESPN2 in May 2010, ESPN will soon dedicate more coverage to the UFC and other MMA news. The excitement surrounding UFC 100 was substantially dampened in the second half of 2009 due to a string of injuries and other health-related difficulties, notably Brock Lesnar’s life-threatening struggle with diverticulitis, causing the organization to rush and reorganize its roster for numerous events.

However, with victories by reigning champions Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, as well as Lyoto Machida’s first career defeat to “Shogun” Rua for the UFC Light Heavyweight championship, momentum gradually began to build up in the first quarter of 2010. These fights were followed by a highly anticipated matchup at UFC 114 between former UFC Champions and rivals Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson—rival coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights—which featured the UFC’s first main event headlined by black competitors. The tournament drew over 1 million pay-per-view purchases as Evans won by unanimous decision.

World Extreme Cagefighting was bought by Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, in late 2006, and the first WEC event under new management took place on January 20, 2007. The WEC soon found a home on the Versus Network, with its inaugural event airing there in June 2007.

Zuffa announced the merger of the WEC and the UFC on October 28, 2010. On December 16, 2010, the WEC hosted their last card. The UFC adopted the WEC’s bantamweight, featherweight, and lightweight weight categories, as well as their corresponding athletes, as a result of the merger. The UFC also made the previous WEC Featherweight and Bantamweight Champions, José Aldo and Dominick Cruz, the inaugural UFC Champions in their respective weight classes.

This momentum carried over to UFC 116 in the summer of 2010, when Brock Lesnar defended his UFC Heavyweight Championship against unbeaten interim-champion Shane Carwin in front of 1.25 million PPV viewers. In a fight that was nearly stopped by referee Josh Rosenthal, Lesnar escaped an early torrent of Carwin’s blows. However, in the second round, Lesnar returned to submit Carwin via arm-triangle choke and retain the undisputed UFC Heavyweight Championship. The event as a whole received positive press for living up to the expectations with a lot of great fights.

After a fifth-round, last-minute victory against Chael Sonnen by UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117, Lesnar relinquished his title to the unbeaten Cain Velasquez by first-round TKO at UFC 121. Velasquez’s eighth knockout or technical knockout in his first nine MMA fights came in this fight.

UFC 129 was held at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and featured Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields. It was the largest UFC event in North American history, and it coincided with a two-day UFC Fan Expo at the Direct Energy Centre. The event sold out 55,000 tickets for over $11 million in gate income, smashing existing MMA attendance and gate records in North America.

Dana White announced the purchase of Strikeforce by Zuffa on March 12, 2011. Strikeforce will continue to function as an independent promotion, according to White, and CEO Scott Coker will continue to administer the promotion. Fedor Emelianenko will return to the ring at an unannounced July or August event, according to Coker, and the Zuffa-owned firm will continue to co-promote with M-1 Global. Strikeforce’s heavyweight division (excluding the Heavyweight Grand Prix finals) was absorbed into the UFC when an extension was signed, and the promotion’s Challengers series was discontinued. Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine was the final Strikeforce event on January 12, 2013, after which the company was disbanded and all fighter contracts were either terminated or incorporated into the UFC.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship and Fox signed a seven-year broadcast contract through the Fox Sports subsidiary on August 18, 2011, officially terminating the UFC’s collaboration with Spike TV and Versus (now NBC Sports Network). The agreement includes four events on Fox’s main network, 32 live Friday night bouts per year on their cable network FX, 24 events after the reality show The Ultimate Fighter, and six different Fight Night events.

UFC on Fox: Velasquez vs. dos Santos, the promotion’s first broadcast television event, violated tradition by displaying only one battle to television fans. In the main event, Junior dos Santos knocked out then-unbeaten UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez at 1:04 in the first round. The program peaked at 8.8 million people, with an average viewership of 5.7 million, making it the most-watched MMA event of all time and the most-watched combat sports event since Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko on HBO in 2003.

On the eve of UFC 154: St. Pierre vs. Condit on November 16, 2012, Dana White stated the UFC will feature women’s MMA by signing Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. She went on to become the first female UFC champion, the first Olympic medalist with a UFC championship, and the first woman to successfully defend a UFC title. Six times, she would successfully defend her championship.

The UFC bought the contracts of 11 female fighters from Invicta Fighting Championships on December 11, 2013, in order to start their 115-pound Strawweight division. The Ultimate Fighter: Team Pettis vs. Team Melendez, the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter, included eight Invicta fighters, as well as eight more competitors who joined up through open tryouts. Carla Esparza, the season winner, and Invicta FC’s strawweight champion, won the inaugural UFC women’s strawweight championship, defeating Rose Namajunas in the finale. Felice Herrig, Tecia Torres, Joanne Calderwood, Bec Hyatt, Randa Markos, Jessica Penne, and Joanna Jdrzejczyk were among the other competitors on the night.

ESPN first reported in May 2016 that the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, LLC, was in discussions to sell the corporation for $3.5 billion to $4 billion. The UFC reported an EBITDA of $200-250 million in 2015. The UFC nor Dana White have not issued an official statement about the sale. Dalian Wanda Group, China Media Capital, and WME-IMG (Endeavour) were among the earliest buyers.

On July 9, 2016, it was formally revealed that the UFC will be sold for $4.025 billion to a company led by WME-IMG, Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and MSD Capital. It was the largest-ever acquisition in sports at the time. Flash Entertainment (owned by the Abu Dhabi government) retains a 10% share in the firm. White, who owned 9% of the UFC, remained after being handed a share in the new venture. White was still president. Fertitta resigned as chairman and CEO. In September 2017, WME-IMG was rebranded Endeavour. Three years into the Endeavour period, White claimed that an unnamed business bid $5 billion, but Fertittas WME-IMG picked owing to an existing connection with its CEO Ari Emanuel.

MMAJunkie received a UFC financial report published by Endeavour in October 2016, indicating that the promotion had hit a year-to-year high of $609 million in revenue in 2015. 76% of overall income was attributed to “content” revenue, which included media rights, PPV purchases, and UFC Fight Pass subscriptions; 42% of content revenue was attributed to pay-per-view purchases, followed by U.S. and foreign media rights.

UFC signed new media rights arrangements in the United States with Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International and ESPN Inc. in May 2018, replacing those with 21st Century Fox, which began in January 2019. The five-year contracts are worth $300 million per year for digital and television rights, substantially tripling the amount paid by Fox in the last year of its previous contract, and feature 42 events per year on ESPN platforms. ESPN linear networks will provide preliminary card coverage for UFC PPV events, as well as 10 UFC on ESPN Fight Night events every year.

Under the name UFC on ESPN+ Fight Night, the subscription streaming service ESPN+ will show 20 exclusive events per year; regardless of network, all Fight Night events will feature a full 12-fight card, with preliminaries airing exclusively on ESPN+. The ESPN+ subscription will also provide on-demand access to the UFC library and history, as well as new seasons of Dana White’s Contender Series and other exclusive programming. UFC Fight Pass will be available as an ESPN+ add-on to stream pay-per-view events.

ESPN stated on March 18, 2019, that the deal had been extended for another two years. Furthermore, it was stated that beginning with UFC 236, future UFC PPVs would exclusively be available to ESPN+ members and will no longer be distributed through regular television providers. At the same time, the usual pricing for UFC PPVs was reduced to $59.99 (from $64.99), and new members will be able to purchase a UFC PPV package for a year of ESPN+ as well.

On July 18, 2018, it was revealed that the UFC has partnered with Russian MMA promoter M-1 Global. M-1 Global will act as a farm league for the UFC, scouting Russian competitors and organizing UFC events in Russia. The agreement also let M-1 champions to join with UFC.

Due of the COVID-19 epidemic, the UFC held their March 13, 2020 event, UFC Fight Night: Lee vs. Oliveira, behind closed doors in Brasilia, Brazil. The organization confirmed on March 16 that the following three events, UFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Edwards, UFC on ESPN: Ngannou vs. Rozenstruik, and UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Harris, would be rescheduled.

Concerning its upcoming pay-per-view, UFC 249 on April 18, UFC president Dana White claimed that the event will most likely go place, but behind closed doors at a different location. The event was scheduled to take place at the Barclays Centre, but the New York state government issued a stay-at-home order.

The New York State Athletic Commission withdrew its sanctioning for the tournament on March 18. Due to foreign travel limitations and other withdrawals, a new card for UFC 249 was announced on April 6, with a site still to be determined. The next day, White said that he has reserved an unnamed location for two months in order to stage both UFC 249 and future events with American competitors. He also revealed ambitions to obtain a private island known as “Fight Island” to hold international fighter competitions.

The new UFC 249 location was later revealed to be Tachi Palace, a tribal casino in Lemoore, California; because it was on the tribal ground, it also fell outside of the authority of the California State Athletic Commission, which meant that events staged there may be self-sanctioned. The UFC stated on April 9 that UFC 249 had been cancelled and that all future UFC events would be cancelled until further notice.

White noted interventions from the UFC’s U.S. media rightsholders, ESPN Inc. and parent company The Walt Disney Company, as well as Governor Newsom. According to the New York Post, California Governor Gavin Newsom called Disney chairman and former CEO Bob Iger, imploring ESPN and the UFC not to conduct the event.

UFC 249 took place on May 9, 2020, at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, with no spectators in attendance, after the declaration that professional sports were declared “essential services” in Florida. The UFC’s planned precautionary health and safety measures were approved by the Florida State Boxing Commission, which governs MMA in the state. UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira and UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs. Harris were both planned for May 13 and 16, respectively, at the same location. The UFC stated on Friday, May 8, that middleweight fighter Ronaldo Souza was taken from his fight against Uriah Hall at UFC 249 and quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19, along with his cornermen, despite following the UFC’s protocols. There were no additional athletes or staff members who tested positive for the illness.

In April 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UFC staged its UFC 261 event at the VyStar Arena in Jacksonville, however this time it was completely sold out, and guests were not obliged to wear masks. Public health professionals slammed the event, emphasising the hazards to guests as well as the general public.

Endeavour successfully executed an initial public offering (IPO) on April 29, 2021, and became a publicly traded business listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Endeavour then utilised some of the IPO proceeds to buy out Zuffa’s other stockholders for $1.7 billion, transforming Zuffa into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Endeavour.

Endeavour announced on April 3, 2023, that the UFC would combine with professional wrestling organisation WWE to establish a new publicly listed corporation with the ticker symbol “TKO,” which will be supervised by Endeavour CEO Ari Emanuel. WWE stockholders will own 49% of the new firm, with Vince McMahon acting as executive chairman; the deal values UFC at $12.1 billion. Following the merger, White will remain president of the UFC.