The Undisputed Collapse of UFC
The UFC franchise was its prime about two decades ago and now the entire industry is dying off. In 2006, UFC received $200 million from pay-per-view which was the most generated revenue at the time. In 2007, UFC started declining due to the backlash from their fans and unsuccessful promotions. As the UFC franchise continues to get buried in debt due to legal issues and bad breakthroughs, they are struggling behind the scenes.
EA Sports Cancels Dana White
In the early 2000s, UFC wanted to reach its audience by making a video game for the Dreamcast and PlayStation called Ultimate Fighting Championship. During its time, Ultimate Fighting Championship was one of the bestselling games for a short time. In 2002 UFC released UFC: Tapout for the X-Box. Customers complained that UFC didn't have any new innovative ideas for their video games.
Dana White wanted to make UFC video games more popular by collaborating with EA Sports. Since EA Sports is the #1 leader in sports gaming, the UFC franchise would strongly benefit from working with them. Due to the negative reviews from UFC video games and the fact that some people don't consider UFC a sport, EA Sports declined Dana White's offer.
The UFC decided to partner with THQ in 2009 and release UFC: Undisputed. The game received a lot of positive reviews because it taught the players the different disciplines and rules in the UFC. The fighters in UFC: Undisputed had unique moves that made it stand out from their previous games. During its release, UFC: Undistributed was recognized as the best sports game.
Dana White claims that EA Sports contacted him when they found out that UFC: Undistributed was making him a lot of money and decided to work with the franchise, but he refused their offer. It's unclear whether Dana White was trying to protect the image of UFC or if he was telling the truth. Unfortunately, UFC's gaming was short-lived because EA Sports decided to bury it by making better video games.
The Ultimate Legal Claims Against Dana White
Dana White received an antitrust lawsuit for anticompetitive conduct and ruthless contracts. He was denied by the courts to have the case dismissed without merit. He was also declined a meritless judgment. Dana White decided to appeal his UFC certification to win the case, but the courts were eager to proceed with the antitrust lawsuit.
Dana White was ordered by the courts to pay all of the UFC fighters who were contracted between 2010 and 2017 compensation for all of their injuries. The courts also ordered injunctive relief for all of the employees at UFC. The injunctive relief forced Dana White to change the way he runs UFC, so it can be compliant with federal and state regulations. All of the fighters who sued UFC received $800 million and Dana White was forced to ban long-term contracts.
Dana White paid 20% of UFC's entire revenue for the antitrust lawsuit.
The "Pseudo-Fighters" are Unsafe
In 2022, Dana White launched a sport called Power Slap on TBS. In Power Slap, two people took turns slapping each other in the face. Each contender would have 60 seconds to get back up after being knocked out. In March 2023, Dana White slapped his wife in a nightclub. Due to the controversy, Power Slap received low ratings and was canceled by TBS.
Due to legal issues, Dana White decided to gain more trust by launching the Pillow Fighting Championship (PFC) in 2023. Due to the logo branding of PHC, viewers thought that it was associated with MMA, resulting in another lawsuit worth $787.5 million.
UFC caused more confusion when they merged with WWE in 2023. Since these two companies merged into TKO, there have been more questions about the reputation and realism of the entire franchise. Since the antitrust lawsuit was still being investigated the two companies merged, the WWE franchise is also responsible for paying $1.6 billion for the damages UFC made.
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