Dana White is quite happy with UFC\u2019s success as the company enters a streaming deal with Paramount.<\/p>\n
The top mixed martial arts promotion scored a seven-year deal for $7.7 billion<\/a> to have its events streamed on Paramount+ and broadcast on CBS. It\u2019s a massive increase from the $1.5 billion media rights deal UFC agreed to with ESPN back in 2019.<\/p>\n Business has been booming for UFC, and White recently spoke on stage at the \u201cUNCONVENTIONAL PIONEER: Redefining Sports Entertainment\u201d panel in Riyadh. The UFC boss touted his promotion\u2019s ticket sales (h\/t MMAFighting<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cWe got the UFC to a place where people are buying tickets before we even announce the main event,\u201d White said. \u201cSo we started to build this relationship with the fanbase that they knew we were going to deliver no matter what happened. Boxing hasn\u2019t done that in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The UFC boss also reflected on changing the perception of MMA when he first entered the fray. He said one of the key factors was not repeating the same mistakes that were made with boxing.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw a lot of things that I thought were wrong and broken with boxing at the time and I felt that if we kept building on delivering a good product [with UFC] every time \u2014 I\u2019ve been saying for a long time, I feel like every time you watch a boxing event it\u2019s like a going out of business sale,\u201d White said. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to grab up as much money as they can.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t care if the live event is good or even if the television event is good. As long as they can bring in a ton of money, that\u2019s all they did.\u201d<\/p>\n