In 2016, The Fertitta brothers sold the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to Endeavor for over $4 billion. Since the promotion’s new management has taken over, fight fans have logged quite a few complaints. With that in mind, longtime mixed martial arts referee turned Bellator commentator John McCarthy has come forward with his thoughts on the matter.
Speaking to UFC color-commentating veteran Joe Rogan on the JRE MMA Show podcast, McCarthy revealed that he believes Lorenzo Fertitta’s departure from the promotion was a large loss for the UFC.
“The greatest thing that the UFC had was Lorenzo Fertitta. I’m just being honest. Dana White was fantastic for the UFC as far as his work effort and the amount of work he put into it and non-stop just going after deals, trying to make things happen.”
“He was the workhorse for it, but Lorenzo is the brains behind it. And the loss of him is great. You’ve already seen things.”
“(Having too many events) is part of the problem. For a while there, they were almost competing against themselves with pay-per-views. You had two pay-per-views in a month, and you went and said ‘I’ll buy that one, I’m not gonna buy that one.’”
“You can’t be in business against yourself.”
