Endeavor, UFC Goes Public On The New York Stock Exchange

Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland - Zuffa LLC

Endeavor, the ownership company of the UFC has gone public on the New York Stock Exchange this morning.

UFC president, Dana White, as well as executive duo, Patrick Whitesell and Ari Emanuel all appeared at the New York Stock Exchange. At the time of opening, Endeavor began trading at $24 a share. Confirming that the Ultimate Fighting Championship had gone public, the promotion's president, White posted on his Instagram; "It's official," White wrote. "The UFC is now a public company #EndeavorIPO (Initial Public Offering)"

As per ESPN MMA, media group, Endeavor are currently in the process of taking complete ownership of the UFC, following their summer 2016 purchase from both Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, for a cool, reported $4 billion. 

Back in 2019, Endeavor Group Holdings had made plans to go public before the end of the year, before shelving those ideas at the eleventh hour due to a reported lack of demand. Per the report from ESPN MMA, Endeavor recorded a loss of a whopping $625 million net from a $3.5 billion recorded revenue amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic last year. 

Returning to 'Sin City' this weekend where the promotion had largely based their 2020 schedule amid the aforenoted, novel coronavirus pandemic, they field a UFC Vegas 25 event which is headlined by a light heavyweight matchup between two-time title challenger, Dominick Reyes, and former Rizin FF champion, Jiri Prochazka. 

Just last weekend, the promotion traveled to Jacksonville, Florida -- where they featured their UFC 261 pay-per-view event, which featured champions, Kamaru Usman, Zhang Weili, and Valentina Shevchenko in a stacked card. 

The event was open to a full crowd of attendees at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena, with White reporting an arena record gate of £3.3 million, as well as a 700,000 buyrate, and an attendance of 15,269. 

The UFC are set to return to a live gate format in May as well, with a UFC 262 event in Houston, Texas at the Toyota Centre on May 15. That event is scheduled to feature a vacant lightweight title fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler. Veteran Stockton native, Nate Diaz also returns in a five-round, non-title, co-main event slot at welterweight against Leon Edwards.

As well as sold-out events at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena and the Toyota Centre, the organization returns to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 10. -- with a lightweight rubber match, potential title-eliminator between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor set to take main event honours.