Vince McMahon, the founder of WWE and a prominent American entrepreneur, revealed that he was offered the chance to buy UFC in the early 2000s but chose to pass on the opportunity due to his dissatisfaction with the promotion's business model.
McMahon stated in a Netflix documentary:
When it was presented in terms of buying UFC, I didn’t like that business model. Because our business model, you can create characters much like Disney or someone else and we can use them forever. As opposed to a boxer/UFC [fighter], once you’re beat, once you’re hurt or something, your career’s over. We’re in show business.
Currently, UFC stands as one of the most lucrative sports organizations worldwide, but the situation was quite different in the early 2000s. Back then, the promotion was operating at a loss, most states had MMA banned, and television networks wanted nothing to do with the sport.
