In another example of making something out of nothing, Dana White announced that the promotion has come up with another big event that may be just as huge as Freedom 250, the White House event.

The event’s producer for The White House event, Craig Bosari has come up with the UFC’s next big production. Dana White praised Bosari in an interview and inferred that he has another event that would be on a similar level. According to White, the event would be in the United States.

Nothing else was disclosed but one might infer that with the UFC’s next number event occurring this weekend in Philadelphia, the promotion would make the announcement this weekend. However, White did state that he had to work over some more information so the announcement could be on hold.

Recently, the promotion has announced cards in Los Angeles in September, a return to Salt Lake City, Utah in October and multiple events in Arizona. Hence, the UFC event could be happening by the end of the year or in 2027.

Payout Perspective:

Could we be heading into another big event similar to Freedom 250 or UFC Noche I at the Sphere. Both of those events, the venue and production (i.e., the UFC) was the main attraction and not the fights. Hence, the emphasis is on the experience and production and not making the fighters, the stars. It goes to the argument by fans that the UFC is no longer making stars like Conor McGregor, Jon Jones or Ronda Rousey. Rather, it is a subtle way to suppress the potential star power of fighters. This goes to potential issues with pay down the road. We will see what exactly is the buzz of this event and if its actually warranted.

UFC Vegas 120 took place at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main and co-main events came through with bonuses.

Quillian Salkilld earned his $100K bonus with a first round submission over Mateusz Gamrot. The Aussie’s ascendancy has been quick and if he keeps it up he may be up for a lightweight title shot in 2026.

The co-main event drew the Fight of the Night with Diego Ferreira getting the victory over Billy Quarantillo. Ferreira had a career high in strikes in the co-main an drew the unanimous decision.

Ty Miller drew the last $100K bonus with a third round stoppage of Billy Ray Goff. Miller remains undefeated in his pro career.

$25K finishes went to Yadier del Valle, Diyar Nurgozhay, Jose Montanha, Miles Johns and Julianna Miller.

Bloomberg Law reports that the total settlement in the WWE shareholder settlement was $147.5M. In a letter to the court dated August 6, 2026, the Plaintiffs advised the court of the total and a request that Defendants execute the agreed-upon settlement papers “by a date certain.”

The shareholder lawsuit filed in 2023 alleged that McMahon forced his return to WWE after he was ousted for alleged sexual misconduct. The lawsuit claims that McMahon led the movement to sell the WWE to Endeavor. An SEC filing earlier this week stated that WWE contributed $105 million to the settlement of the lawsuit. A portion of the letter from Plaintiffs’ counsel indicates that McMahon and his insurers paid an additional $42.5M.

Despite the hefty payout, McMahon, who remains in exile from WWE, made out well from the sale of the company. Estimated payouts from equity in the company are estimated at $2 Billion.

Janel Grant’s lawsuit against McMahon was sent to private arbitration with the lawsuit being dismissed.

Earlier this week, TKO released its earnings for the second quarter for 2026. Business is still up for the company despite two big hiccups in the quarter.

The continued question of discovery persists in the Johnson Antitrust lawsuit. A status conference is being held on Thursday, August 6th and the Plaintiffs have filed a Pre-Conference Statement prior to the conference.

The question of what information Zuffa has in its possession is the big question. In its latest filing (below) they seek to clarify to the Court the status of discovery in light of Zuffa’s brief regarding discovery.

Plaintiffs Pre Conference Statement Re Status Conference by MMA Payout

First, Plaintiffs address the issue of the court-appointed forensic expert screwing up his job and being dismissed by the court.

Certainly Mr. Wedin’s mistake is something we will address in a later post. But, Plaintiffs contend that White deleted messages from his iPhone 6S as written in footnote 2.

Plaintiffs have proposed protocols to the UFC to perform analysis of the deleted data. The UFC declined to participate due to not knowing specifics according to the Plaintiffs.

The filing advocates for Plaintiffs use of its search terms (essentially words or phrases to use when searching the data collections harvested by the UFC in order to find relevant documents). Plaintiffs argue that the UFC “abdicated their obligation to identify the vast majority of specific production gaps that Plaintiffs identified…” Plaintiffs contend that the UFC is focusing on quantity of the production and not the specific information that Plaintiffs are seeking.

Plaintiffs continue to advocate for its “proposed search terms” to obtain the relevant information from the UFC’s custodial files.

With respect to Competitor materials, Plaintiffs state that the UFC “fails to demonstrate that it has made a complete production of such materials and that Plaintiffs’ search term proposal, which includes competitor names as terms that the UFC did not previously apply.” Plaintiffs only cite to one commissioned document related to ONE Championship.

Payout Perspective:

The above is a portion of the key information that the Plaintiffs are seeking from the UFC. On Thursday, we will see what the Court says about further production of documents. While Plaintiffs would like “search terms” used from the UFC data collections, the company is pushing back on the notion citing that it has already been produced.

WWE announced that the 2027 Royal Rumble will be held at State Farm Stadium in February. It is part of multi-year partnership with the Arizona Sports & Events Alliance.

In addition to WWE’s Premium Live Event heading to Phoenix, TKO’s other stablemates will be holding events in the area.

Previously announced, UFC Noche will be held on September 12th at the Desert Diamond Arena. The Professional Bull Riders tour will hold its World Finals at the Desert Diamond Arena May 20-23rd. Finally, Zuffa Boxing will hold an event in the area, likely the Desert Diamond Arena at a yet to be determined time.

The partnership with Arizona is for seven events over 3 years and is a first of its kind. Certainly, this is the type of agreement TKO is looking for where it can obtain guarantees for multiple events for a site fee. It is not stated as far as the type of events to occur as part of the agree (i.e., Fight Nights vs UFC numbered events or WWE PLEs versus Smackdown/Raw television).

The second quarter of 2026 showed that despite two significant losses, it didn’t miss a beat with its earnings. On Monday, the company announce revenue of $1.547B and net income of $303.9 million.

Despite announcing a $30 million loss for the UFC White House event in June and settling an investor lawsuit for $105 million this quarter the company continued to show no significant fissures in revenues.

While the war with Iran continues, the UFC (and Powerslap) held events in the Middle East. Both the UFC in Azerbijian and the UFC (and Powerslap) in Abu Dhabi reflected the unprecedented global reach of the company (not to mention site fees).

The UFC announced revenue of $535.7M for the second quarter of 2026 which is a an increase from 2025’s $415.9M.

WWE drew $620.9M for the quarter whereas it was at $556.2 in 2025.

The UFC increased its media rights, sponsorships and consumer products/licensing for the quarter. Notably, live event revenue were down for the quarter. In 2025 it drew $58.5M whereas this year it was at $47.8M. This was due in part to the UFC White House event which did not sell any tickets (although there were packages sold…I don’t think they went to TKO). Also, there was one less numbered UFC event. The company saw a 29% overall increase in revenue. This, despite announcing a $30M loss from the UFC White House event. Initially forecasted as a $60M delta, the company recouped (we gather) $30M from sponsorships. Notably, the company stated that sponsorship revenue “were primarily related to new partners and an increase in fees from renewals, which were largely driven by the UFC Freedom 250 event…”

WWE revenue increased 12% in the quarter. Similar to UFC, its live events segment saw a decrease from 2025. Its live events for 2026 drew $152M whereas the live events for 2025 saw a draw of $185.7M. Its media rights fees increased from $278.9M to $359.7M in the quarter. Also of note, consumer products increased from $33.3M to $46.0M.

The company reported the $105M settlement with shareholders in its SEC filings on Monday. The lawsuit stemmed from alleged fraud in Vince McMahon selling WWE to Endeavor. The allegations were that McMahon stepped in to foster the sale of WWE (even though he was ousted due to sexual misconduct accusations) to Endeavor. Shareholders claimed this was done without the regular process of vetting all potential buyers. The lawsuit came close to trial with the parties settling in the last week prior to the start of a four day trial in Delaware.

The UFC went to Serbia on Saturday and the promotion handed out a record number of finish bonuses for its debut in the country.

The native son, Uros Medic, did not disappoint the crowd as he disposed of Daniel Rodriguez in the main event of their bout just seconds in the first round. He earned $100K for his efforts.

Navajo Stirling is rising up the light heavyweight rankings quickly. On short notice, he was able to stop former UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in the first round. In his fourth fight this year, Stirling earned a $100K bonus.

Gilbert Urbina earned a $100K bonus with a ground and pound stoppage of Vlast Cepo. Urbina came in as an underdog but pulled off the upset.

Nina Milosevic earned the fourth $100K bonus with a first round stoppage of Hailey Cowan.

There were 8 $25K stoppage bonuses on the night, the most since the company implemented the payouts. Robert Gagnon, Noah Gugnon, Tofiq Musayev, Michael Oliviera, Bogdan Grad, Mateus Rebecki, Jovan Leka and Stephani Luciano

Zuffa responded to Plaintiffs statement of missing discovery in the Cirkunov antitrust lawsuit. Zuffa contends that some of the discovery that Plaintiffs seek have already been produced and/or is just not there.

Zuffa claims that the allegation that it has not provided Promotional Agreements is not true and counters that Plaintiffs’ requests are “riddled with errors.”

In addition to refuting Plaintiffs claims that there was no evidence regarding fighter negotiations, Zuffa highlights all of the time and expense it has done in discovery.

Zuffa points out that it had produced the documents that the Plaintiffs complain about. “This fact alone should give the Court tremendous pause,” writes Zuffa as it infers distrust and/or lack of paying attention to

Zuffa responds to the claim that it had no documentation memorializing discussions of when fighters were leaving (e.g., Francis Ngannou) or when they wanted to sign fighters. Plaintiffs’ failure to locate these materials is a function of their inability to search, not a deficiency in Defendant’s production.”

Zuffa goes on to point out that it had produced documents “reflecting communications about fighters’ moves to competing promotions…” This includes Ngannou, Anthony Pettis, Demetrious Johnson, Sage Northcutt and Eddie Alvarez.

The filing goes on to highlight its voluminous production as well as dismissing the claims that it has nor produced information. In addition to the above, it refutes omitting things such as loan documents, prospective analysis of other promotions, tv contracts, etc.

The purpose of discovery is to ascertain as much information as you can to prove your case. If the information is not there, its just not there. So the question is how much can the Plaintiffs’ prove that there is still information lacking? And, will the Court find its argument persuasive. MPO will continue to follow.

The Sports Business Journal reports that the latest UFC video game EA UFC 6 was the top selling video game for June. It’s the first time the UFC game has debuted as a bestselling game on Playstation 5 and XBox Series X/S.

Launch dates of the franchise UFC video game are said to be one of the attributes of this year’s success. Per the report, June is a “soft month for sports games sales” due in part to the fall releases which mean Madden as well as the third year of the NCAA Football video game. Also, later in fall come the NBA and NHL games on all consoles. The UFC’s prior launches were in October which contributed to the appearance that sales were weaker. The release of EA UFC 5 ranked 8tj in October 2023.

Notably, the MLB: The Show 26 and NBA2K25 still showed its popularity as the two sport games made the top 10 in video game sales for June.

Also of note, June’s game sales are off 12% from last year. But, subscriptions and season passes were up.

The change in launch dates and the overall weaker sales may have helped with the new UFC franchise.