UFC merged with WWE to form TKO Group In April 2023, Endeavor Group Holdings announced that UFC would merge with the wrestling promotion
WWE to form
TKO Group Holdings, a new Public company majority-owned by Endeavor, with
Vince McMahon serving as an executive chairman of the new entity and White remaining as UFC president. The merger was completed on September 12, 2023.
Class action: anti-trust lawsuit On August 9, 2023, U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware decided to grant class action status to more than 1,200 former UFC fighters who competed between December 2010 and June 2017 who are suing upward of for 1.6 billions in wages that the lawsuit claims
Zuffa had abused its power to suppress UFC fighters' wages, setting the stage on 8, April, 2024 trial.
Betting scandal In early February 2023 UFC introduced rules that banned athletes, coaches, and their close family from betting on UFC events. after the call for a sports betting fraud investigation was made on a fight involving
Darrick Minner a student of
James Krause, who is a UFC coach and avid bettor, and
Shayilan Nuerdanbieke at
UFC Fight Night: Rodriguez vs. Lemos. The UFC was informed by sources that suspicious betting patterns had been observed on the fight.
USADA anti-doping partnership (2015–2024) The UFC's partnership with USADA coming to an end in 2023, the UFC announced a new partnership with Drug Free Sport International, the same company that oversees the anti-doping programs of the
NCAA,
MLB,
NFL, and
NBA. This partnership is set to begin in 2024, after their current contract with USADA expired on December 31, 2023. The UFC announced that former FBI agent
George Piro would serve as the independent administrator of the UFC's anti-doping program. == 2023 by the numbers ==