A very big development for the UFC is announced by Five Ounces of Pain:
Breaking: Percentage of UFC Sold To Sheik Tahnoon of Abu Dhabi
FiveOuncesofPain.com has recently received reports from multiple sources extremely close to the situation indicating that the UFC has recently sold a minority percentage of the company to Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of the former United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Sheik Tahnoon is well known throughout the grappling community as the founder of the no-gi submission Olympics, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club. Himself a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie, Shiek Tahnoon has been a long time supporter and practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu.
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5 Oz. has been further notified by several sources that have indicated that Sheik Tahnoon’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor, Renzo Gracie, played a key role in brokering the deal between the two parties. We have been further informed that key components of the deal included Gracie’s signing by the UFC, along with the Renzo’s participation against Matt Hughes in Abu Dhabi.
This is a really odd move at first glance. The sale of a portion of the company was unexpected enough, but the sale to a buyer in Abu Dhabi is really an attention grabber.
Sheik Tahnoon’s founding of the ADCC does prove him to be a long term player in the MMA market and not just someone looking to cash in on a hot item. But there is no word as of this time as to what, if any, role in day-to-day operations the Sheik will have within the UFC.
There is clearly much more to this story and as more details emerge SBNation will be here to bring them to you.
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