It seems as though the UFC continues to expand at a rapid pace. Since becoming UFC president in 2001, Dana White has grown the brand from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the combat sporting world. Now, it seems as though the UFC will be reaching new heights sometime in the near future.

During an interview, White claims there will be an announcement that puts fighters “among the massive major sports leagues.”

Via Bloody Elbow's Anton Tabuena:

“We'll have announcements this year that will take the sport and the brand to a whole new level,” White told BT Sport. “Every year we continue to climb. The Draft Kings deal is massive. For us to be now looked at as the other big (sport) — the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball — that's always been important to me. For these athletes to be respected and at the level these other athletes are at, we're finally there. We're there now.”

The biggest transaction for the UFC was most recently in 2019 when Dana White announced they'd be partnering up with ESPN. Since then, the UFC has been airing strictly on ESPN. It's the main reason why people have subscribed to ESPN+, as having a subscription to the streaming service is now the only way to purchase pay-per-view fights.

The Disney-owned corporation has been rising to the top of the sporting world for quite some time, getting thrown into the mix with the NBA, NFL, and MLB these last two years while growing in popularity across the world. One can only imagine what Dana White has in store:

“We're going to capitalize and grow on that around the world. In these other countries, it's basically soccer and cricket that we have to measure up to. We're getting there.”

A good guess would be the UFC finds its way in countries where the sport hasn't generated much popularity. With the mention of cricket, Dana White may be pushing to set up events in India, which could grow the company by a massive amount.