One of the most easily analyzed quotes from Dana White and Zuffa has long been the statement that the UFC will never be involved in a co-promotion. Most fans believe this is due to the fact that the UFC is the biggest and most profitable MMA promotion in the world, and those fans would be right. The UFC has nothing to gain from a co-promotion with another promotion, and the co-promoting organization would have everything to gain from the UFC's name.

During today's media conference call , Dana White said that a co-promotion was "impossible". One of the quotes actually stated that the Fertittas have a gaming license, and it implied that this was one of the reason as to why the UFC would ultimately never co-promote along with the obvious fact that they are making loads of money without the help of any other promotion.

What did Dana White mean by this? After thinking about this for awhile, it really stems from something that happened quite awhile ago involving the PRIDE buyout and the following lawsuit between Pride FC Worldwide Holdings LLC, a Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta-owned venture, and Dream Stage Entertainment, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Ubon, and Dream Stage Holdings along with some other unknown defendants.

The most notable part of the lawsuit did, in fact, involve the Fertitta's gaming licenses:

The complaint states that because of the Fertittas' involvement in the Nevada gaming industry, specifically their possession of privileged gaming licenses as owners and operators of Station Casinos, it was "essential" for the selling parties "to undertake certain post-closing actions."

Section 5.3 of the asset purchase agreement expressly required that the defendants, particularly Sakakibara, "submit to and pass any reasonable background checks." However, according to the complaint, the selling parties "have repeatedly and consistently failed to submit basic information to and have materially obstructed the Investigator in the conduct of its background checks and due diligence investigation of, among others, Sakakibara and Ubon."

Pride Worldwide alleges that "the Selling Parties never intended to comply with this material term, thereby defrauding the Purchasing Parties into entering into the AP Agreement, the Consulting Agreement, the Non-Compete Agreement and the other related transactional documents and into paying the Selling Parties millions upon millions of dollars."

Notice of breach was first provided on Aug. 22, 2007.

How did these gaming licenses have anything to do with this entire buyout? Any dealings that Fertittas are involved in are subject to due diligence of the company that is being acquired or bought. The Fertittas cannot be involved in anything that has any type of organized crime connection or corruption connection because of their involvement in the Nevada Gaming industry.

If a co-promotion had actually been set-up between the UFC and M-1 Global, M-1 Global would most likely have to undergo some sort of due diligence process in the same manner due to having a contract involvement with Zuffa. Since Zuffa's CEO is Lorenzo Fertitta, this could become a problem. More importantly, it could become a huge problem for the Fertittas if by some chance M-1 Global is involved in some sort of illegal activity. The last thing Lorenzo Fertitta would want is a lengthy investigation by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

There are definitely a number of reasons why Zuffa wouldn't want to enter a co-promotion agreement with another organization. Not only does it not help their own organization, but it could end up causing a huge hassle down the road much like the Dream Stage Entertainment deal to acquire PRIDE.