How Shane McMahon's Potential Hiring Could Benefit The UFC

The meetings between Shane McMahon and the UFC were poised to be big news as rumors of his hiring by the world's biggest MMA promotion had picked up a lot of steam.  However, the timing of the news forced it to get lost in the shuffle of Brock Lesnar's illness, a host of other UFC injuries and a steady stream of major events.  Heavy.com did find some time to dig into the story though and through talks with various sources they did begin to develop a bit of an idea of where Shane McMahon fits into the UFC's plans:

But five years after the initial explosion of popularity built by The Ultimate Fighter reality show, you don’t see a strong UFC brand in the marketplace. While you might expect a thriving brand of UFC t-shirts and hats to be sold in Wal-Marts nationwide, instead you find-almost nothing.

Here, more than anywhere else, is where the UFC can use McMahon’s help. Not only has he witnessed firsthand the WWE’s slow march to wrestling ubiquity, he has personally secured much of the company’s foreign business deals. McMahon has successfully made millions in the United Kingdom and German markets, even successfully taking the UFC into the heart of Western Europe, and can likely replicate that success for the UFC.

The story also has a lot of focus on Shane's abilities to help the UFC with international deals.  It is quite clear that when you get beyond the simple WWE ties and last name that there is a legitimate benefit to having someone of his background on board to help expand the promotion.

Money remains an obstacle to getting the deal done, however, as Heavy makes it clear that Shane is looking to buy in to the company rather than simply be hired on.

This is absolutely a situation which needs to be monitored going forward.