EA and UFC sign multi-game partnership

UFC president Dana White has done quite a turnaround of his opinion of EA Sports in the past three years.

As part of Electronic Arts' E3 2012 press briefing, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White appeared on stage to announce a deal between the two companies for a "multi-year, multi-product partnership." That's about it for details, since today's news was about the deal rather than a specific game, but given THQ's recent struggles, it makes sense that the UFC brand would find a new home.

Perhaps notably, White didn't acknowledge his 2009 comments about EA Sports, when he said EA was initially dismissive of UFC, then saw THQ's success with it and made their own mixed martial arts title in response. "We put our asses on the line, THQ and the UFC, to make a videogame deal in the worst economy in the world," he said in 2009 in a story that appeared on MMA Junkie. "We go out there and do this thing, and it's successful, and now [expletive] EA Sports wants to do a video game. Really? That's not what you told us a year-and-a-half ago."