- Dana White is a savvy businessman who revolutionized the UFC and turned it into a global force to be reckoned with.
- He helped oversee the purchase of the promotion for a relatively small cost in 2001 and continues to raise the profile of the company today.
- White's work alongside the likes of Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor helped elevate the UFC's popularity and global appeal.
Over the 30-year history of the UFC, names like Royce Gracie, Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey or Jon Jones might have been considered to be the face of the biggest fight promotion in the world. However, for those paying attention, there’s one name that is a constant when it comes to UFC: Dana White. Though he may seem like a shoot-from-the-hip style kingpin, White is an extremely savvy businessman who has plowed through barriers to bring MMA, specifically the UFC, to heights that seemed like a pipe dream just a few decades earlier.
While boxing was polishing its crown for the last 100+ years as the premiere combat sport, MMA found space to grow and become a worldwide entity. Now one of the fastest growing sports in the world, with champions spanning from Canada to China and everywhere in-between, MMA is no longer boxing’s little sibling, but a force to be recognized, and a big reason for this is a former cardio boxing trainer from Massachusetts.
Dana White - A Combat Sports Visionary
White changed the face of the sport in 2001
Starting as a trainer in a small boxing gym in Boston, White quickly found his calling when he hopped on a plane and moved to the fight capital of the world, better known as Las Vegas. While in the desert learning about grappling to go along with his love for striking, White came across two young prospects by the name of Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, whom he would start to manage. At this time, the UFC was almost a lost cause, but White had a vision of what the company could become - with the right promotional techniques and financial backing.
With the UFC brand crumbling, White saw an opportunity to buy the struggling promotion at a small cost. He reconnected with old friends from his youth, Lorenzo and Frank Ferttita, co-founders of Station Casinos. The Fertitta’s were convinced by White about the UFC’s potential and eventually bought it for $2 million in 2001. Following the bargain buy, White was installed as the UFC president and immediately became the public face of the company.
Dana White walks out of podcast after just 30 seconds
Dana White didn't hang about after saying he was fed up of doing podcasts, hanging up his headphones and walking out the studio.White Faced Major Challenges Before Banking Big Money
The Ultimate Fighter reality show proved a saviour
Early on, there were many valleys and growing pains for the young executives. MMA was non-existent to the public because of its lack of presence on cable TV which was suffocating the fighters' potential to be properly marketed. No network would touch the UFC because of the negative stigma of barbarism and brutality attached to cage-fighting at the time.
In the early days of MMA, fans would have to rent VHS tapes to see fights after the fact. It wasn’t until Spike TV took a chance on the forbidden programming that MMA started to achieve popularity. Reality TV was on fire back in the early 2000s, so the UFC decided to shine a camera on a bunch of fighters living and training together for six weeks.
A major step to winning over the public’s opinion and globalizing the UFC brand was the very first season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality show. It’s 2005, the Fertittas and White are struggling to make the UFC work as they had lost significant money. Incredibly, the TUF season one finale between main event fighters Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar, considered one of the greatest UFC fights of all-time, delivered in a big way by becoming the most viewed UFC event to date.
Returning to live TV for the first time since 2002, this turned out to be the greatest fight in UFC history, which ignited future seasons of TUF, and more importantly, a platform for fighters to show their personalities and martial arts skills to the masses.
Once the Spike TV deal was coming to an end, the UFC gladly shook hands with FOX Sports to close on a 7-year $750m broadcast deal that would take the UFC and its fighters like Rousey and McGregor to great new heights. FOX Sports’ reach – combined with the rapidly improved digital technology – made UFC content much more accessible for fans to remain up to date. Dana White has only spoken glowingly about their time with FOX.
The Rise of the UFC
Network TV transformed the company's fortunes
Besides TUF, White has developed massive combat sports stars that have global appeal. It’s foggy when trying to remember the UFC stars of the 90s, but following White entering the fold, Chuck “Iceman” Liddell and Tito “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz were born. Throw Randy “The Natural” Couture in the mix and the UFC started setting record pay-per-view numbers.
Once it was time for the stars of the early 2000s to pass the torch, enter Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones. Though these three tremendous fighters aren’t known for their trash-talking ability, their skill and expression of martial arts was what kept the hardcore MMA fan’s eyes glued to the screen while the UFC brand was slowly but surely broadening.
Dana White shares crazy six-year body transformation after being told he had 10 years to live
What a difference a year makes.Dana White's Most Successful Crossover Stars
Dana worked closely with McGregor and Rousey in their early UFC careers
Entering the early 2010s, and everything that White had hoped for with TV deals and superstars has come to fruition. Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor were put in positions to succeed by the UFC's senior figures, and they did exactly that. Not only did Rousey bring in a whole new audience to the UFC, but her attitude and quick fights made her a must-watch commodity. Ironically, in a now infamous TMZ quote, White boldly stated that women would “never” fight in the UFC. Today, he will gladly admit that he was wrong about that one, after Rousey became a household name in the world of sports.
Though Rousey’s title reign was elite, it ended abruptly in November of 2015 against a skilled striker in Holly Holm. The event - UFC 193 -was massive. At the time, it was a record-setting night for attendance with over 56,000 fans showing up. The following month would have Conor McGregor setting the world on fire by beating José Aldo at UFC 194 to become the world’s biggest combat sports star. With a nudge here and a nudge there by master promoter White, McGregor’s career skyrocketed, culminating with a historic event in New York City. UFC 205 was the company's debut in Madison Square Garden and its main event saw the Irishman defeat Eddie Alvarez to become the promotion's first-ever simultaneous two-weight world champion. The success of McGregor and Rousey undeniably played a major role in the company being sold for $4 billion in 2016.
Dana White's 2024 Net Worth
The Boston native has made a fortune promoting fights
Invezz.com reported that White brings in $20M annually for his role as UFC CEO and frontman. White loves his position in the company. He is not shy about being in the public eye as he willfully fields questions from reporters on a weekly basis. After the sale of the UFC from ZUFFA (owned by White and Ferttita brothers) to WMG-IMG was completed in July 2016, Dana admitted that he wouldn't be retiring anytime soon despite the generational wealth accrued.
Per Sportskeeda, the UFC is believed to be worth $500m, with a large chunk of that figure coming from the proceeds he received when the UFC was sold. Dana was a 9% owner of the promotion at the time and is believed to have walked away with $360m from the sale. While he's no longer a direct owner, White is still driven to put on big fights and chase financial records.
In 2018, White and company produced the biggest MMA pay-per-view event of all-time (UFC 229, 2.4 million buys). Shortly afterwards, the company another major step forward as the UFC and ESPN closed on a seven-year broadcast deal worth $2.1 billion. This agreement made the UFC a digital sports league by dispensing with the traditional pay-per-view model, which is fitting considering the UFC trends high in viewership among 18-34-year olds.
| Month | Year | Dana White Career Highlights |
| January | 2001 | Fertitta brothers buy UFC for $2MIL |
| April | 2005 | The Ultimate Fighter 1 sets UFC viewership record |
| September | 2009 | The Ultimate Fighter 10 breaks Spike TV viewership record |
| July | 2016 | UFC sells for $4.025 billion to WME-IMG |
| November | 2016 | UFC 205 is the highest gate in MSG history at $17.7MIL |
| August | 2017 | Maywether-McGregor draws 4.3 million pay-per-view buys |
| October | 2018 | UFC 229: most pay-per-view buys in MMA history at 2.4 million |
| January | 2019 | Signed seven-year/ $2.1 billion broadcast deal with ESPN |
| May | 2020 | First live sports programming to return during the height of COVID-19 |
| Quarter 1 | 2023 | UFC earns $306MIL in reported revenue, 18% increase from Q1 2022 |
| September | 2023 | UFC and WWE form joint company TKO Group |
Dana White endorsements and side projects
White launched Power Slap in 2023
While White may seem to have his hands full with the UFC, he has poured a lot of time into his new venture, Power Slap . A product that has received mixed reviews because of the lack of defense and high knockout rate, White remains adamant about the huge social media statistics the league pulls in. The next historic event on the horizon for White is UFC 300 - and the boss has vowed that it will be one of the most memorable cards in the promotion's history.
Dana has also had success promoting with flavored whiskey, Howler Head. Though he does not own the company, White is a brand-partner with the Kentucky spirit. The beverage is highly-promoted by the UFC and can be seen on fight night broadcasts. Dana has also expanded ways to grow his brand and the UFC’s talent pool through shows like 'Dana White’s Looking For A Fight' and 'Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series' (DWCS). UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley is the most recent superstar to come out of that show - proving that the industry leader is always on the hunt for new talent.
Fighter pay in the UFC has long been a point of contention for both fans and competitors alike. Social media star Jake Paul has infamously taken shots at White over his reluctance to pay UFC stars a bigger percentage of company revenue. However, while some fighters might be struggling financially, White's bank balance has never looked healthier.
