A fresh-out-of-high-school 19-year-old Dana left a decent gig working as a hotel valet, making cash every day, a check at the end of the week, and great benefits. But he wasn’t happy. As hasty as it might sound, he quit in the hopes of getting into the fighting business. Owing money to Irish mob boss Whitey Bulger was a bad thing back in those days in Boston, and White owed a good $2,500. He had until the weekend to pay them, only White didn’t used to have that kind of loose cash lying around. A ticket to Vegas and White never looked back.  

The incoming of the Fertitta brothers changed his life forever. Met at a friend’s wedding, White reacquainted himself with his old school buddy named Lorenzo Fertitta who was a fairly famous name in the casino circuit, owning a few of them with his brother Frank. And the rest was history. The frontman has become a millionaire, building a once-laughable $2 million investment to over $12 billion legacy. And in came, a good amount of money along with this. 

It has been 23 years since the Fertitta brothers formed the parent company Zuffa, LLC, and bought UFC. The brothers sold a majority share of their equity to WME-IMG in 2016 for $4 billion and left the MMA business after selling their remaining shares for $1 billion in 2017. But Dana White didn’t move an inch. So, when the UFC CEO was last asked about retirement, White was stern: “I’ll never retire. I’ll die working.” But even White knows that’s aspirational.

White, who signed a seven-year contract extension in 2019 to stay on with Endeavor and run the UFC, was asked the same question again. This time, by a fan. On Thursday, Sports Business Journal was on a virtual call with Dana where he was asked, “Even though you have many years left, can the UFC still grow at the same rate without Dana White?” And unlike the last time, Dana gave an answer that can’t get more practical than this. 

The bossman said, “We’ve built a business that will go on with or without me. You know, the only thing with having me here is it would just be different. It would be somebody else’s vision. I run the UFC top to bottom, you know. So yes, it will go on and live forever. It will just be different.”

We all know that Dana White and Fertitta brothers took a big gamble when they bet on the success of the UFC with just $2 million. But how did White manage to succeed with the UFC, while keeping his relationship with the Fertitta brothers afloat, all these years? Let’s find out.

Dana White did exactly the opposite of whatever rock band Guns N’ Roses did wrong 

The first and foremost thing to keep in check in successfully managing a business is not money, but ego. That’s exactly what the UFC head honcho had to say during his conversation with TorchPro back in 2022. He referred to the example of the famed band, Guns N’ Roses. While the band never broke up, the members quit and were simply replaced. And reason? It was a hurdle in the creative process, which is just another fancy set of words for ego. 

White pointed out that ego never came between him and the Fertitta brothers, even though there was a time when the MMA promotion faced a downfall. He continued, “You buy this thing for two million, then go forty million in the hole. There’s so many ways you could go sideways with your brothers. Like me and the Fertitta brothers, we never allowed that to happen.

“We’re as close now as we were back then. That’s the major key to success. Keep your ego in check. Remember why you got into this, how it all started. The Feritta’s put the money in early on. It needed all three of us to do what we did to build it what it was today.”

Dana White is steadfast in his drive to grow the business, and now, he has aimed his sights at bringing artificial intelligence into the UFC. This could be a revolutionary move in the sporting community, which will eliminate all the discrepancies with regards to the UFC’s online ecosystem, and in the determination of athlete rankings. No wonder UFC keeps growing!

What are your thoughts on Dana White’s role in growing the MMA promotion? Will you miss seeing the head honcho if and when he retires from the UFC? Let us know what you think in the comments