Dana White Narrates the Story of How the Fertitta Brothers Wanted to Sell the UFC at $40 Million in Debt

Even with the advent of the pandemic, the UFC has been breaking every financial record that it had set in the past. With that said, the only goal that MMA has in mind is surpassing the previous ones. The Dana White-led organization concluded its most profitable year in 2021 and hopes for even more in 2022.

However, that wasn’t always the case. The MMA promotion had seen its fair share of ups and downs. But things got so bad in the early 2000s that the Fertitta brothers had to call the UFC President Dana White and look for a way out of the organization as it was drowning in $40 Million worth of debt.

In a conversation with NELKBOYS on their Full Send podcast, White narrated the whole instance.

“Lorenzo calls me one night and says I can’t keep funding this fucking thing man. Me and my brother are blowing all our fucking money and get out there and see what you can sell this thing for. And I was like f**k. So, I started calling, making some calls. By the end of the night, I said probably get six, maybe seven million,” Dana White explained.

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“That was where his head was, yeah. You know, probably had a shitty day at work. The stock probably took a hit that day. Who knows what went on in his world that day to make him make that call or he probably had sent another funding cheque over? And he’s like, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“So, all night I am thinking oh man this is a fucking wrap, this is the end of this. So, the next morning he calls me like 7:30 and goes fuck it. Let’s keep going,” White continued.

Dana White signs a multi-year deal with ‘The Rock’

The UFC and former WWE superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson have put pen to paper for an exciting multi-year global partnership. The deal will put Project Rock, ‘The Rock’s label with Under Armour, as the official footwear sponsor of the UFC.

Fighters, both male and female, along with corner teams, would wear the branded shoes in their weigh-ins and training sessions as part of the deal.

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What do you think about the crazy story of the UFC’s not so glorious past? Let us know in the comments.