Did UFC President Dana White Ever Have an MMA Fight? Everything You Need To Know About His Training and Combat Sports Career

Dana White is synonymous with the UFC. The UFC President employed every trick under his sleeves and poured in his blood and sweat to uplift the UFC as a brand. His efforts to revolutionize the fight scene led to UFC’s success as the biggest MMA organization in the world. It is thus telling that the UFC’s current evaluation stands at $12 billion. What separated him from the rest was his ability to sniff out any opportunity and pounce on it.

While he has left an imprint on the fighting world, did he ever step inside a ring himself?

Did UFC President Dana White Ever Fight in the UFC?

The 53-year-old worked as a valet and juggled multiple jobs while harboring a desire to pursue the path of a professional boxer. He took up boxing gloves at age 17 and also ended up friends with former Golden Gloves champion, Peter Welch. 

Despite this long association with combat sports, he never competed in an MMA fight, professional or amateur.

It was this relationship that ignited his passion to enter the fight business. The UFC head honcho even started a boxing gym in Boston with Welch. However, he soon left for Las Vegas and continued running boxercise gyms and also tried his hands at BJJ under John Lewis.

The role of boxing coach allowed him to meet hot prospects, including the future UFC champion, Tito Ortiz.

UFC President Dana White ‘Used to Beat the Living S—‘ out of Tito Ortiz

What started as a journey as a manager to Ortiz and Chuck Liddell soon culminated with White handling the UFC’s affairs. Amid his busy schedule, the charm of sparring in the square circle never left him. The Manchester native even used to spar with ‘Bad Boy’ during his heydays.

While many wouldn’t give him a chance, White used to outbox the UFC Hall of Famer. “The reality is I used to beat the living sh*t out of Tito Ortiz back when we first bought this company and we used to box,” he once announced.

In 2007, Ortiz penned a contract with a stipulation of a boxing fight with White. The former UFC champion wanted to have a showdown with his former manager. But it soon fell apart after the commission got involved and he failed to show up at the weigh-ins.

“I’m not trying to sound like a tough guy and I don’t talk about the thing a lot. But I was ready, in great shape, and Tito bailed on that thing. Because Tito knew he was going to get his as* whooped on national television,” White explained in an interaction with media.

The UFC lynchpin regretted the fiasco and wouldn’t have taken the fight if he were aware Ortiz would drop out. At 37, he was pushing his body to the limits, and he even employed a fighting camp for 4 months. He bought in young heavyweights and got beaten to a pulp in the sparring sessions, only to be left stranded at the weigh-ins.

But the American entrepreneur knew who would have emerged victorious in their boxing match. He declared, “He [Tito Ortiz] asked for a boxing match with me and I would’ve beat the living sh*t out of Tito. And he knows it and that’s why he didn’t do it.”

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The fight came at a cost for White, as the whole boxing debacle left him on the wrong side of the state commission. It also meant White failed to realize his dream of stepping into a boxing ring in an official match.

Dana White’s Boxing career

The American businessperson never fought an official boxing match. He called off his career as a boxer after reconsidering the tradeoffs and especially the CTE risks associated with boxing.

Once he stepped into a managerial role, there wasn’t enough time for him to reignite his childhood dream.

What do you think of this relatively unknown aspect of Dana White? Do you believe he would have beaten Ortiz in a boxing match? Let us know in the comments below.

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