How Much of the UFC Does Dana White Own?

Whether it’s announcing the post-event rewards or notifying the UFC audience about the upcoming PPVs, the UFC boss, Dana White, does it all for the promotion. Throughout the years, White’s name has become synonymous with the UFC due to his immense contribution to the rise of the promotion. The 54-year-old has boosted the valuation of the UFC to $12B today, after taking over as the president in 2001 when the company was worth a meager $2M. But, reports say that White didn’t pay the $2M himself.

He contacted his wealthy school friends Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who bought off the UFC and employed him as the president of the promotion. But, the Fertitta brothers preferred staying out of the limelight most of the time, which promoted Dana White as the most important figure in the UFC. Although most fans are aware that the 54-year-old is the president of the UFC, his dedication has often made fans wonder whether he is also a co-owner of the promotion or not.

Does Dana White own UFC? What is his role?

The Fertitta brothers decided to give up their UFC ownership to the global entertainment company WME-IMG in the year 2016. During the valuation of the company, it was revealed that White owns 9% of the total ownership shares of the company. While the Fertitta brothers pocketed a massive $4.025B from their sale, White also earned an amount of $360M from his shares.

The new deal with ‘WME-IMG’ revealed he would continue to serve as the president of the promotion. Further, it also promised White an undisclosed share in the ownership of the promotion. However, ‘ESPN’ reported that White will be holding on to his 9% ownership shares of the company as per the new deal as well.

But in 2021, the WME-IMG renamed to ‘Endeavor’, paid $1.7B more, and bought off the UFC entirely. Reports reveal that currently ‘Endeavor’ is the sole owner of the UFC. Hence, it may be said that White probably gave up his ownership shares during the 2021 deal when Endeavor bought off the UFC completely.

In 2023, things took a different turn as WWE and UFC merged under the banner of TKO Holdings, and White was promoted to the UFC’s Chief Executive Officer. Needless to say, the UFC head honcho pockets a hefty amount of money. His salary is $20M per year as the UFC CEO. White holds a current net worth of an insane $500M and it definitely won’t be wrong to say that only a small part of it has come from his earnings outside the UFC. Do you know how much does the MMA promotion make in a year?

How much does the UFC make a year?

TKO Holdings revealed that the company earned $1.7 billion in 2023. It was a massive hike of 47% from 2022. The MMA promotion’s success had, no doubt, a humongous role to play in that. In the same year, UFC amassed $1.3 billion, which was about a 13% rise from the previous year.

For the fourth quarter of the last financial year, the UFC totalled $282.8 million, which was around $11 million higher than the Q4 earnings of the previous year. Without a doubt, the fight promotion has continued to rise. Today, as mentioned earlier, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is worth about $12.3 billion. Now, why don’t we shift our focus to the relationship between White and the Fertitta brothers? After all, they are the ones who brought the UFC to the gates of success.

Dana White’s relationship with Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta and their history with UFC

The UFC president has frequently mentioned his long-standing friendship with former UFC owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta quite often in public speeches. Each time, his tone revealed that he had nothing but appreciation for the brothers.

In an appearance on the noted entrepreneur, Grant Cardone’s YouTube show, White detailed the story from his meeting to becoming friends with the Fertittas. White said, “Lorenzo and I went to high school together. He was a rich kid and I was broke. It’s not like we were best friends, but we knew each other. Lorenzo was a super nice guy to everybody”.

But most UFC fans know that White dropped out of high school and therefore lost contact with the Fertittas. They even had Adam Corrigan, as a common friend. It was at his wedding that White got to meet his old acquaintances, the Fertitta brothers, once more.

In his appearance on Grant Cardone’s show, White recounted, “We went to Adam Corrigan’s wedding and we’ve been together ever since…. That was like 25 years ago. If we don’t go to that wedding, we definitely don’t bump into each other and we don’t see each other. We changed the f****ng world because we went to that wedding”.

Most UFC fans are aware of the story post this meetup. White got into managing the noted former UFC stars, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. He also dug a bit deep to find that the UFC was bleeding money rapidly and was in real trouble. This is when he informed the Fertitta brothers about the same which led to their decision to buy off the UFC in 2001. Well, the rest is pretty much history.