From fringe to everlasting fortune! This one phrase encapsulates the UFC’s journey in a nutshell. When Dana White and the Fertitta brothers purchased the promotion from SEG for a mere $2 million in 2001, they weren’t buying a sports empire—they were rescuing a sinking ship. MMA existed on the cultural fringe, condemned as “human cockfighting” by Senator John McCain and banned from television in most states. The promotion hosted events in dimly lit recreation centers of forgotten towns, hemorrhaging money with every show.

In fact, the financial situation grew so dire that the head honcho nearly offloaded the entire operation for just $8 million—a decision that would have left billions on the table. Fast forward to 2024, and the transformation is nothing short of extraordinary. The UFC now stands as the undisputed king of combat sports with an $11.3 billion valuation according to Forbes. What once couldn’t fill small venues now sells out Madison Square Garden and commands global pay-per-view audiences.

“I read somewhere that at one point you guys were like $44 million in debt, right? Was there ever a point where you thought about cutting bait?” Forbes’ Matt Craid asked the UFC CEO in an interview.

“So one day I was at the office and Lorenzo [Fertitta] called me,” White recalled. “And he’s like ‘I can’t keep doing this. Me and my brother can’t keep funding this thing, it’s getting bad. So I need you to go out and see what you could sell this thing for.’ So I thought it was over. I started making phone calls that day and at the end of the day, I called him back and I said ‘seven or eight million– we could probably get seven or eight million for this thing, in my opinion.'”

“And he’s like, ‘all right.’ He said ‘I’ll call you tomorrow and then I, you know, I thought it was over. And the next day I’m driving to work and Lorenzo calls me, and this is literally quote what he said– “F–k it, let’s keep going,'” he added.

While White admitted that he didn’t remember exactly when did conversation happened, it couldn’t have been later than 2005. After all, that is the year the UFC first made a profit, owing to the success of their flagship reality show ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ on the back of the iconic Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar clash. However, the journey to pull off TUF wasn’t easy, but it may have been the most pivotal moment in UFC history.

At the time, the promotion as mentioned before was a nine-year-old company that was in tatters. The Nevada casino magnates in their determination to revive the sport kept pouring money into the promotion. By 2004, they had already invested more than $40 million (nearly $44 million), with no signs of profitability in sight. After this conversation, White rightfully felt like ‘it was over’. But fate had different plans.

Through savvy marketing, relentless promotion, reality television innovation with TUF in 2005, and the cultivation of icons like Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey, the UFC went from a controversial spectacle into a mainstream juggernaut. This journey from pariah to a powerhouse didn’t just change a company—it legitimized an entire sport and created a blueprint for how niche athletic competitions can capture the world’s imagination and its wallet.

Moreover, all of this means that if Lorenzo Fertitta hadn’t abruptly changed his mind, the UFC—and by extension, the sport of MMA—might never have become the global phenomenon it is today. At the heart of the promotion’s success is Dana White, whose sharp business instincts and relentless hustle played a pivotal role in transforming the UFC into a powerhouse. Had the organization been sold at that critical moment, it’s unlikely that any new leadership would have matched White’s trust in the UFC’s potential. His unshakable confidence in the promotion wasn’t just a driving force—it was arguably the single most important factor in its meteoric rise!

Dana White and Fertitta’s secret ingredient to the UFC’s success

Probably the most important reason Dana White and the Fertitta duo didn’t sell the UFC despite losing money hand over fist in the first few years is because they just always believed that it would be the global phenomenon it is today. “People ask me this all the time– ‘Did you ever envision this? Did you ever think that it would be this big?’ And the answer is always ‘yes.’ We completely believed in this thing when we bought it,” White added.

The UFC CEO also recalled how the promotion, because of its terrible reputation back then, couldn’t even find a PPV provider to sell its cards. However, the product, because of its inherent quality and because of the rise in streaming, eventually overcame all these hurdles to become the biggest, most respected stage in the entire combat sports world.

“The question is, is the timing right? And the answer to that question is- the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. With the decline of boxing, technology growing as fast as it did, streaming the list goes on and on… and we are the biggest pay-per-view provider in the world. We’re we’re in over a billion homes,” White proudly declared. What do you think about Dana White’s revelations about nearly selling the UFC for $8 million?