Dana White and the Fertitta brothers go long back. Needless to say, it is their joint effort that turned the Ultimate Fighting Championship into the giant that it is today. Things would have been pretty different had White decided not to let the Fertittas in on the news about the promotion being in trouble, and if the Fertittas hadn’t helped White buy UFC and placed him as the president, we might not have seen the amazing fights that took place in the Octagon. Thankfully, everything turned out in the fighting community’s favor. But did you know how close the UFC CEO was with the Fertittas back then?

Well, for starters, he was close enough to send a message on his IG Story after recently stumbling upon Lorenzo Fertitta in Italy. But before that, let’s see what the UFC head honcho said about the Fertittas during his appearance on ‘Club Shay Shay’.

Dana White opens up on his relationship with the Fertittas

On the 22nd day of July 2024, White took to Instagram and put an image of him with Lorenzo Fertitta on his story. He captioned, “When you run into your boy in Italy!!” This indeed struck a question in the fight fans’ minds and people began to wonder how long the two have known each other. The UFC CEO had disclosed the details weeks before he met Fertitta in Italy.

White, during his conversation with Shannon Sharpe on the former Super Bowl champ’s talk show, was asked about his relationship with the Fertitta brothers. Specifically, Sharpe wanted to know how he became friends with the Fertittas. The UFC head honcho disclosed that he and Lorenzo Fertitta were schoolmates. White simply could not stop himself from lifting up the family.

The UFC boss man quoted, “So, Lorenzo and I went to school together in Las Vegas. We were in, we were in the same class. It’s not like me and Lorenzo were best friends growing up in high school. We knew each other. He came from money, I did not! But the Fertittas were always really good, solid human beings. You will never meet more well-adjusted, kind, giving humans than the Fertitta family. They’re one of the greatest families on planet Earth. And they’ve done a lot of things for a lot of people, and they’ve made a lot of people wealthy.”

Do you know the story of how Dana White started talking to Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta? Don’t be surprised when we say that school fights were the factors that pulled the three together. Well, that’s what White claimed when he was asked about UFC’s success.

White and the Fertittas were the only ones who believed in the UFC

The story of the Fertittas buying out the UFC is not unknown to the fight fans. But like many others, the former football player wanted to know if White knew he would turn the UFC into a giant success. It’s not an easy task to revive a dying organization and make sure it becomes the number one promotion in the sport. Despite how hard the feat sounds, it all begins with belief. And White is proof of that.

White replied, “Listen, we all believed, you know. Me, Frank, and Lorenzo believed. There were 3 guys that truly believed in this business and it was us.” He revealed that they began talking during the after-school fights which garnered the attention of the entire school, gathering every student in the park. But it was his philosophy that carried the promotion further. “And I had this philosophy that no matter what color you are, what country you come from, or what language you speak, we’re all human beings and fighting is in our DNA. We get it and we like it.”

What would have been the outcome had the Fertittas refused to believe in White and didn’t buy the UFC? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.