When Dana White first stepped into the fight business, the UFC was anything but glamorous. At the turn of the century it was bankrupt, banned in dozens of states, and dismissed by politicians as “human dogfighting.” Athletic commissions refused to sanction events, pay-per-view distributors pulled the plug, and the sport looked like it might disappear altogether. Most people saw a dead end. White saw an opening. In 2001 he persuaded his childhood friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta to buy the UFC for two million dollars and trusted his own ability to build something out of nothing.
White understood that the key to survival was legitimacy. He worked to secure regulation from state commissions, brought in weight classes, and created rules that made fights safer while still keeping the edge that made them exciting. At the same time, he had the instincts of a promoter. He knew people wanted to connect with fighters, not just fights. Under his watch, stars like Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz turned rivalries into must-see events. He made Ronda Rousey into a global name, carrying cards that broke a million pay-per-view buys. Then came Conor McGregor, whose press conferences became as big as the fights themselves. When McGregor faced Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, the event sold 2.4 million pay-per-views and generated more than 80 million dollars, the biggest night in UFC history.
The transformation is hard to overstate. The company that once looked like it might fold is now a global sports empire worth billions. In 2016 the UFC was sold to WME-IMG for four billion dollars, one of the largest transactions in sports. Today it broadcasts in over 170 countries, sells out arenas with live gates over ten million dollars, and controls a roster of more than six hundred fighters. Through all of it, Dana White has remained at the center, brash, unapologetic, and relentless. His style has made him plenty of enemies, but it has also kept the UFC in headlines year after year. In many ways the story of modern MMA is the story of Dana White himself, a promoter who refused to let the sport die and instead turned it into one of the most powerful brands in the world.