Dana White is an American businessman and sports promoter who has a net worth of $500 million. Dana White is best known for being the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a mixed martial arts organization. When UFC sold to William Morris Endeavor (WME) in 2016, Dana owned 9% of the company. He had previously sold the majority to the Fertitta brothers (billionaire casino magnates). After taxes, Dana’s 9% cut from the sale was around $360 million.
He spent his youth going back and forth between Las Vegas and Maine. While growing up, White spent much of his time involved in sports, particularly boxing, and is a lifelong fan of the baseball team the Boston Red Sox. He graduated from Hermon High School in Maine in 1987.
White went on to attend the University of Massachusetts, though he did not finish. While he was there, he opened up a boxing program for at-risk children in the inner city. To make a living during this time, he also became an aerobics instructor. Eventually, he relocated full-time to Las Vegas and, in 1992, established Dana White Enterprises.
It was around this time that he began managing fighters Chuck Lidell and Tito Ortiz. White continued to expand his horizons into other styles of fighting, including Mixed Martial Arts and Muay Thai, styles that would later come to define the UFC.
Luckily for White, he had grown up with Lorenzo Fertitta, a former high school classmate who had made a name for himself as an executive at hotel and casino company Station Casinos. The two reunited at a wedding in the mid-’90s, bonding over their shared love of boxing and stating that they hoped to work together in the future.
It was while managing fighters that White became embroiled in disputes with the UFC. After looking into the finances of Semaphore Entertainment Group, the parent company of the UFC, he found that they were going broke. At learning the news, White approached his childhood friend, Lorenzo Fertitta, about making an offer.
Lorenzo quickly saw the profit that could be had and he made a deal to buy the UFC. Lorenzo also invited his older brother Frank to get in on the action. In total, the Fertitta brothers paid $2 million in 2001 for an 81% ownership stake in the UFC. They soon appointed White as president. In the years since buying the UFC, White and his team have taken the organization, which used to be seen as barbaric and illegal, and turned it into an international phenomenon.
White has continued to act as president, even after the sale of the company. Under his leadership, he has been able to increase the popularity of the sport and turn it into a multi-billion dollar business. The UFC announced in May 2017 that White would be the host of a show called Dana White’s Contender Series. The show is only available through UFC’s digital streaming service, UFC Fight Pass. It features up-and-coming fighters and gives them the opportunity to showcase their skills so that they may one day make it to the UFC. White revealed on March 18, 2019, that he had penned a new seven-year contract with ESPN to remain the UFC president.
