UFC boss Dana White’s name has long been closely associated with the promotion. It is difficult to imagine the existence of the league without him, since fans are accustomed to the fact that it is Dana who supports the main projects of the organization and does a lot to ensure that it continues to grow and make a profit.
Of course, things didn’t start out so well. White tried many different professions, but always wanted to get into the wrestling business, even opening gyms for it and trying to do promotional activities. As a result, Dana became an agent for Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz and therefore increasingly attended UFC events. There, White realized that the promotion was not doing well and invited his old acquaintances, brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, to buy the league and, as a result, the new company Zuffa became the owner of UFC.
Dana received the position of president of the organization and a 9% stake in the company. The beginning was difficult. The former owners, in an attempt to stay afloat, sold everything, including the rights to sell merchandise, DVDs and video games. Even the site was sold and used by User-Friendly Computers. There was a funny story associated with them. White wanted to immediately buy the site, but they asked for $15,000 and received a flat refusal. As a result, as Dana himself later recalled, this became her first big mistake in business: “UFC continued to grow and the damn easy-to-use computers grew along with us. Everyone visited your site and traffic increased. As a result, I returned to negotiations, only now I paid not 15 thousand dollars, but 75 thousand dollars.”
Dana White easily allows himself to make loud statements about the United States:
“Russians are cut from a different cloth.” The president of UFC harshly criticized the American generation
Later, White turned to other things: promoting promotion. The Ultimate Fighter show helped with this, and the main boost for the company came from a deal with Spike TV. Thanks to his television presence, the UFC multiplied its income by 1,200 in the following two years.
Here began the path of the now famous league. Competitors were wisely eliminated, the list of fighters grew and, consequently, the income of the company and of Dana White himself grew. In 2016, Endeavor acquired a majority stake in the UFC for $4 billion, Dana himself, as we remember, had 9%, for which he received $350 million, which formed the basis of his current fortune.
White himself admitted a few months later that he did not aspire to wealth: “Do you know what I bought since then? Nothing. This time I have not been inactive. See what I mean? I don’t go around in circles thinking about money. I’m going around in circles, thinking about next steps for the company. I needed to do a show in New York. At that time, the New York card was not even ready. I never relax thinking: “I have money, let someone else do it.” Before this deal was finalized, Lorenzo and I had an excellent working relationship. We both enjoyed doing all this. We work together every day. Even on the worst day the UFC has ever had, we still have fun. I don’t do all this for money. I love this business. I’ve already made more money than I ever thought I would. I’m not one of those guys who says, “I have to make a billion. I want to be on the Forbes list.” No, I’m not one of them, because I don’t think about money. I think about Saturday nights when we have our shows. About big fights. It has nothing to do with money. I “I like to break records. I like to have great fights. I love that people go crazy for the fights we do.”
The cost of the promotion is estimated at $12 billion by 2023. Dana White’s financial well-being is also growing proportionally. According to Forbes, the UFC president’s net worth is $500 million and in 2019 he signed a new seven-year contract with the organization. Of course, no one revealed the figures, but White’s annual earnings from this deal are no less than $20 million, in addition to having a percentage of the company’s revenue. Considering that the UFC annually records record profits, it is logical to assume that the promotion’s boss’s earnings are also growing well. We also remember the organization of the high-profile fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, which brought impressive profits to all participants.
Additionally, Dana earns money by producing several small television projects. This is not the first source of her income. However, there is also a program called Power Slap, which is actively promoted on all platforms. There is also no open data on the “slap league”, but only at the beginning of its journey and with adequate coverage and promotion in the media will it begin to generate significant income.
Dana’s fortune would have been greater if she had not lived large. He’s bought several Las Vegas mansions to turn into a huge one, buys collectibles, throws million-dollar parties for his son’s 16th birthday, and even has a saber-toothed tiger skull. In addition, White has a huge fleet of vehicles and several motorcycles. By the way, there is also a sponsorship agreement with Harley Davidson. Dana is also active in casinos and card games. She once won $1.5 million and received a special belt from the Palms Casino.
Not long ago, the UFC made a unique deal and partnered with wrestling:
Are the bosses happy and the public? UFC and wrestling have come together on a single platform: TKO
At the moment, Dana continues to move towards the status of a dollar billionaire, and there is no doubt that he will achieve it soon. Little by little she brings up the topic of retirement and says that she “sees the light at the end of the tunnel.” This won’t happen in the near future, so White will still have time to get rich and support her family for several generations. In the meantime, she can afford to use derisive language toward other promotions.
This is how he reacted, for example, to the merger of PFL and Bellator: “A shitty organization that doesn’t sell tickets and no one is watching buys another shitty organization that doesn’t sell tickets and no one is watching. Sounds like a damn victory to you! Do you think tickets will start selling now? What can you say about television ratings?
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS