UFC's Dana White on taking MMA to the next level
If baseball is America's pastime, and football is its obsession, then the Ultimate Fighting Championship might be its guilty pleasure. Just don't say that to Dana White. As CEO and president of the UFC, White has done more than anyone on Earth to grow the sport of mixed martial arts. White has taken the league from obscurity to what will be its highest-profile moment this summer: a UFC match on the South Lawn of the White House.
Billed as a celebration of America's 250th birthday, it will be held on June 14, which happens to be the birthday of President Trump.
From the UFC's Las Vegas headquarters, White inhabits and presides over an empire of testosterone. His office sports such mementoes as a real saber-tooth tiger skull.
But it wasn't always like this. In its early days, the UFC was so violent, with almost no rules, that it was effectively exiled to pay-per-view.
I said, "As a kid who was interested in UFC, the draw of it, at least for me and friends, was, 'Oh, Keith Hackney is just wailing on Joe Son's private parts, and this is allowable?'"
"Well, you're right," said White, "that is exactly what drew everybody to it. But then, regulators went after 'em."
UFC was on the brink of bankruptcy when White and two of his high school buddies bought the league for $2 million. And it was in Atlantic City where something happened of which no one at the time could have understood the impact. When the UFC desperately needed someone to host its fights, then-casino owner Donald Trump was game. White said, "Trump showed up for the first fight of the night and he stayed 'til the last fight of the night. And from then on out, anything that ever happened, he was always the first guy to reach out and say, 'Congratulations. I knew you guys were gonna do it.'"
To hear White tell it, that business relationship turned into a friendship, which turned into White helping Trump get elected. White even urged Trump to appear on influential so-called "manosphere" podcasts, leading up to the 2024 election. "I felt like all the people that are [watching] Fox are voting for him anyway, right?" said White. "Donald Trump is a guy's guy. And I knew that the younger generation could relate to Donald Trump." Some even think these appearances helped swing the election.
Meanwhile, White's job was making UFC mainstream. That started with more rules and safety measures.
Asked what goes through his mind when he sees a fighter get knocked out cold, White replied, "Health and safety is very important to us. We have a perfect 30-year record."
In 2016, UFC sold for $4 billion, and this past August, CBS' owner, Paramount-Skydance, agreed to pay nearly $8 billion to stream UFC on Paramount+, as well as on broadcast television. The first CBS fight airs next Saturday night.
But two months before that deal, we were with White for a busy few days leading up to a weekend UFC lightweight title bout between Ilia Topuria (a Georgian fighter from Spain and former UFC featherweight champion), and Charles Oliveira, of Brazil.
First, came some Thursday promotion – a press conference where Topuria announced, "I'm the best fighter in the world. I'm going to knock him out in the first round."
Then, Friday afternoon weigh-ins.
The headliners can make millions, but fighter pay remains a contentious topic. In 2024, UFC settled a class-action lawsuit alleging underpayment.
By Friday night, it was time for White's other combat franchise: the newly-formed Power Slap, which is exactly what it sounds like.
"You have to have be able to slap hard, and you have to have a good chin to be good in this," White said. "I saw the opportunity, just like the UFC, and I said, 'I get this. And I think I can actually make this big.'"
The night wasn't over yet (this is Vegas, after all), so we followed White to the high-stakes baccarat room, where he bought in for $1 million. And on this night, things went well for White.
I asked, "Does winning $1.2 million in 15 minutes put you in a good mood for tomorrow?"
"It definitely doesn't suck!" he laughed.
The gambling, the parties, the combative rhetoric – it's a larger-than-life image, but a controversial one, notably in 2023, when an altercation with his wife at a nightclub in Mexico was caught on camera.
Asked what happened that night, White replied, "Yeah, I mean, I don't blame alcohol. It didn't jump down my throat, you know? It was one of those things that never should have happened, that did on the world stage. It's just something that we had to deal with as a family. And we did, and we moved on."
"I think for a lot of folks, a natural question that comes to mind is like, 'Well, is that who the guy really is?'" I asked.
"100%. 100%," White replied. "When you go through something like that, you wake up the next day and you gotta look in the mirror and say, 'How did that happen? And how do we make sure that never happens again?'"
UFC fans seem unfazed. When we visited, they were lining up in the Las Vegas summer sun for UFC X, a chance to marinate in all things ultimate fighting. One young man told us, "I love seeing dudes get knocked out. It's my favorite thing in the world."
Finally, it was Saturday night, and time for the main event. The title fight was a brief and bloody affair that left the crowd buzzing.
Dana White crowned a new champ, but his mind was already on his upcoming vacation, flying up to a place he has in Maine, with one stop on his calendar: dinner at the White House with his old pal, the president.
When asked about the idea of trying not to be overtly political – maneuvering through the center, to avoid losing half of his sport's fanbase – White replied, "How about be authentic and just be yourself? How about that? Just be authentic. You don't have to agree with me, and you don't have to like it, and I don't have to agree with you, but we can all still just get along. That's how this is supposed to work."
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Story produced by Dustin Stephens. Editor: Ed Givnish.
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