Dana White

Dana Frederick White Jr. is an American businessman and the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the largest mixed martial arts promotion in the world. Born on July 28, 1969, in Manchester, Connecticut, White grew up in a working-class environment and developed a passion for boxing as a teenager, eventually managing fighters and running a small boxing gym in Las Vegas.

White's life changed in 2001 when he learned that the UFC — then a struggling, nearly bankrupt organization banned in most U.S. states — was for sale. He connected his childhood friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III with the opportunity, and together they purchased the UFC through their company Zuffa LLC for just $2 million. White was installed as president and given a stake in the company.

Over the next fifteen years, White transformed the UFC from a fringe spectacle into the largest combat sports organization on Earth. He lobbied state athletic commissions to sanction MMA, secured the groundbreaking deal with Spike TV for "The Ultimate Fighter" reality show in 2005 (which saved the company from near-collapse), built a global roster of fighters, and expanded into international markets. Under his leadership, the UFC went from losing money every year to generating hundreds of millions in revenue.

In 2016, the UFC was sold to Endeavor (now TKO Group Holdings) for approximately $4 billion — a 200,000% return on the original $2 million investment, making it one of the greatest deals in sports history. White remains president and continues to drive the organization's growth, having turned a sport that was once banned on cable television into a global phenomenon worth over $12 billion.

Born July 28, 1969, in Manchester, Connecticut, Dana White grew up in a working-class family and discovered boxing as a teenager. He attended Hermon High School in Maine and briefly attended the University of Massachusetts before dropping out. In his twenties, he ran a small boxing gym in Las Vegas and managed fighters, including future UFC champions Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. It was through managing these fighters that he learned the UFC was for sale — a discovery that would change his life and the entire combat sports industry.