UFC President Dana White reflects on fighting royalty and the origin of the UFC.
Dana White spoke this week with Lex Fridman in a 90-minute podcast taking a deep dive into his views of combat sports greats and his company, The Ultimate Fighting Championship. This podcast gave an invaluable insight inside the mind of the controversial promoter of the biggest MMA organisation.
Dana White’s First Introduction to Fighting
Reflecting on his first introduction to fighting he recalls the “energy in the house” that he liked from a “very young age” when watching Muhammad Ali.
“I remember being at my Grandmother’s house and it was a [Muhammad Ali] fight… There was this buzz and energy in the house that I liked at a very young age”.
Boxing was White’s main passion when he was younger eluding to the array of Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali memorabilia decorating his office. Ali in particular stood out as a cornerstone for Dana calling him the “greatest of all time human being” praising him for his “guts” and the “poems he came up with” at a “very dangerous time for him to be where he was”. This ‘gutsy’ temperament imprinted on Dana mirroring this attitude when he went against the grain allowing the UFC to commence through the Covid-19 pandemic by purchasing an island in Abu Dhabi to host fights.
The Impact of Brazilian-Jiu-Jitsu
When MMA initially hit screens for UFC 1 in 1993 Dana White admits that he thought it was “B*llsh*t” at first, but after watching it he found it “fun and exciting”. Being the boxing fan that he was the prevalence of wrestling and “the Jiu-Jitsu guys just laying there” made him “completely lose interest”. The turning point for Dana White’s views on MMA and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came when he was 28 years old attending his first BJJ session.
“I remember thinking Holy Sh*t, I can’t believe that I’m 28 years old and this is the first time I’m experiencing that another human being could do this to me on the ground. It is such an eye-opening mind-blowing experience when you do it for the first time. Then you become completely addicted to it…That’s how we fell in love with the sport, the first time that you do Jiu-Jitsu it’s like the red pill and blue pill in the matrix.”
Conor McGregor
Asked by Lex Fridman for “the good, the bad and the ugly” of his relationship with Conor McGregor White said, “there’s literally no ugly”. The only negative associated with McGregor is his intolerance of punctuality. White praised the Irish “superstar” for his willingness to fight anybody “no matter how big he was”. “I’ll do it” was the response of McGregor when Dana arrived at his house to break the news of Jose Aldo pulling out of their upcoming fight, with sheer disregard for a handpicked opponent.
“Me and Lorenzo [Fertitta] walk into his house…when Aldo [pulled out]… He just woke up out of his bed, he’s in his f**king underwear… he’s like I’m going to the gym. Doesn’t wanna know, doesn’t want anymore money, nothing”.
Not only was ‘The Notorious’ an incredible fighter but his stage presence grew the UFC internationally setting “Europe, Australia, Canada… on fire”. Before his arrival the UFC never had a standout “mega-star” but Conor took the world by storm becoming one of the biggest names in all of sports.
The Origin of the UFC
Before Dana White and the Fertitta brothers bought the UFC it was a failing organisation with plummeting viewership numbers and the stigma of “human cock-fighting”. With such a dire reputation the main factor that attracted Dana and the Fertitta’s to purchase the company were the characters and their stories.
“We loved the different stories. You had people like Chuck Lidell who had this mohawk, he looked like this axe murderer, but he’d graduated from [College]. Matt Hughes who lived on a farm, all these cool stories with all these good people that weren’t what people thought they were. Lorenzo [Fertitta] and I always felt like this could be big”.
Interest then turned to investing when Dana and original UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz got into a contract dispute over former UFC Champion and Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz. In a heated debate, Meyrowitz let slip that the UFC was struggling financially and that “there is no more money”. This sparked the interest of the innovator Dana White who saw this as an opening and who with the help of the Fertitta brothers purchased the UFC in January 2001 for 2 million dollars.
“When [Meyrowitz] hung up the phone I called up Lorenzo [Fertitta] and said… I think they’re in trouble, I think we could buy it and I think we should. Within the next two months, we ended up owning the UFC for two million bucks”.
Elon vs Zuck
Although first seen as trolling, in 2023 the notion of Billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg fighting became very real with UFC president Dana White enthralled with the idea of promoting the event. The Musk and Zuckerberg feud began back in 2016 when SpaceX was contracted on behalf of Facebook to provide Sub-Saharan Africa with internet access, but the rocket exploded. Further down the line Elon Musk purchased Twitter, social media rival to Zuckerbergs’ Facebook, after back and forths online and Mark Zuckerberg’s increased passion for MMA, Mark proposed an MMA fight to settle the score. Dana White came out to say that this fantasy fight would have been “the biggest fight ever done”.
“It would have been the biggest fight ever done. Two of the wealthiest guys in the world. They’re tech nerds… That are willing to throw down and fight. I was taking serious real time working on this thing… I was looking at venues I was on the phone with the F**king Colosseum in Italy”.
Dana’s methods of promotion reflect the no-holes-barred nature of MMA, never shying away from speaking his mind, and holding his athletes to the same standard. This is in part what makes the UFC so beloved, it is not just a stage for organized violence, but a platform for athletes from all walks of life to express themselves. Love him or hate him Dana White’s non-conventional approach to promotion is the sole reason that Mixed Martial Arts has infiltrated the mainstream from illegality, to sell-out box offices.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
