Dana White facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dana White
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White in 2025
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| Born |
Dana Frederick White Jr.
July 28, 1969 Manchester, Connecticut, U.S.
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| Known for | President and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) |
| Spouse(s) |
Anne Stella
(m. 1996) |
| Children | 3 |
Dana Frederick White Jr. (born July 28, 1969) is an American businessman. He is best known as the CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). The UFC is a major global organization for mixed martial arts (MMA). In 2019, his net worth was estimated at $500 million. Beyond the UFC, he also owns Power Slap, a slap fighting competition he started in 2022. In 2025, Meta Platforms chose White to join its board of directors.
Contents
Early Life and Education
White was born in Manchester, Connecticut, on July 28, 1969. His parents were June and Dana White Sr. He has Irish American heritage. He spent his early years living in Ware, Massachusetts.
Dana and his sister, Kelly, were mostly raised by their mother and her family. His mother was a nurse. The family moved to Las Vegas when White was in third grade. This move happened because nurses could earn more money in Las Vegas. White went to Bishop Gorman High School. There, he first met Lorenzo Fertitta, but they became close friends much later. White has said he did not enjoy school. He was asked to leave Gorman twice. Even though they lived in Nevada, the Whites went back to the East Coast in the summers. They spent time with White's grandparents in Levant, Maine. White finished his last year of high school in Maine.
After graduating from Hermon High School in 1987, White started college two times. He went to Quincy College and UMass Boston. However, he left during his first semester each time. During these years, he had many different jobs. He worked laying asphalt, as a bouncer at a bar, and as a bellhop at a hotel. White started boxing when he was 17. He became friends with Peter Welch, a former boxing champion. This friendship led White to want to work in the fight business. He opened a boxing gym in Boston with Welch. White first thought about becoming a professional boxer himself. But he changed his mind after seeing a boxer who had suffered brain damage from fighting. He worried the same could happen to him. White then worked as a coach for boxercise, which is a fitness program based on boxing.
White has said he moved back to Las Vegas in the early 1990s. He continued to run boxercise gyms there. He also began training jiu-jitsu with John Lewis. This is where he reconnected with Lorenzo Fertitta and his brother Frank Fertitta III. White had not spoken to the Fertitta brothers for 10 years before meeting Lorenzo at a friend's wedding. Through his training, White met mixed martial artists Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. He eventually became their manager.
Career in Sports Promotion
White's career took off in the world of combat sports.
Leading the Ultimate Fighting Championship
While managing fighters like Ortiz and Liddell, White met Bob Meyrowitz. Meyrowitz owned Semaphore Entertainment Group, which was the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the time. When White found out Meyrowitz wanted to sell the UFC, he contacted his friend Lorenzo Fertitta. Lorenzo was an executive at Station Casinos and a former commissioner for the Nevada State Athletic Commission. White asked if Lorenzo would be interested in buying the company.
In January 2001, Lorenzo and his older brother Frank bought the UFC for $2 million. It then became part of their company, Zuffa. White was made the president of the UFC. He also received a share in the company for helping with the deal and for his hard work.
White said that when they bought the UFC, they only got the "UFC" name and an old octagon cage. The previous owners had sold off many of the company's valuable parts to avoid going bankrupt. Even the UFC.com website had been sold. The first UFC events under White's leadership, UFC 30 and UFC 31, were held at the Trump Taj Mahal. This led to White becoming good friends with Donald Trump.
The UFC did not become successful right away after Zuffa took over. By 2004, the Fertittas had put over $40 million into the company. But it still wasn't growing much or making a profit. White, along with the Fertittas and TV producer Craig Piligian, came up with an idea. They created an MMA reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter. They hoped this show would make more people interested in the sport. The company paid for the show themselves because TV networks would not. The Ultimate Fighter, especially the final fight between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin, is often said to have "saved the UFC."
Under White's leadership, the UFC grew into a very successful business. In 2006, UFC 66, featuring Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, sold over 1 million pay-per-view buys. By 2008, Forbes magazine valued the company at $1.1 billion.
In 2010, Flash Entertainment, a company owned by the Abu Dhabi Government, bought 10% of Zuffa. This deal was reportedly worth $150–175 million. This left White with a 9% share in the company. The Fertittas each had 40.5%.
In 2011, White said that women would "never ever" fight in the UFC. However, he later changed his mind. In February 2013, the UFC held its first women's fight. It featured Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche. Rousey later became one of the UFC's biggest stars in the mid-2010s, along with Conor McGregor. These two fighters were responsible for 4.6 million pay-per-view buys in 2015. This was 61% of the company's total buys that year. The UFC's total earnings reached $600 million in 2015.
In July 2016, Zuffa was sold to a group of investors led by WME-IMG for $4.025 billion. White owned 9% of the company when it was sold. He continued as president and received a share in the new business. In March 2019, White signed a new seven-year contract to stay as UFC president. This happened as the UFC also signed a deal with ESPN. In April 2023, Endeavor (the new name for WME-IMG) announced a big deal. The professional wrestling company WWE would merge with UFC. They formed a new public company called TKO Group Holdings. White was then given the title of chief executive officer of the UFC.
Involvement in Boxing
White also became involved in boxing. He helped promote the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. This was because McGregor was a UFC fighter. In October 2017, White said he was "100 percent" getting into boxing. In 2019, he wanted to add boxing to the UFC's business. However, he later changed his mind. In 2022, he said promoting boxing was "a broken business."
In 2024, White promoted a boxing event featuring Irish boxer Callum Walsh. This event was shown on UFC Fight Pass. After this, he again announced his plan to promote boxing. He said he was "coming in guns blazing" in 2025.
In March 2025, White announced a partnership with Turki Al-Sheikh. He is the head of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority. They plan to create a new boxing league, similar to the UFC. The UFC's parent company, TKO Group Holdings, and the Saudi entertainment company Sela are supporting this new league. White was named the executive leader of the league. The name of the league was not announced right away. The first events are expected to happen in 2026.
Other Business Ventures
In 2017, White started hosting Dana White's Contender Series. This show was first available on UFC Fight Pass, the UFC's streaming service. It allows new fighters to compete for a contract with the UFC.
White was also an executive producer for The Ultimate Surfer. This was a surfing competition TV series. It was similar to The Ultimate Fighter. The show was created by Kelly Slater, a professional surfer and White's long-time friend. It started on ABC in August 2021. It was canceled after one season because not enough people watched it.
In 2022, White became a co-owner of Thrill One Sports & Entertainment. This company owns Nitro Circus, Nitrocross, and Street League Skateboarding.
White, along with the Fertittas, also co-founded Power Slap. This is a slap fighting competition that began in January 2023. It was shown on TBS at first. After TBS did not continue the show, it started airing on the streaming platform Rumble.
In January 2025, Meta Platforms announced that White had been chosen to join its board of directors.
On May 28, 2025, White became one of the founding partners of Phorm Energy. This is a new zero-sugar energy drink. It is a joint project between White, 1st Phorm, and Anheuser-Busch.
Personal Life and Interests
White met his wife, Anne Stella, when they were in eighth grade. They got married in 1996. They have two sons and one daughter. White bought a large house in Las Vegas in 2006. He later bought three more houses in the same area between 2016 and 2017. These purchases were likely to create a very large home for his family.
White was raised as a Catholic and was an altar boy as a child. However, he now considers himself an atheist.
Health and Well-being
In May 2012, White shared that he had been diagnosed with Ménière's disease. This is a problem with the inner ear. He described it as "like vertigo but on steroids." White said the disease started because of a big fight he was in when he was younger. The UFC on Fuel TV 3: Korean Zombie vs. Poirier event in May 2012 was the first UFC event he had missed in 11 years. He stayed home on medical advice.
White had a special treatment called Orthokine for Ménière's disease in 2013. He says this treatment greatly reduced his symptoms.
In 2022, White said he had medical tests. These tests showed he had very high triglyceride levels and other health issues. He was told he had about 10 years left to live if he did not fix these problems. White said that since then, he has followed a ketogenic diet. He believes this diet has helped his sleep apnea and eased his leg pain. A biologist named Gary Brecka suggested this diet. White has thanked Brecka for his improved health.
Political Views
White spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. There, he supported Republican candidate Donald Trump. White said that Trump helped the UFC when it was just starting. Trump allowed the UFC to hold its first event under Zuffa ownership (UFC 30) at the Trump Taj Mahal. Other places had refused to host the UFC. White said, "No arenas wanted us. This guy reached out, and he's always been a friend to me."
White continued to support Trump for the 2020 election. He spoke at a Trump rally in Colorado in February 2020. White donated $1 million to America First Action. This group supported Trump's re-election. In April 2020, White joined a group of business leaders. They aimed to help the United States economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic. White again supported Trump in 2024. He introduced him at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hobbies and Interests
White is a fan of music groups like the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine. He has a guitar in his office signed by all three members of the Beastie Boys.
White has been a fan of the New England Patriots football team since he was a child. He admires the former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. White said in a 2022 interview that he tried to arrange a deal. This deal would have brought Brady and another player, Rob Gronkowski, to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020. But the Raiders' coach at the time stopped the deal. So, Brady and Gronkowski instead signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
White started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 1998. He said it had a good effect on him. It made him understand how important ground fighting skills are.
In a 2018 episode of the TV show Pawn Stars, White bought about $60,000 worth of katana swords. This included a 17th-century Japanese katana from Rick Harrison.
White enjoys playing high-stakes blackjack and baccarat. He has been limited from playing at some casinos in Las Vegas because of his large bets.
Charity Work
White has also been involved in charity work. In 2010, he donated $50,000 for a liver transplant for a child in Thailand. In 2011, White gave $100,000 to his old high school. This money was used to improve their sports facilities. In 2017, White donated $1 million to help the victims of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
In 2019, after UFC 242, fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov raised $100,000 for Dustin Poirier's charity, The Good Fight Foundation. White then also donated $100,000 to Poirier's charity. In 2024, White donated $50,000 to support victims affected by the attempted assassination of former president Donald J. Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania.
Awards and Recognition
- Armed Forces Foundation
- Patriot Award (2009)
- World MMA Awards
- Leading Man of the Year (2008–24)
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Promoter of the Year (2005–13; 2015–16)
- Other accomplishments
- Nevada Sportsman of the Year (2009)
See also
In Spanish: Dana White para niños
