“Went Up Into a Hotel Room, and Didn’t Come Out for a Few Days”-Dana White Reveals How the $4.2 Billion Sale of the UFC Had Him ‘F**ked Up’
Dana White started his career by being a manager to the likes of Chuck Lidell and Tito Ortiz who competed in the UFC at the time. During one of the calls with the owner at the time, White figured out that the company that his fighters fought in was on the verge of going bankrupt.
Sensing a brilliant opportunity, he convinced his high school friend Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta to join him and acquire the UFC for $2 million. 15 years after they bought the company, the trio sold it to Endeavor for a mind-boggling $4.2 billion.
For most people, a multi-million payout would have been a cause to party and let loose. But for Dana White that was not the case, In a recent podcast, he revealed how the sale of the UFC affected him negatively. He said, “It was actually a really bad time for me. I didn’t want to do it. And I, the Fertitta’s were ready to get out and they were like, and here was the thing. They had a sit down with me and they’re basically like. ‘You know we had everybody in here going through the deal. Everybody was in here kicking the tires, looking to buy it. From ESPN to Turner to all these different funds and groups from all over the world.”
White continued, “And they sat me down and said ‘We’re gonna sell this thing and we’re ready to go but nobody will take unless you stay. So you have to stay. You have to do this. And I was kind of in a weird place because I had done this thing with them, you know. These are my best friends, we’d done it together, and I got a little f***ed up. I kind of took off for a little while, went up into a hotel room, and didn’t come out for a few days.”
Dana White and the UFC had a massive 2021
The UFC has been growing from strength to strength over the past two years. In 2020, they saw their fan base grow by 46% thanks to the efforts of White and his team to keep going when no other sport was.
In 2021, the company again broke a number of records including the most PPVs sold in a year. The company sold over 9 million PPVs and brought in revenues of over a billion dollars with White at the helm. It will be interesting to see if they can replicate this success in 2022 as well.
