Issue 034
February 2008
What can you say about Dana White that hasn’t already been said? A Boston-born businessman and entrepeneur who carved out a role for himself in a fledgling sport, he is the driving force behind the world’s biggest MMA organisation. Seven years into his tenure as president of the Ultimate Fighting Championships, he says the hard work and real rewards are yet to come.
White’s first encounter with MMA was as a small-time boxing promoter and gym owner in Las Vegas, Nevada. He began life as a manager, and was initially responsible for the career’s of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, back when the two light heavyweight rivals were still training partners and friends.
You might be forgiven for thinking that White owns a crystal ball, as it was he who persuaded close friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertita to get together the cash to buy the ailing UFC in 2001 for a mere $2million. When asked if White reall expected the sport to grow to the level it has, he adamently says he did. “I did, I did or I wouldn’t have jumped in the way that I did. I basically focussed my whole life on this. My buddies, I got them to invest their money, and I was in on it.
“We knew exactly where we wanted to take it, we knew what we needed to do and we knew exactly what we wanted to do, and that was running toward getting it regulated by all the major states. We knew that was the key.”
With Lorenzo’s previous involvement with the Nevada State Athletic Comission and White’s personal dabblings in running boxing events, the two were perfectly positioned to take the business forward, and they used their experience to avoid the mistakes of others. “One thing we said that boxing had always done wrong was that all they cared about was what was on TV,” said White. “We said, ‘what about the people buying tickets? We want to make it entertaining for them too. We actually have an in-house producer and a television producer. There were a lot of things we saw that needed to be changed, and we thought that if we changed them it would make it a lot more exciting and a lot more entertaining, and more buyable.”
The rapid development, massive growth and increased exposure the UFC has undergone since it has been in the hands of White makes the seven years he has been in charge seem like the blink of an eye. “It’s been a million miles an hour since the day we bought it. The people who work for the UFC work hard, man. This isn’t some pussy nine-to-five job where people bitch about how hard they work. I’m not kidding you, the people who work at Zuffa, it’s a 24-hour job. Everybody from the people I have working for me to the fighters themselves. It’s a team effort, and we’ve got a great team.”
White’s level of personal involvement is as much as you would imagine and more. He doesn’t just go to work – he lives, eats and breathes MMA. But such a full-on lifestyle would take it’s toll, surely? “Sometimes it does, I have my days. But the bottom line is that people are always asking me, what about this guy getting into it, what about that guy? I don’t give a shit who get’s into it. These ‘Johnny-come-latelies’, they see dollar signs and think they can make money.
“Nobody is going to outwork or out-manoeuvre us because this is all I think about and it’s all I care about, it’s 24-7. Today is Monday, all weekend, me and Lorenzo, we’ve been on conference calls, we’ve had four meetings. It never stops. Me and Lorenzo live in the same neighbourhood, we live a few houses from each other, all we do is work non-stop, it’s all we do. I know it sounds fucking sick and pathetic but it’s the truth! Nobody loves this shit more than we do.”
With such a deep level of personal and emotional investment in the UFC, it’s only logical that running a company of that size would bring daily trials and tribulations. “I guarantee you this, every fucking day when I get up out of bed and go to work, I know there is going to be problems, every day! There is something new every single day,” said White. In his characteristic matter-of-fact manner, White takes it in his stride. “The way that I look at the fighters is that a lot of them [the fighters] are my friends and I look at them as partners. They are big reasons why we are where we are today. These guys, the way they carry themselves, the way they get in there and fight, they’re a big part of it. Everyone thinks it’s weird when I saw this, but it’s the truth. When your product is human beings, nothing is ever going to be perfect. Guys are going to have problems, guys get into trouble, they get mad at you.”
However hard it may be, running a company like the UFC doesn’t come without it’s rewards. “It’s fun, or I wouldn’t do it. We’re the biggest, we’re the best and we’re always going to be. Until someone jumps into this and loves it more than we do, they’re never going to beat us. We didn’t buy this thing to make millions of dollars, I don’t even give a shit about the money. If you do what you love, and you do it the right way and people appreciate what you do, you’re going to make money, that’s inevitable. I look at the UFC as a brand like Microsoft or McDonalds. It’s going to be here forever.”
With ventures such as their reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC have given fighters the opportunity to make something of themselves. When you see White on the show swearing in exasperation at those who want to quit and go home, he does so with no small amount of empathy for their situation. “Yeah man, it’s miserable, it’s hard. Listen, I feel that way about it and I can leave every day! I sleep in my own house. People don’t understand what these guys go through, how hard that show really is. If you can’t tell, look at the different people they are when they come out of there! They’re completely different people different fighters, different human beings… It’s an incredible experience but it’s fucking miserable, man. It’s not fun.”
Even though White can sometimes seem hard on the guys who show signs of cracking, his actions are born out of frustration that they’re passing up such a great opportunity. “If what you want to do for a living is be a professional fighter, it’s the greatest opportunity you could ever have,” he says, recounting how he had to persuade Forrest Griffin to even join the cast of the original series. “He was a 26-year-old kid who was at a crossroads in his life and in his career. He didn’t get on the plane that he was supposed to, and we had to talk him into coming out here. He was going to be a cop, and look at him now.”
The last few years has seen unparralleled growth and expansion, but what about 2008? Could it be that things might start to level off after such an intense boom period? “I think it’s the exact opposite,” White quickly interkected. “I think that we haven’t even scratched the surface of how big this thing is going to be. I think ’08 is going to be big.”
With big plans and a massive workload (most of which he refused to reveal, although hints at expansion into Europe and Mexico and the news that Rampage and Forrest would appear as rival coaches on TUF 7 give an indication as to what lays ahead) you wonder how White manages to keep the company going forward at such a breakneck pace. The thing is, even he doesn’t know himself. “I don’t know!” he laughed. “I don’t know the answer to that question, I don’t know… It’s funny because the honest-to-God truth is, I think it’s the negativity. There’s a lot of great fans in this sport, but there are a lot of fucking idiots too. There’s a lot of negative people out there. And all these guys that are trying to get in there and compete with me, I think that’s what motivates and drives me. That’s the shit that gets me out of bed in the morning. I actually like the negativity, I feed off it, I love it!”
Even with the accomplishments of the last few years, there is no slowing down for White or the UFC, especially not to self-congratulate. “People ask, isn’t it amazing what you’ve done, how you’ve grown the sport and done this and done that? Believe me, I’m not breaking my own arm to pat myself on the back,” he said. “I keep my head down and we keep moving forward. Everyone thinks we’re so huge and I don’t. I don’t think we’re mainstream yet. I think we have a lot of work to do.
“Our goal is to do the first worldwide pay-per-view. We went into the UK and we grew the entire market in the UK, we grew the entire market in the States, we grew the entire market in Canada. Well it’s happening in Mexico right now, and there’s a lot of fucking countries out there man. You’re talking just a few countries. We want the world!”
Words: Hywel Teague. Images: Josh Hedges / Zuffa LLC.
