Dana White has been a name synonymous with the UFC ever since the company was acquired by him and the Fertitta brothers. Since then, White has been the President of the company and ran the day-to-day operations. However, his style of management has made him a lot of enemies over the years. In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Dana White revealed how Vince McMahon who is a partner now, messed with him a lot in the past.
Under Dana White’s stewardship, the UFC has become the biggest MMA organization in the world. It is also slowly establishing itself as one of the mainstream sports not just in the United States but the rest of the world as well.
In 2016, the Endeavor group bought the UFC for $4.025 billion. Since then the company has put all of its resources into helping White establish the UFC as a juggernaut. Having Endeavor on its side has opened a lot of doors for the UFC and Dana White. For Endeavor however, acquiring the UFC was not enough. Earlier this year, the company acquired the WWE for a mind-boggling, $9.3 billion.
In the interview with Sports Illustrated, Dana White shared his thoughts on what it is like to have Vince McMahon on the same side as him. He also revealed what it was like dealing with McMahon when they were not under the Endeavor umbrella. He said,
“My history with Vince isn’t a good one. He tried to f—k me so many times for no reason whatsoever except just to f—k me. But that’s in the past. Now that Vince and I are allies, no one’s been a better partner than Vince.”
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White also gave his opinion regarding how McMahon is when someone opposes him and is aligned with him. He said,
“Since day one of the deal, it’s like I’m dealing with a different guy. It goes to show that when you oppose him, or he thinks you are opposing him, the guy comes after you blindly. Once you are aligned, Vince is an incredible partner.”
UFC has been doing solid business for the past few years under White’s leadership.
Dana White and the UFC grow from strength to strength
Ever since the pandemic, the UFC’s growth has been unstoppable. Previously there was little to no information about the financials of the UFC. However, since Endeavour went public in 2021, we have had access to the financials of the UFC.
In 2022 alone, the UFC brought in $1.3 billion in revenue. This was up $224.1 million from the year before or 20%. Given how it has been going so far this year in 2023, it will be not be surprising to see revenues up once again for 2023 as well.
With the WWE-UFC merger both the companies have a chance to up their revenue by making a big impact. However, we will have to wait and see whether that happens or not.
