People often spend their entire lives searching for the answers to what they want to become. The UFC CEO, Dana White, also had some confusion regarding his life choices. But his love for combat sports propelled him towards becoming what he is today. However, the decision to make a career in “the fight business” wasn’t something that came to White at once.
The 54-year-old realized that he wanted to be around the fight game after working a few odd jobs, which got him severely frustrated.
Despite boasting a $500M net worth today, White wasn’t born into a rich family. Moreover, he was left with pretty limited ways of sustaining himself after dropping out of college. Hence, working as a bouncer in Boston’s ‘The Black Rose’ pub was one of the UFC’s CEO’s initial jobs.
But it was White’s time as a bellman in the Boston Harbor Hotel that got him deciding that he wanted to be around and make a career in the fight business.
He may have started with instructing kids how to box in a Boston Club. However, his journey to becoming the UFC head honcho is a pretty interesting one.
How did Dana White end up becoming the UFC president?
Dana White soon landed in trouble with a few local gangsters led by James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, during his stint as a boxing instructor in Boston. The criminals demanded $2500 from him. This is why he ended up fleeing Boston and settling down in Las Vegas.
However, his relocation to Vegas also got him in touch with his rich high school friends and future UFC owners, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.
White enrolled in BJJ classes with the Fertittas and met the noted UFC legends, Chuck Liddel and Tito Ortiz. He also went on to become their manager and this is how he got to know about the extreme financial trouble that the UFC was going through at that time.
White made use of this opportunity to the fullest as he convinced the Fertittas to buy out the UFC for just $2M.
Lorenzo and Frank founded the well-known ‘Zuffa LLC’ as the UFC’s parent company, and made Dana White their first employee as the UFC president. Well, ‘Zuffa’ may have burnt a lot more dollars before the UFC started performing. But the 54-year-old’s legend may be taken as a thoroughly inspiring one which teaches that when there’s will, ways are bound to be found.
