Dana White, King of MMA

Matyushenko fight. Dana was furious and made changes before the next fight to
ensure that would never happened again.
Dana was Tito’s manager before he and his partners bought the UFC, and after
that first fight in Vegas, Tito became the fighter that Dana and the UFC promoted
over all others. The old saying about having all your eggs in one basket were proved
true, however. Tito was a great fighter back then, and he came across as a bad boy
with some of his antics in the ring, Dana liked that. Dana felt that the fans wanted
fighters that came across as badasses. He thought the fans wouldn’t go for someone
like Randy Couture because he was just too nice and squeaky clean, but Randy was
one of my favorite fighters from the beginning and, much to Dana’s surprise, the
favorite of many, many UFC fans. Tito was UFC’s first and biggest superstar, but
eventually Tito and Dana would have a falling out. In fact, they truly hated each other
for quite a while. Recently they patched things up and Dana brought Tito back to the
UFC, but their relation is strained at best. Chuck Liddell started out being managed
by Dana also, and Dana and Chuck are still very good friends today.
A year after UFC 33, at UFC 40 at the MGM, the attendance was 13,500 and the
gate was $1,540,000.00. At UFC 100 on July 11, 2009, again at Mandalay Bay,
attendance was 10,871 and the gate was $5,128,490.00. MMA and the UFC had taken
off. The revenue from pay-per-view last year alone was $225,000,000, then add in the
sales of all their clothes, DVD’s, games, etc. and you come up with a staggering
figure. In eight short years, Dana had brought the UFC from a bankrupt business to a
multibillion dollar, international empire. Dana had worked nearly around the clock at
times, and I still do not know how he keeps his head sufficiently clear to be able to
conduct business with so little sleep and so much international traveling, but he does.
Everyone who interviews Dana always asks him how he brought the UFC from
nearly bankrupt to the multi-billion dollar international business it is today. First and
foremost, he had two billionaire brothers for partners whose deep pockets and all
their resources were available to him. They did not restrict Dana in any way in
spending their money, and they are obviously very intelligent businessmen, not only
running but expanding their other businesses. Dana had developed a passion for the
sport himself, and when he talked to people about MMA, you could feel his passion.