Dana White, King of MMA

behavior from him. I said I would speak to him about his behavior, but she asked me
not to say anything to him. She didn’t want to start something that would create an
even worse atmosphere for her at work.
Soon after she had spoke with me she went to Lorenzo, one of Dana’s partners,
thinking Lorenzo was Dana’s boss and that Lorenzo had the final word. She was under
the impression that she could talk to him about an issue she was having with Dana.
Lorenzo told Dana she had come to him, and Dana hearing this went ballistic and fired
her. She was devastated; they had been together for years. She was someone who
was with Dana from the earliest days, when he was just starting out teaching exercise
classes in the gyms in Las Vegas and had no money.
She eventually went to work for the IFL. Dana was furious when any of his former
employees went to work for other MMA organizations that were trying to compete
with the UFC. Employees now have to sign a “no compete” clause, so if they leave
the UFC they cannot go to work for any competitors of the UFC for a specified amount
of time. Dana has a reputation for being ruthless and going after anyone he feels has
said or done anything he doesn’t like with a vengeance, and so the “no compete”
clause tends to work. Anyone who has ever worked for Dana knows Dana is dangerous
and vengeful and will take legal action in a heartbeat.
The UFC sued the IFL for illegally using proprietary information obtained by hiring
executives from the UFC. The UFC also accused the IFL of trying to buy out top UFC
fighters. The IFL filed their own lawsuit against the UFC claiming the UFC was
threatening potential partners not to work with the IFL. In July 2008, word began to
spread in the MMA community of the UFC’s possible purchase of the IFL. That same
month, the IFL closed and many of their fighters were now fighting in the UFC.
Dana was becoming a spiteful tyrant. It obviously didn’t matter who you were —
family, friends, fighters, employees — if you said or did the slightest thing that he
didn’t like; he was going after his piece of flesh. Going after you with all the
considerable resources he has at hand. He would scream and swear at employees and
fighters in front of everyone for the slightest issue, publicly belittling them, but
worse, Dana would be hell bent to destroy whoever the person was who would dare
say or do anything he didn’t like. I was at a loss as to where such hostility came from.