Dana White, King of MMA

house up in northwest Las Vegas, on Sunday mornings when I was visiting, Dana and I
would shoot down to one of the casinos near his house and place all kinds of bets on
the football games. I especially liked to bet the over/under bets. I thought they were
no brainers, and then we would head home with our stack of tickets. For the rest of
the day, Dana and I were glued to the television. I never found football very exciting
until I bet on the games. Dana and I would be changing stations trying to follow a half
dozen games and hollering and screaming at all the players that were screwing up our
bets. In a recent article, the reporter following Dana around said they stopped off to
gamble for a few minutes before a weigh-in, and in no time at all Dana lost half a
million dollars and just shrugged it off as no big deal. It must be nice that he can do
that these days and not think twice about it.
It’s funny because as he became wealthy it was obvious he was new money.
Have you ever heard that expression as to whether someone comes from old money or
is new money. I remember a story Dana told me about being at Morton’s Steak House
in Las Vegas. He had stepped outside for something when a man waiting at valet
collapsed and fell to the ground striking his head so hard on the curb he was bleeding.
Dana said he ran over to the man to see if he was all right and had knelt down next to
him and somehow had touched the man getting blood on his shirt. He proceeds to tell
me he was wearing an eight hundred dollar shirt that he ruined because of the
bloodstain he got on it. I didn’t know anyone made eight hundred dollar shirts and
even if they did why would you pay that much for a shirt. It’s not like anyone is going
to know it was eight hundred dollars unless you tell them.
I’m sure he didn’t realize it but he was always telling everyone how much he paid
for things. He would say, “Do you know how much that cost.” It got old real quick
with everyone, especially when you are someone struggling to pay your day to day
bills.
As the UFC began to grow, so did Dana’s power both in his business dealings and
personal relationships. Suddenly everyone had to be careful around him. If Dana
didn’t like something a person said or did and he became mad at you, then no one
was to talk to you or socialize with you. Everyone would shun you because they didn’t
want Dana to turn on them. Dana would make it quite clear if you remained friends