Dana White

White was born in Manchester, Connecticut, in the United States, lived in Ware, Massachusetts, during his grade school years, and lived in Las Vegas from fifth through eleventh grade, where he was a classmate of Lorenzo Fertitta at Bishop Gorman High School. He was later expelled from the school, moved to Maine, and graduated from Hermon High School in 1987.⁠[1][1][2][2][2][2][2]

After high school, White moved to Boston, where after a brief stay at the University of Massachusetts Boston he decided college was not for him. He lived in South Boston and taught boxing classes at a small gym while working a variety of odd jobs, including hauling asphalt, working as a bar bouncer, and serving as a doorman at the Boston Harbor Hotel.⁠[2][2][2]

White has recalled that Kevin Weeks, a confidant of Whitey Bulger, once called him demanding $2,500 in “protection” money, without which he would not be allowed to run boxing classes in South Boston; he promptly booked the first available flight to Las Vegas and left Boston. In the summer of 1995, at the age of 26, White returned to Las Vegas.⁠[2][2][2]

Back in Las Vegas, White continued to teach boxing and became close friends with the Fertitta brothers, Lorenzo and Frank. A former amateur boxer, he worked as a trainer, fight manager, and promoter, managing fighters who competed in UFC events, including two mixed martial arts champions; it was through him that Lorenzo Fertitta was introduced to the sport.⁠[2][1][3][4]

In 2001, White, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Frank Fertitta bought the struggling UFC for a total of $2 million through their private company Zuffa. All of the money came from Lorenzo Fertitta, while White received a 10% stake and became president. Before this, Senator John McCain had denounced the sport as “human cockfighting” and led a campaign to ban it, and in the 1990s UFC events were virtually driven off pay TV and confined to smaller markets.⁠[1][2][3][1][4]

White has recalled that after New Jersey legalized the sport in 2000, Donald Trump personally invited the UFC to hold events at his Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The venue went on to host UFC 31 and UFC 32, and White said Trump stayed from the first fight to the last at both; the two events raised the UFC’s profile and helped it secure larger venues later. White’s friendship with Trump dates back to at least 2001.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

After the takeover, the UFC accepted rule changes such as banning knees to the head of a downed opponent in order to win approval from the states; when the Fertittas bought the UFC only seven states allowed the sport, a number that grew to 38 by 2009. The early UFC lost money year after year, and White later recalled that they burned through another $44 million in the five years after buying it.⁠[3][3][2]

To secure air time on Spike TV, the Fertitta brothers put up a final $10 million of their own money to produce the reality show The Ultimate Fighter, telling White there would be no more money. The show premiered in January 2005, and its average audience over the first season grew 19% to 1.98 million. In the live finale in April 2005, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar fought an evenly matched, bloody slugfest, and White awarded both of them contracts on the spot: “There is no loser in this fight.”⁠[2][2][1][1][1][1]

Because the UFC had funded the show itself, it owned the show outright.⁠[5]

In July 2016, White announced that the UFC had been sold for about $4 billion to a group led by the Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG. After the sale, the Fertitta brothers stepped away from running the company while retaining a passive minority interest, and White stayed on as president and later also became chief executive officer.⁠[6][6][7]

On July 19, 2016, White gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, calling Trump a hard worker with great business instincts: “I know fighters. Donald Trump is a fighter.”⁠[6][4]

In August 2018, White and UFC interim welterweight champion Colby Covington visited the White House and met Trump in the Oval Office.⁠[8][8]

In 2020, White again endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention, praising his record in office and saying his reelection was “critically important.”⁠[4]

In 2022, White co-founded the slap-fighting league Power Slap League. Comparing Power Slap with the UFC’s early days, he said, “This is identical to when the UFC started.”⁠[7][7]

On September 12, 2023, Endeavor completed the transaction combining the UFC with the professional wrestling company WWE, and the new company, TKO Group Holdings, became the parent of WWE and the UFC, indirectly controlled by Endeavor. White continued as chief executive officer of the UFC.⁠[9][9][7]

On July 18, 2024, days after an assassination attempt on Trump, White took the stage on the final night of the Republican National Convention to introduce Trump as he accepted the presidential nomination. Before the convention, White said Trump was “the legitimate, ultimate, American badass.”⁠[4][4][4]

The Meta Platforms board elected White, John Elkann, and Charles Songhurst as directors effective December 30, 2024, and determined that all three qualified as independent directors; Meta announced the appointments on January 6, 2025. White said he had never been interested in joining any board of directors until he received Meta’s offer, and that he was “a huge believer that social media and AI are the future.”⁠[10][10][11]

In March 2025, White worked with TKO and Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh to set up a new boxing promotion. White described its format as “the best fight the best,” with champions determined by rankings and no need for belts from multiple sanctioning bodies.⁠[12][12]

On August 11, 2025, TKO and Paramount announced a seven-year media rights agreement under which, starting in 2026, Paramount would exclusively broadcast all UFC events in the United States, including 13 numbered events and 30 Fight Nights each year, mainly on the streaming service Paramount+ with select events simulcast on CBS, ending the UFC’s existing pay-per-view model; the deal has an average annual value of $1.1 billion. White said he had not expected that they would end up with Paramount.⁠[13][13][13][13][14]

In January 2026, Zuffa Boxing, a boxing promotion founded by White as a joint venture between TKO and Saudi Arabia’s Sela Sport, officially launched, seeking to apply the UFC’s business model to boxing, and signed a streaming deal with Paramount+. In February, White announced that the first Zuffa Boxing world championship fight would take place on March 8 in Las Vegas.⁠[15][15][15]

In February 2026, White testified at a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in two antitrust lawsuits, Johnson v. Zuffa and Cirkunovs v. Zuffa. The two cases were brought on behalf of fighters active after July 1, 2017; an earlier antitrust lawsuit had been settled in 2024, with TKO paying $375 million to fighters active between 2010 and 2017. White testified that since 2017 nearly all fighter-related matters had been handled by Hunter Campbell, Mick Maynard, and Sean Shelby, and that he was no longer involved in matchmaking or contract negotiations.⁠[16][17][17][16][17]

On May 10, 2026, David Senra’s podcast released an interview with White covering the UFC’s near collapse in its early years and how Lorenzo Fertitta once planned to sell it before deciding to hold on.⁠[5][5]

The UFC discovers new fighters through a number of shows, including Dana White’s Lookin’ for a Fight and Dana White’s Contender Series, which bear White’s name, as well as The Ultimate Fighter and Road to UFC.⁠[18]