Dana White: From College Dropout to $500 Million

Today's email breaks down the wild story of how Dana White made $350 million off the UFC without investing any of his own money.

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Friends,

This morning I was reminded that twenty years ago today, Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White hosted their first event as the UFC’s new ownership group — UFC 30 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Rather than detail the economics of the business or show how COVID-19 has impacted their future growth trajectory, I thought it would be fun to take a different approach.

Today, we’ll run through the short story of how Dana White bought and sold the UFC, made $350 million, and never actually invested any of his own money in the deal.

Enjoy!

First, it’s important to understand — Dana White is a two-time college dropout that has always been “obsessed with the fight game,”

At 19, Dana White worked as a valet at a local casino in Boston. Frustrated with his current career and with nothing to lose, White walked off the job one day — deciding to chase his passion for fighting instead.

"I'm gonna get into the fight business,” White told his best friend.

After leaving his casino job, Dana White cold-called local boxing legend Peter Welch. He begged Welch to teach him everything he knows about the fight business. Without ever earning a dollar, White spent the next 3 years learning from a legend.

What happened next is straight out of a movie…

Here’s the story of how an encounter with Whitey Bulger and the Irish Mob changed Dana White’s life forever (Source):

“One day I was teaching a class in one of the big clubs in South Boston and these two guys walked into the class and said, ‘Hey, we need to talk to you.’

At first I’m thinking, ‘Does this guy own the club?’ and when he asked me, ‘Do you know who I am?’ that was when I realized what was going on,” White said.

“He basically said, ‘You owe us money’. It was like $2,500, which was like $25,000 to me back then, and said, ‘You owe us money.’ It was actually a guy named Kevin Weeks, who if you saw the trial he’s Whitey’s right-hand man.

I’m sure he’s very prominent in the movie, but yeah basically said I owed him some money, and I didn’t pay him. This went on for a while and one day I was at my place and I got a call and they said, ‘You owe us the money tomorrow by 1 o’clock’.

I literally hung up the phone, picked up the phone and called Delta and bought a ticket to Vegas.”

Crazy, right?

After arriving in Las Vegas, Dana White transitioned from Boxing to MMA — falling in love with the sport immediately. White spent the next few years building a small business managing superstar MMA fighters like Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.

The only problem?

UFC fighters didn't make any money, leaving White wanting more.

During a tense negotiation with former UFC owner Bob Meyrowitz, Dana White sensed an opportunity. Meyrowitz frustratingly said, "There is no more money; I don't even know if I have enough money to put on one more event."

Dana White immediately called up Frank & Lorenzo Fertitta, billionaire casino owners in Las Vegas that he had formed a relationship with. Within weeks, Dana White and the Fertitta brothers presented a $2M offer to buy the UFC.

The catch?

To avoid bankruptcy, the UFC had already sold off all its assets — even its website domain. The trio would start from scratch, only receiving the "UFC" name.

As part of the deal to purchase the UFC, the Fertitta brothers agreed to fund the $2M purchase price. Dana White was named President of the operation and given a 9% equity stake in return.

With skin in the game and financially incentivized partners, White got to work. Over the course of the next 15 years, Dana White built the UFC into a global juggernaut.

How'd he do it?

White was laser-focused on two things:

1. Popularizing the concept of caged fighting

2. Attracting fighters with personality

Once accomplished, others took notice.

In 2016, with the UFC now doing over $600M in annual revenue, Ari Emanuel's WME-IMG came calling. They offered over $4 billion for the UFC.

The Fertitta brothers made billions, and Dana White personally took home $360M.

Not bad for a college dropout.

In the end, I love this story for one simple reason — it shows how valuable even a small equity percentage in a business can be.

Here’s what I mean…

Conor Mcgregor, the most popular fighter in UFC history, has a net worth of $140M.

So what?

By owning 9% of the business, Dana White built a net worth 4x greater, over $500M — without ever taking a punch.

Now don’t get me wrong. I understand there is a polarizing opinion regarding the UFC as an organization, Dana White specifically, and their combined unwillingness to make fighters full-time employees — but to be honest, I’m not here to debate that.

From running the valet at a casino in Boston to running one of the most valuable sports organizations in the world, Dana White is the perfect example of pursuing your dreams and stopping at nothing to achieve them.

Regardless of what you think about him, Dana White went from a college dropout to a $500M net worth. That's incredibly impressive.

Have a great day, and we’ll talk tomorrow.

If you enjoyed this email, make sure to follow me on Twitter — I detailed this story via Twitter thread in September :)

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