Few promoters in the world can match Dana White when it comes to combat sports. Before coming to Las Vegas with his brother, Frank, White was born in Connecticut and grew up in Massachusetts. He purchased the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) with his brother in 2001. This company, which had previously had difficulty breaking into the mainstream, is now a multibillion-dollar juggernaut, with the largest MMA promotion in the world under Dana White’s leadership.
8 Facts About UFC President Dana White
Despite this, White has never been known for his commercial skills or professionalism as a public figure. When it comes to his questionable past, he has publicly criticized and viciously abused people who oppose him. The UFC’s President has a lot of things that his supporters either don’t know about or have forgotten about over time.
Dana White’s Biggest Regret
To date, Dana White has expressed remorse about his failure to recruit Fedor Emelianenko to a contract with the UFC in 2013.
The biggest challenge was working with Fedor’s dubious management team, led by Vadim Finkelstein.
After Fedor’s father died and he was encouraged to retire, White recounts almost signing a big-money bout with Brock Lesnar and the UFC.
Gambling Addiction
In her own biography, Dana White’s mother had accused him of an excessive betting addiction. Stating: “Dana can lose $1,000,000 in a few hours by gambling, but he can’t assist his 93-year-old grandmother?” It has also been said that he places a $50,000 stake every hand in blackjack and refuses to leave the casino until he has made $5 million in wagers. It’s no secret that UFC fans also love to bet on the fights Dana White promotes. These UFC fans often find the best boxing betting sites @ sportslens, where one can get a better idea of which site to choose for the best odds on the market.
Meniere’s Disease
People with Meniere’s Disease experience dizziness, a buzzing in the ears that can continue for hours, and even experience temporary hearing loss. It is caused by a punch that is delivered with excessive force. Dana White is among the few rare persons in the world who have the condition, despite the fact that he never fights professionally.
He had to skip a UFC event in 2012 because he needed emergency ear surgery. Yet with the support of Alex Rodriguez, he was able to travel to Germany and have an Orthokine operation there.
Once said that females will never participate in UFC
TMZ questioned White in January 2011 whether UFC will follow competitors Strikeforce and Bellator by adding a women’s category. White said he didn’t know if he would. Even though Ronda Rousey was launched as the face of the UFC over two years after White’s “never” response, it’s interesting to think that White brought women to UFC about two years later in December 2012.
Hates Bob Arum
UFC’s purchase of Strikeforce was questioned by Bob Arum, a boxing promoter, as to whether or not it violated anti-trust rules in the United States. White has been enraged by this ever since. Arum is accused of “trying to copy everything he does” by White in a conversation with MMA Fighting. After that, he referred to Arum as a “crybaby”.
Doesn’t like Steve Mazzagatti
Steve Mazzagatti is a particular target for Dana White’s rhetorical wrath. When Demian Maia and Jon Fitch were fighting at UFC 161 and Fitch was clearly knocked out cold, White unleashed a nine-minute post-fight press diatribe on the ref for not stopping the bout immediately.
Reebok Controversies
In 2015, Reebok became the exclusive clothing sponsor of the UFC. Dana White has been attacked by boxers for signing an agreement with Reebok to control how athletes spend their sponsorship deals as well as how much they can earn from it. Everything about this arrangement, from Vitor Belfort to Joe Rogan, has been panned.
Referee Jacob “Stitch” Duran, who has been with the UFC for a long time, was one of the more outspoken members of the team when it came to the Reebok agreement. Refs, according to Stitch, were not even considered in these arrangements despite their desire to earn more revenue through sponsorships. Dana White dismissed Stitch immediately to send out a message to everyone opposed to the Reebok contract.
After announcing his intention to sack Stitch in an interview with Fight State, White went even farther by claiming he wanted nothing to do with stitch.
Problems with His Mom
We don’t hear much about Dana White’s background, but that’s on purpose. In reality, June White, White’s mother, despises her son. Revealing this in a 2011 interview. To promote her book, in which she made even more allegations against her son, can be seen on youtube.
For the most part, she blames her son for betraying his mother’s trust, infidelity, and moral decay in the process of becoming a multimillionaire.
