Dana White has brought up and placed the UFC on the very heights of success. It was a steady incline and took almost two decades to do so, but if not for Dana White, the UFC would not exist for what it is today. It is public knowledge that UFC was previously owned by a different organization and White, along with the Fertitta Brothers, acquired the promotion when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. However, even taking over the company wasn’t a smooth sailing ride. In a recent interview, the UFC talked about an aspect of the deal which has never been talked about before. Even after purchasing the UFC from Bob Myers, they didn’t have all the rights of the company. And to get a hand on that, Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers had to deal with the giant, Lionsgate, for a full takeover.
Bought the UFC, but didn’t own it fully
Although it wasn’t Dana White who bought the company, it was his vision that the UFC could do wonders if navigated in the right direction. Putting faith in White‘s vision, the Fertitta Brothers bought the company for 2 million dollars in 2001 and made him the president. However, even after they bought the company, they still had to bargain with Lionsgate for digital rights as they held those rights before. And this is a story not many are familiar with.
“I never told the story before. But at the time, Bob Myers had stripped this thing down to all we bought were those three letters, which was the trademark, really wasn’t event that strong at the time. Old wooden octagon and 10 or twelve contracts. That’s all we owned.”, said the UFC president.
He further added, “So all the rights, the DVD rights, which ended up being massive, the video game rights, and all the old library was owned by Lionsgate. We had to go back and negotiate those rights from Lionsgate. And we started talking to these guys. If you think about it, if you’re Lionsgate and you believe that this thing could do anything; why’d you give up those rights… They sold it back to us for 2 million bucks. So, we bought those back for 2 million dollars, too.”
Running the company, however, was an entirely unique challenge for them after they had acquired it. And White asserts that the Fertitta brothers served as his mentors in guiding him through the business nuances.
Dana White learned the business from the Fertitta Brothers
Although Dana White was familiar with fights and their mechanics, that was not enough. He had to learn about the inner workings of business and dealing with big bucks; once he was named president of the UFC. And that is the knowledge that the Fertitta Brothers passed on to White in the early years of the UFC.
Dana White described his experience like this: “So if you really look at it, my first 10 years in this business was like college for me. I had already done the fight game. I knew the fight game inside and out and all this stuff. And then, you know, diving into this thing. Big business, like dealing with millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. I learned from the Fertitta brothers.”
And the UFC is currently one of the biggest combat sports promotions in the entire world. Dana White‘s vision deserves a large portion, if not all, of the credit for this.
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