Dana White broke cardinal rule about weddings and it led to him becoming UFC CEO worth half a billio
Dana White believes fate played a big part in his success story.
The UFC CEO, who was recently promoted from UFC president after his company merged with the WWE in a £17billion deal, is not a fan of weddings and he frequently used work as an excuse to skip them in his younger days as he built the juggernaut that is the UFC.
"There was a point in time where I was so focused on where I was going to go in my career,” White explained during an interview with Big Boy.
“We could be friends for however long - I didn’t go to anybody’s wedding.
“I’m out. I’m too busy. I don’t have time for that kind of s***. It was a blanket f****** policy. I’d go, ‘Yeah, I’ve known you for 20 f****** years. Love you. I won’t be at your wedding.'"
However, White felt compelled to break his rule when he found out an old friend who went out of his way to help him at school, was tying the knot.
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The MMA mogul attended Bishop Gorman High School, a private Roman Catholic preparatory institution known for creating high-level athletes.
Among those in White's year were Shaquille O'Neal's agent, Perry Rogers, Marty Cordova who was the 1995 American League rookie of the year, entrepreneur Tim Poster, and two men who changed White’s life.
"There’s this kid I went to school with called Adam Corrigan,” he explained.
"Adam Corrigan owns a bunch of bars and restaurants here in [Las Vegas] right now.
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“He was rich and I was poor. This f****** guy used to pick me up every day and drive me to school. Every day, he’d have to get up earlier to get ready for school, drive all the way over to my house, pick me up, and drive me to school every day.
"This dude is getting married, there’s no f****** way I’m not going to his wedding. I never forget what people do for me, there’s no way I’m not going to Adam Corrigan’s wedding. Everybody else’s wedding I’m not going."
At the time, boxing was what interested White and he was working in a gym training people and trying to learn as much as he could about the fight game.
"I go to this wedding. Who do I run into? Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. I haven’t seen them since high school. They approached me and said, ‘We heard you’re doing this boxing thing.’ Lorenzo says to me, ‘I’ve just got on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, I’d love to come to train with you.’
"So, Lorenzo comes Monday to train with me, we’ve been together ever since. The only wedding I would go to. Where the f*** would I have run into Lorenzo Fertitta if I didn’t go to that wedding?"
In 2001, the Fertitta Brothers bought the UFC and put White in charge.
For years, they pumped millions of dollars into a failing business, but it started to make money in 2005 when The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show aired on SPIKE.
After an iconic run 15-year run, White and his business partners turned MMA, which was once compared to human cockfighting, into the fastest-growing sport on the planet.
Lorenzo and Frank cashed out in 2016, selling the UFC to Ari Emmanuel's Endeavor for $4 billion, but White continued to run the company in their absence.
Today, it's thought to be worth four times as much and White himself is estimated to be worth half a billion dollars.
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As the kingmaker, he continues to put on fights all over the world every week – he’ll be in Las Vegas on Saturday for Alexa Grasso vs Valentina Shevchenko II.
To think, none of this would have happened if White didn’t break his wedding rule.
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