I covered UFC owner Dana White’s advice back in November (Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow – Dana White) and later featured his thoughts in a post on if you should go to college or not (What Do Famous Entrepreneurs Think Of College?)
Because of the success of the UFC and the popularity of Dana White I thought it would be a useful exercise to dig a little deeper into his story:
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) used to be nothing more than an underground fighting league, and one which was scarcely accepted in the U.S. That was, until Dana White came along. White transformed the UFC into one of the most mainstream and popular sports on the scene today. By cleaning up its image and marketing it as a legitimate sport, White was able to create a successful organization, whose events can now be seen on television in more than 35 countries around the world.
White was born in 1971 in Manchester, Connecticut, but grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, Levant, Maine, and mostly, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He admits he was never the academic type in school, preferring to spend his time in the boxing ring. He graduated from Hermon High School in 1987, and subsequently enrolled in the University of Massachusetts. However, after two years there, he decided that it was not the right place for him to be. “Hell, forget about college,” White says. “I barely finished high school.”
White floated around between different jobs for a few years, including a bellhop position at a hotel in Boston, where he was bringing in nearly $60,000 per year. All the while, he was also training as an amateur boxer. White says he “got hooked” on the sport, but grappled with where to go from there. In 1992, White finally decided to branch off onto his own. He had given up on his dream of becoming a professional fighter when he realized that he did not have what it takes. But, his love of the sport was still as strong as ever.
Thus, in 1992, White established Dana White Enterprises in his home town of Las Vegas, Nevada. With his new company, White opened up three gyms in the surrounding area. He might not have been a good enough boxer to turn pro, but that did not mean he had to completely abandon the sport. Instead, White chose to use his expertise and own personal experiences to train boxers in his gyms. He headed up successful boxing classes and became a personal trainer to many up and coming fighters.
Business was going well for White, but it was about to get even better. One day, thanks to his sports management company, White was introduced to two young UFC fighters, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell. After seeing their potential, White officially began representing them. In the process, White became fast friends with Bob Meyerwitz, Ortiz’s former manager, whose company, Semaphore Entertainment Group, also happened to be the owner of the UFC at the time. White says the two “developed a mutual respect for one another.” It was then that Meyerwitz confided in White that he wanted to sell the UFC.
White immediately called up a childhood friend of his who was also interested in boxing, Lorenzo Fertitta. At the time, Fertitta was an executive at Station Casinos. “He was down in Miami, and I said, ‘You know what? I just found out the UFC is for sale. What do you think?” recalled White. “And he said, ‘That’s interesting.’ A month later we owned it.”
Fertitta, along with his older brother Frank, bought the UFC and installed White as its president. With that, White set his sights on a new horizon.
“It was around 1997 or 1998 that it all turned around for us,” says White. “We were all boxing guys and I used to think UFC was a joke. I would say, ‘those guys would get their asses kicked by a boxer.” That was, until White and the Feretti brothers began taking Jujitsu lesson, which White says, “opened our eyes to a whole new world. It literally changed my life.”
From there, White began to get more involved in the UFC. And, he claims that after meeting the athletes, the deal was sealed. He wanted to be a part of the organization. “They were college educated, they were good guys,” White says. “There was so much misconception about the sport and the guys that fight.” White began to wonder what would happen if they “got out there and really promoted it in the right way and let people know what kind of athletes these are.”
After deciding to purchase the almost bankrupt UFC for $2 million, White now had on his hands the challenging task of trying to turn the organization’s fate around. He began, first, by changing the ‘no holds barred’ label to ‘mixed martial arts,” emphasizing the athletic nature of the sport and enforcing stricter rules. White and the Fertitta brothers also created Zuffa, LLC as the UFC’s parent company, which would later secure sanctioning by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. This, too, would help bring an air of legitimacy to the sport.
White revamped the UFC’s marketing campaign, more effectively targeting his desired demographics. He also increased corporate sponsorship, and began releasing UFC fights on home videos and DVDs. While many fights aired live on television, White also initiated pay-per-view events, which were held at such places as the Trump Taj Mahal. This helped to bring profits back to their previous levels.
In 1997, the UFC got its first television deal with Fox Sports Net, creating the show ‘The Best Damn Sports Show Period.’ But, it wasn’t until the Fertitta brothers were featured in a reality television series that they got the idea to create their own. The result was ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ which was finally picked up by Spike TV only after White agreed to pay for the $10 million production costs himself. The show became an immediate hit, and UFC’s pay-per-view sales continued to skyrocket. In fact, in 2006, the UFC broke the pay-per-view industry’s all-time record for earning over $222,766,000 in revenue.
Already broadcast in 36 countries worldwide, the UFC is currently planning to expand into regular shows in both Canada and the United Kingdom. In March 2007, UFC announced it would be buying out its main competitor, PRIDE Fighting Championships, aligning the two to co-promote both organizations.
Today, White continues to run his company with the same gusto he did on the very first day. “If I’m not spending time with my family, then there is nothing I would want to do. No games, no hobbies, no special interests,” says White. “This company, those fighters, this job, they’re my hobby. This is my life. It’s my everything.”
In this week’s Entrepreneur University we turn again to a familiar face here at the Young Entrepreneur Blog: Leanne Hoagland-Smith. Leanne has already been profiled twice before (7 Ways To Get Rejected – Entrepreneur University and Avoiding The 7 Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs Make – Entrepreneur University).
A common question that I get asked by website owners is “How do I know if Google has penalized / banned my website?” There are a few telltale signs that I wanted to share with you today.
This morning my website was featured in a story in one of Canada’s most respected newspapers, the Financial Post.
This week’s Entrepreneur University comes thanks to 
Name of Company: 
A question I get asked very frequently by young entrepreneurs is:
