UFC President Dana White is perhaps the most important person in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA) at the moment. Although he is not putting his body on the line to entertain the fans, White is spearheading the business of the part of UFC and is involved in making some of the most-anticipated fights. While he currently runs a successful business at the moment, the Ultimate Fighting Championship was not always a successful endeavor.
The company was founded in November 1993 and held the very first PPV in the same month. After selling 86,000 PPVs with UFC 1 and nearly 300,000 PPVs with UFC 3, the company saw a massive downfall under the stewardship of Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG). MMA as a whole was under threat as several US states had banned the sport from being held.
At one point it seemed as if the company was going under. But, in 2001, Zuffa bought the company for a mere $2 million. With Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta, and Dana White at the helm, the company had a new hope to succeed. But, it was not an easy task to turn the ship around and they struggled to make ends meet for a number of years. However, it all changed in 2005 with the inception of TUF (The Ultimate Fighter).
In the TUF 1 finale, Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin had their now-legendary bout. While the fight was going on, it generated millions of views and helped spread the word about the promotion. As per a report from The Futon Critic, the finale generated a massive viewership of 2.6 million. As they say, the rest was history. Spike TV renewed the deal for TUF and it turned UFC into a massive entity overnight.
Dana White made his first million-dollar paycheck after the TUF boom
Dana White is currently the richest MMA promoter in the world. As per a report from Celebrity Net Worth, the 54-year-old is worth $500 million. Although he has many avenues of earning money, Dana is most well-known for his stint with the UFC and he earns an estimated $20 million per year from the company. However, this was not the case during the early days of the company.
During a recent appearance on ‘Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru & Henry’, White revealed when he earned his first massive payday from the MMA promotion.
He said, “We were always in budget meetings, budget meetings, budget meetings, then after ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, I wanna say it was probably six (2006) or seven (2007), I don’t remember, probably seven (2007). And, we were in a budget meeting and Lorenzo used to have these f*cking big whiteboards, he always liked writing on whiteboards. So I’m watching this thing play out on the whiteboard and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, does that say I’m gonna make a million dollars this year?’ And, Lorenzo was like, ‘Yeah.'”
Dana also shared that he owned 10% of the company at the time. Hence, after all the expenses were accounted for, White received his share of the profits as an owner and it was about $1 million. Neither Dana nor the Fertitta brothers ever looked back since then and sold the company for $4.025 billion to Endeavor in 2016. It was the most lucrative purchase in sports history at the time until the Washington Commanders were sold for $6.1 billion in 2023.
UFC is valued at $12.1 billion after the TKO merger with WWE
While other MMA promotions such as ONE Championship and PFL have their places in the MMA world, there is no doubt that UFC remains the most profitable and the most lucrative entity in the sport. In late 2023, UFC and WWE merged into one company after Endeavor bought out the Vince McMahon-led pro wrestling company. The two sports entities merged into one company, TKO, which is valued at $21.4 billion.
Out of that, the UFC holds a valuation of $12.1 billion. It means that the MMA promotion’s value has increased nearly 3X since Endeavor’s record-breaking purchase in 2016. There are also good reasons behind such high valuation as well. As per a 2023 report from ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, the company earned $891 million in revenue in 2020 despite struggles due to the pandemic.
UFC revenue was $1.14 billion in 2022, up from $1.03 billion in 2021, per the SEC filing. pic.twitter.com/sVJewPgrmx
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) May 12, 2023
But, in 2021 and 2022, they earned $1.031 billion and $1.140 billion respectively in revenue. It just goes to show how the trajectory of profitability has gone up year after year. In 2023, the company has recorded its highest revenue to date, which is $1.3 billion! While the exciting product is the main reason behind the sustainability, the company leaders, including Dana White also deserve a lot of credit for the immense growth.