Dana White, 41, President of Zuffa, LLC, d/b/a Ultimate Fighting Championship ® and co-owner of its assets, oversees a company of 150 employees on two continents.


With a keen sense of competition and strong business acumen, White has achieved unrivaled success in the mixed martial arts industry. In fact, White has built UFC into the fastest growing sports organization in history.  University business professors now seek to understand and impart the strategies White has deployed so successfully in such a brief period of time. By way of illustration, the company was acquired for $2 million in 2001 by White and his business partners and in 2009 the company received a qualified offer exceeding $1 billion.


The UFC’s popularity exploded when the first season of the hit reality series The Ultimate Fighter®, that White co-created, delivered record ratings on Spike TV.  Now 12 seasons later, The Ultimate Fighter franchise is a staple of TV and popular culture, and combatants such as Kenny Florian, Rashad Evans, Diego Sanchez and others have gone on to become champions, contenders and main event headliners.


Thanks to White’s vision, from humble beginnings as a live events company producing five cards a year, the juggernaut of the UFC organization now mounts 30 live events per year, produces over a dozen different TV shows and accounts for thousands of hours of broadcast and cable programming in 20 different languages in over 130 countries. Ancillary businesses now include the UFC^® Gym, branded apparel, trading cards, articulated action figures and other media including best-selling DVDs, videogames, books and a national bimonthly magazine.



In 2008, both Business Week and Sports Business Journal named White as one of the most influential people in sports. In 2009, the United States Armed Forces Foundation presented White with the Patriot Award for his contribution to injured military servicemen and women.  That same year, White was named “Nevada’s Sportsman of the Year” by the Caring Place, a nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving financial concerns of cancer patients. This year, White was named as one of the most influential people of 2010 by both Time and Esquire magazine.


In addition to the UFC® brand, Zuffa owns and markets under the names of World Extreme Cagefighting® (WEC®) and PRIDE Fighting Championship® with programming available to 430 million homes worldwide.  Alongside Chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, White is directing a worldwide expansion of the business from the company’s headquarters in Las Vegas.


Originally a New England native, White spent formative years in Las Vegas where he currently resides with his wife Anne and their three children.

www.ufc.com