About fifteen years after White and the Fertitta’s acquisition of the UFC, they sold it. In July of 2016, it was announced that the UFC was being sold to WME-IMG for a whopping $4.02 billion. That’s more than 2,010 times what it was bought for, and it made the owners look like they had a crystal ball. When it sold, Dana White owned 9 percent of the company. That means that he took home nearly $363 million from the deal, a small fortune that makes up the biggest part of his net worth. When talking to Jimmy Kimmel about life after the deal, Dana said that he locked himself in a hotel room for a few days. “When this deal closed, it bugged me out a little bit… I have new partners now… I didn’t sleep or eat. It kinda freaked me out a bit,” he told Jimmy, joking that he didn’t answer family calls anymore.
Of course, that’s not even to mention the fact that unlike Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, Dana White kept his position at the company and remained the President. He was also given a new stake in the business as it continues to gross hundreds of millions annually.
Unlike the fighters, who are treated as independent contractors, Dana White does receive a salary. Although it hasn’t been confirmed, it is reported that the UFC President makes a colossal $20 million a year for running things. It’s a controversial topic because $20 million is more than 99.9% of fighters make, and I don’t think that anyone would argue that they have, by far, the hardest job in the organization. In Dana’s defense, whatever you think about him and the issue of fighter pay, he has had an integral part in making the UFC the household name that it is today and has earned every penny of his.