UFC boss Dana White continues to do things his way

NEW YORK — Dana White squeezed in a recent workout in New York — ahead of the launch of his new boxing promotion, just after he struck a YouTube deal for Power Slap, days ahead of the next major UFC pay-per-view card and around the time he celebrated making the cover of Forbes — when his phone buzzed in the gym from one of his closest confidants, the president.

Hours before President Donald Trump addressed Congress, he texted White congratulations on becoming the latest cover boy for the business magazine that labeled the UFC CEO the “Populist Capitalist.”

Their relationship dates to UFC’s infancy in White’s reign as he reorganized the company and led its rise into national prominence. Their alliance has yielded dividends for both parties — White stumped for Trump at Republican conventions while men who soak up fight nights threw their support behind Trump in the elections. It’s that kinship that prompted Trump to text White after the cover was released and even take Forbes to task for publishing the president’s name in the sub-headline.

“You deserve the cover without having absolutely nothing to do with Trump,” White said, as he read the text exchange to The Associated Press. “I shouldn’t even be mentioned in the scheme of your tremendous success, so much as mentioned.”

Maybe, but perhaps it’s telling that Trump’s rise politically mirrors that of UFC’s ascendance under White, two men whose style has served as a siren song for a segment of the population yearning for a return to the so-called traditional definition of a virile man, not just in the ring, but in life.

Kyle Kusz, a University of Rhode Island professor and author of “Revolt of the White Athlete: Race, Media and the Emergence of Extreme Athletes in America,” said Trump smartly latched onto UFC because White has posited the company as a safe space for “manly men.”

“It kind of embodies the brutal, fight-to-the-finish way of being a man,” Kusz said. “It seems open to all sorts of men across different social categories, whether that’s class, whether that’s ethnicity, whether that’s race. It’s also open to women who are willing to be all-in on that way of thinking. Trump is cultivating that way of being to essentially train the population to fight for his reign.”

White was grateful in his text reply to Trump, writing, “When they mention tribal business model, it’s really about loyalty and friendship, which is something people these days know nothing about. You and I are the poster boys for loyalty. Thank you for the kind words, Mr. President. But I have no problem being mentioned with you in any shape or form.”

Yes, that’s right, White calls his long-time friend and former business associate from the days when Boardwalk cards at Trump Taj Mahal lifted UFC into relevancy, Mr. President.

“I called him Don before he became President,” White said, laughing. “Now that he became President, I call him Mr. President.”

Now, White, already the king of combat sports, may soon be called the final boss in boxing.

TKO Group, the company that already houses WWE and UFC, entered into a partnership with Saudi Arabian businessmen to form the new, yet unnamed boxing venture that could provide the jolt of cash, infrastructure, and organized leadership the sport needs. TKO will serve as managing partner and run the day-to-day operations of the promotion expected to run its first card next year, but details are scarce beyond the initial announcement.

The league needs a name — TKO is literally the low-hanging fruit there for the taking — a roster and a rights deal.

Given the business acumen of the parties involved, and the hefty Saudi bankroll, those issues seem easily solvable and White’s input might be enough to prop boxing out of its niche status and into a mainstream sports player. Boxing retreated from the public sports consciousness in part because White and UFC exploited its inherent messiness to create a more coherent fight organization.

It was WWE president and TKO board member Nick Khan who introduced White to Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, about 18 months ago to discuss collaborating on a boxing league. White had toyed with the idea of starting a boxing promotion and trying to fix a sport many believe long broken because of everything from corruption to decaying interest in the United States to the alphabet soup sanctioning bodies refusing to play nice and book the best fights.

The 55-year-old White hit it off with Alalshikh and Saudi Arabia was eager to add to its sports portfolio. 

The Saudis host a Formula 1 auto race, fund LIV Golf, have hosted numerous pay-per-view boxing cards — topped by Tyson Fury’s win over Francis Ngannou in October 2023 — are in the midst of a 10-year deal to hold WWE events and will host the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer, giving the oil-rich kingdom its biggest prize yet in its sports expansion.

Each marquee event only seems to push accusations against Saudi Arabia of “sportswashing,” an effort to rebrand a nation’s troubling public image that has been going on for decades, using the Olympics and other sports across the globe, further into the background. Endeavor (the majority owner of TKO) and CEO Ari Emanuel returned a $400 million investment from the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund in 2019 after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Now, TKO is working with, among others, Sela, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The Saudis will fund the league, while TKO will run it.

“So far, it’s been a great relationship,” White said. “I have to be aligned. I have to feel good about the relationship and these guys have kept their world and did everything they said they would do. Anything that happened with Saudi, pre-my deal, I didn’t have a relationship, I wasn’t with them.”

White and TKO have the tools to turn the company into a winner. 

White — whom Forbes estimated to have a personal net worth north of $600 million — has cashed in on the current political climate and an audience that embraces the extreme no-excuses ideological masculinity that ushered Trump into the White House. Trump has leaned on UFC fights as both testosterone-charged campaign rallies and election celebrations and White and his fighters have come along for the ride.

“A lot of the ways in which Trump wants to change culture, and to win at politics, he can express through connecting himself through sport, like UFC, because it does kind of promote manly man who are willing to be strong, be aggressive who are willing to fight for their side,” Kusz said.

Much like loyalists seemed to tune out impeachment charges against Trump or even his conviction on 34 felony counts in his historic hush money trial, the murky ethos of being bad has never been so good inside UFC. UFC fighters can seemingly act however they want and say whatever they want — see fighter Bryce Mitchell’s recent defence of Adolph Hitler or Conor McGregor’s order by a civil jury to pay $250,000 to a woman who says he raped her — without any significant consequence levied by the company.

“This is the fight business, man,” White said. “And then when you talk about races, religions, whatever you are, whoever you are, that’s what I’m selling. This is the fight business. At the end of the day, get over it. And if you can’t get over it, here’s my solution to you, don’t watch it.”

In American sports leagues, Mitchell and McGregor would have faced lengthy suspensions or more severe consequences for their actions, the kind of punishments White — who wouldn’t even sanction himself for an incident with his wife — no longer worries about dishing out.

“We went through that early on, figuring out where we fit, who we were and all that stuff. Not anymore,” he said. “This is the fight business. People are going to say some stupid (stuff). People that you won’t necessarily agree with. Some bad thing will break out in their part of the world, and you hold all of them accountable for it and they can’t make a living? That’s never going to be us while I’m here. After I’m gone, I can’t tell you what’s going to happen.”

And how long does White plan to keep running his mixed martial arts empire?

“Until I die,” he said.