The hardest working man in fight business
Brash? Yes. Overexposed? Maybe. But Credit White’s Work Ethic for UFC’s Rise The lights were off in the Mandalay Bay…
Brash? Yes. Overexposed? Maybe. But Credit White’s Work Ethic for UFC’s Rise
The lights were off in the Mandalay Bay Events Center, the crowd had moved on to the Strip’s casinos with UFC memories fresh in their minds, and the fighters had dispersed — some to their after-parties, others to the hospital. But deep in the bowels, in the last place he needed to be, Dana White remained.
Bleary-eyed but triumphant, White couldn’t let UFC 100 weekend go, though there were other places he’d rather be. Tucked away in a conference room, he answered reporters’ questions, one after another. The questioner’s accents told the story of success the UFC has become. Media came from Japan, Canada, the UK, Germany and other far-off lands, with the UFC passing out over 240 credentials to the event, a record.
And at the center of it all, fittingly, was White, the seemingly indefatigable, polarizing ringleader who ostensibly through force of will moved the UFC from sideshow spectacle to booming sport.
Admittedly, he has never been one for nostalgia, and even upon being asked what his favorite part of UFC 100 weekend was, his answer was more practical than reflective.
“That it’s over,” he said. “It’s been crazy. It really has.”
The fights finished off an exhausting week for White and his staff, who concurrently put on the first Fan Expo in company history (it was a hit, drawing somewhere around 40,000 fans according to one company estimate), worked on a solution to get UFC 100 shown in the UK after its broadcast partner Setanta Sports collapsed, and put on the biggest card in company history.
The weekend was designed to be a celebration of the UFC (it was), but in a sense, it was also a celebration of White, whose identity has become interconnected with the company he helped build. He is its constant face, its most visible mouthpiece and if necessary, its top carnival-barker.
This is to take nothing away from the fighters, who were of course the building blocks, but White has been its foundation, unshaken through hard times and taken for granted when things have gone well.
