THE MANY FACES OF UFC’S DANA WHITE

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/06/2011 (5531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — Will the real Dana White please stand up.

Usually, when someone is in the spotlight as much as the Ultimate Fighting Championship president, it’s easy to get a read on them. But in the case of White, it’s the exact opposite. He’s been in the public eye so much, fans have seen every side of the mixed martial arts kingpin — good, bad and ugly.

“I’ve been compared to Don King, Vince McMahon, you name it. The Devil. Dr. Evil,” says White, whose latest success was on April 30 when UFC 129 drew 55,724 fans paying $11.5 million to Rogers Centre in Toronto for the company’s long-awaited Ontario debut. He returned to Vancouver this week for the company’s second show in the B.C. metropolis, UFC 131 on Saturday at Rogers Arena.

“Whatever. At the end of the day, I know who I am.”

Is White, 41, the genius who was put in charge of a near-bankrupt company and turned it into a billion-dollar business?

He laughs, thinking back, about being 31 years old and named UFC president by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta.

No way that should happen, right? It hadn’t been that long since he was just a teenager with posters of Farrah Fawcett and Bruce Lee on his wall, looking up to Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, shuffling with sister Kelly and their divorced mother from Boston to Las Vegas to Maine and back, working as a bellhop at the Boston Harbor Hotel to make ends meet.

“Who the (expletive) was I, for the Fertittas to put me there?” White says, shaking his head. “It’s crazy. I always believed in this thing… But when you look back, it’s a (expletive) dream. You just hope the rest of the world sees it the way you do.”

Kevin Iole, formerly of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and now with Yahoo! Sports, first met him in the mid-1990s when White was working as a boxercise instructor at the gym they both went to.

White swore his aerobics program was the most innovative around. Though White’s job has changed, says Iole, his approach has not.

“It’s all or nothing. He has that great passion,” Iole says. “You could not do what he’s done if you didn’t have that complete, 100 per cent all-in attitude.”

The story’s been told and retold. White was a classmate in Vegas of casino magnates Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. When he moved back to Vegas, he reconnected with friends, including the Fertittas, at another classmate’s wedding. White was soon managing boxers, then mixed martial arts fighters, and while negotiating a new contract with UFC for client Tito Ortiz, he learned the promotion was in trouble.

One month later, in January 2001, the Fertittas and White owned the show.

Their first pay-per-view, in September 2001, was perhaps the worst show in company history. For five years, they burned through money. The company was at one point up for sale for the right price. But things started to change after The Ultimate Fighter reality TV show aired in 2005.

By 2006, the company was setting pay-per-view records. Through tireless efforts and struggles, they gained approval in more and more markets. Now, they’re selling out events from Canada to England, Australia to Las Vegas.

“I had been in boxing for so many years and seen all the bad (expletive) you could see, even in the amateurs. I started to get into this sport. This is different. It seemed like, this is kind of a weird analogy, but when people started moving west, you could start new, you could start fresh,” said White.

“It was a clean slate. You could do things differently.

Is White the tyrant who has feuded with everyone from UFC legends to MMA news sources?

Former UFC champ Frank Shamrock has been largely erased from company history for crossing the boss. White and Ortiz are on good terms now (check back in an hour), although they spent years in MMA’s most intriguing feud. Even UFC legend Randy Couture — Captain America, as he’s been dubbed — was persona non grata during periods when he was on the outs with White and UFC.

Sherdog.com, a top MMA website, gets no co-operation from UFC. Josh Gross and Loretta Hunt, two veteran reporters, can’t get near backstage at UFC events (even while working for outlets like ESPN and CBS). Each have raised the ire in one form or another of White.

“He’s not just a passionate guy, but an emotional guy and a passionate guy about this sport,” Couture says.

“Sometimes that can be a downfall and get in the way of things. But most of the time I think it motivates him to keep going and do the things that he’s been doing.”

Is White the philanthropist who has quietly gone above and beyond to help people?

In December, he donated $50,000 to pay for life-saving surgery for the seven-month-old daughter of a Muay Thai trainer in Thailand. White had never met the family.

Last year, White sent $8,000 to a family in England after learning of a fundraiser to pay for brain-tumour surgery for a two-year-old girl. White never met that family, either.

He’s donated as much as $100,000 to a fundraising marathon in Las Vegas.

Everyone around him has seen him slip a $20 or $100 bill to someone down on their luck. They need it more than he does, White will say.

Jen Wenk knows White as well as anyone. As UFC public relations director for six years, she spent countless hours shuffling White from interview to interview, country to country. She recently opened StarPR Las Vegas, where she remains involved in the fight game.

“He changed my life and the life of my son and family for the better in so many ways,” says Wenk. “I know I’m only one of many people he affected in this way.”

Is White the loudmouth whose personality has got him in hot water?

Part of his charm is that he’s unlike any other executive. At news conferences and most other public appearances, he proudly wears a Bruce Lee or Rocky III or Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt, leaving the suit for the other suits. He spends hours on Twitter.

“He connects with his fans better than anybody I’ve ever seen,” director of UFC Canadian operations Tom Wright says.

The tales of his exploits at Las Vegas blackjack tables are legendary, both the wins and losses.

If you were to play a drinking game where you took a shot each time he swore, you’d be on the floor in record time.

His loose lips, however, have caused himself and the company embarrassment.

In 2009, after a story from Hunt was published, White used a gay slur to describe her anonymous sources. In the following days, CNN, ESPN, Fox News — all the big media players — were swarming.

White says he lives and learns, but doesn’t regret anything he’s done, including that incident.

“When I grew up, you said stuff like that then… It was a poor choice of words.”

But a homophobe? “Furthest thing from it,” White says.

More than two years later, it seems he still worries about the perception some may have him because of that.

“It was the people that I’m close to that are gay, those are the people that supported me the most, that they might think…”

His voice trails off.

Is he the doting father to sons Dana III and Aidan, and daughter Savanna?

“Anybody who’s a parent knows there’s no greater pleasure in the world than seeing your kid succeed in something or be good at something or spend time with them or have fun. I didn’t know until I had kids,” says White, who has been married to wife Anne for 15 years. “That’s really what it’s all about.

“Nothing else matters.”

His massive pool in his massive Las Vegas home is a water paradise for the kids. The walls in his house are covered in family photos. Old-school arcade games beep and boop at all hours.

When he’s home, it doesn’t matter if he only got two hours sleep, he loves making them breakfast. When he’s on the road, he stays in touch.

On the Saturday of UFC 129, one of his sons had a football game that White couldn’t be at, so White paid to have the game livestreamed on the web.

It’s one thing for White to enjoy a successful event like UFC 100 or UFC 129. But an entirely different kind of joy was on his face on a recent February night, when White looked as giddy as a kid on his first date. In fact, he sort of was — he was taking Savanna to a father-daughter dance.

Complementing the adorable bejewelled dress she wore, White proudly presented Savanna a white orchid corsage, grinning ear-to-ear the whole time.

“Listen, I love what I do. I love to work. I love to kick ass. I love to conquer,” he says. “All the things you do when you’re in business. But I really enjoy my time with my family.”

So… brilliant promoter? Yes. World-class grudge holder? Sure. Generous?

Yup. A loudmouth? Absolutely. Loving dad? No doubt.

“I don’t think I’m a different guy anywhere. I don’t think I’m a different guy up here than I am in the office with these guys or when I’m at home with my family. I’m the same guy these guys knew when I was growing up,” White says, pointing to an entourage that includes childhood friend and former Major League Baseball player Marty Cordova.

“I don’t think I’ve changed that much. I’m not a performer. I’m not a showman. I don’t go out and act like I’m somebody different. It’s all honest. What you see is what you get.”

— Postmedia News