White purchases the UFC in 2001 for $2 million.
White started out as a boxing trainer in Las Vegas and then Boston before shifting focus to mixed martial arts, he told Forbes in a 2014 interview.
Eventually, White managed MMA fighters who participated in UFC bouts, which resulted in a contract dispute with the UFC. White told the outlet that the contract dispute motivated him to find a way to beat the UFC.
His plan involved two of his childhood friends, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta.
“I ended up finding that out, that they’re in trouble, and they’re probably going to go out of business,” White said, referring to the UFC. “And I’d been to a [UFC] event, and I was looking around and thinking, ‘Imagine if they did this, and imagine if they did that. This thing could actually be really big.'”
So, White said, he called his friends and suggested that together they try to buy the UFC.
The brothers founded Zuffa, LLC and purchased the UFC for $2 million in 2001. White took over as president and received a 9% stake. He then began to turn the company into an MMA juggernaut.
That year, White hosted a UFC battle at the now-defunct Trump Taj Mahal casino and resort in Atlantic City.
White told The Hill in 2018 that the UFC’s popularity grew, in part, because of Trump’s early support. When he first purchased the UFC, the company, as well as mixed martial arts more broadly, the sport faced criticism for its violent fighting style.
“Any good thing that happened to me in my career, Donald Trump was the first to pick up the phone and call and say ‘congratulations,'” he told the outlet.
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