White’s first fight in the role—UFC 30, in February 2001—was held at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J. John McCain, the Republican Senator from Arizona, had famously labeled the UFC “human cockfighting,” so it wasn’t fashionable to take a chance on the organization. “That first night, I went home, I said, ‘This is the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen,’” says Trump. “The punishment. You know, it’s violent, but when I look at some of these other things, like the bare-knuckle stuff, it’s not that [violent].”
The UFC remained on shaky footing until 2005, when The Ultimate Fighter—a reality show featuring contenders battling for a spot on the circuit—became a hit on Spike TV. “It was our Trojan horse to get on television,” says White, whose show launched the year after The Apprentice. (White says he didn’t watch.) But it was a slow burn. “Dana and I would fly around to all these crazy just mom-and-pop sort of sponsorships,” says Craig Piligian, a former Survivor producer who helped White create the program. “I remember going to Vermont, going everywhere with him, and we just could not get $1.”
As the UFC grew, Trump sent White occasional notes of encouragement. UFC fighters like Chuck Liddell, Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey became household names. In 2016, WME-IMG, the talent-management and entertainment conglomerate run by Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, led a group that bought the UFC for $4 billion, further scaling White’s business. “All we needed Dana to do—and this is not a simple thing, this is the meat of it—is put on the best fights in the world and really know how to promote them and make the proper matchups,” says Emanuel. “And so that part we knew we had, as long as he remained with us. Then we could do everything else.” White, who by this time had a 9% stake in the UFC, made some $360 million in the deal.
That same year Trump asked White to talk at the Republican National Convention. “He’s a very good speaker, very inspirational-type speaker,” says Trump. “I know guys who are successful, they can’t speak.” White’s circle advised him to turn Trump down. “Everybody said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it,’” says White. “It was about more than ‘You don’t want to get into politics.’ The bigger one was ‘He’s never gonna win.’ And I was like, ‘Well, whether he wins or not, the guy’s been a good friend to me.’”
When COVID hit, White continued to stage events in Las Vegas and Florida during the shutdown. In the summer of 2020, the UFC secured a facility in Abu Dhabi, named Fight Island, to host bouts in a bubble. No one got seriously ill there, and with the UFC practically the only league offering programming, even more fans flocked to the sport. “That’s the bedrock of who he is,” says Mark Shapiro, who was at the time president of Endeavor, the new name for WME-IMG. “You tell him he can’t do something, and the game is on.” Pedro Rodriguez, a 22-year-old fan from Miami, started following the UFC during this period. “Dana was the first one to go against the system,” he says. In February 2021, Endeavor bought a 100% stake in the UFC: it merged the UFC and WWE and took a new company, TKO Group Holdings, public in September 2023.