Dana White Net Worth and the $4 Billion UFC Sale

The Dana White net worth sum of $300.8 million comes from 16 years of UFC salary and his portion of the $4 billion sale of the UFC to WME-IMG. White had a 9% stake in Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC. The rest was owned by the Fertitta brothers (81%) and Flash Entertainment (10%). White’s portion of the sale price is $360 million. The Fertitta brothers got $1.62 billion each. That’s not bad at all for a $2 million investment made 16 years ago. The blood and sweat was put in by White, who gave Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta the heads up in 2001 that the UFC was up for sale. His 9% interest in the company was basically granted by the brothers back then as a finder’s fee for the deal. Since then, White has worked like a bulldog to promote and manage the UFC, earning a salary that reached $17 million a year in 2016. He has earned a total of $142 million in UFC salary since 2001. Coupled with his $360 million from the sale of the UFC on 7/11/16, that’s a total lifetime earnings of $497 million. U.S. federal taxes take $197 million of that and expenses take another $24.9 million, leaving the final Dana White net worth number at $300.8 million. That’s more three times what it was yesterday. To check our math, scroll down to the tables below. Other sites that place White’s net worth higher likely don’t figure for taxes and expenses.

"Sport is going to the next level."

Dana White confirms UFC's $4B sale to new ownership: https://t.co/v4xuvWeDFa pic.twitter.com/UIHzxmwkLV

— ESPN (@espn) July 11, 2016

Dana White Net Worth Facts

The Dana White net worth total of $300.8 million is triple what it was yesterday. That’s because of the UFC’s $4 billion sale to WME-IMG. Most of the $4 billion goes to brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who held 40.5% of Zuffa Inc. each. After the sale, the Fertitta brothers now have net worths of $3.22 billion each. That’s 11 times as much as Dana White’s net worth. Looking at some UFC fighters, Dana White’s net worth is 36 times bigger than Jon Jones’ net worth of $8.4 million. It’s 131 times bigger than Miesha Tate’s net worth of $2.3 million and 27 times bigger than Canelo Alvarez’s net worth of $11 million. Outside the UFC, Floyd Mayweather’s net worth of $403 million is 25% bigger than Dana White’s net worth. Jay Z’s net worth of $554 million is 46% bigger and Hillary Clinton’s net worth of $32 million is nine times bigger. The chart below shows how White’s wealth has shot straight for the moon in just one day.

Dana White Net Worth Timeline

The Dana White net worth story started out in his early years, when he was an aerobics and boxing instructor. Looking to expand his repertoire, White began managing boxers Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. In 2001 he learned that the UFC was up for sale. He reportedly contacted his childhood friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta about the opportunity. At the time the Fertitta brothers were managing Station Casinos in Las Vegas. Less than 30 days later the Fertittas jumped on the deal, buying the UFC for just $2 million and installing White as its president, paying him a salary and giving him a 9% stake in the business as a carrot to get him to perform. White performed beyond the wildest expectations of the brothers, turning the UFC around from a money-losing venue to a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years. White’s salary grew to $17 million a year by 2016, but the real payoff came with the July 2016 sale of the UFC to WME-IMG, an American sports and talent agency.

Related: Floyd Mayweather Net Worth

Dana White Net Worth Sources: Salary and UFC Sale

Until 7/11/16, almost all of the Dana White net worth figure came directly from his salary for the UFC. On that day, the UFC sold to talent agency WME-IMG for $4 billion, giving White 9% of that money or $360 million and tripling White’s net worth overnight. White’s total lifetime earnings of $497 million are beat down by $196.8 million in taxes and $24.8 million in expenses. That’s not as bad as it seems, since White escapes state taxes by living in Nevada, which has no state income tax. Were White to make his home in California he’d pay 13.3% of all his income in state taxes alone. That would have amounted to another $66 million in taxes and would have chopped the Dana White net worth amount down to $228 million. White also has relatively low expenses because he doesn’t have to shell out to talent agencies like most celebrities. Most celebs get a gigantic chunk of their money from endorsement deals, which means they have to pay a hefty percentage to talent agents but White has no such income. He also has no operating costs or staffing costs because those are all handled by the Fertitta’s Zuffa, Inc. Basically the only expenses White incurs are cost-of-living related, vs other stars like Rihanna who must shell out 15% or more for things like concert stage design and construction.

The UFC was sold for $4 BILLION. Staggering turn from the $2 million the Fertitta brothers invested 15 years ago to get it.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 11, 2016

The UFC Sale

Imagine seeing that a failing company is up for sale. You contact a couple childhood friends who happen to be millionaires and make a pitch: If they buy the failing company, you’ll run it. You’re able to convince the friends to spend $2 million on the company and set you up as president. In exchange, they pay you a hefty salary and give you a 9% stake in the business. You do such a good job managing the company that 16 years later it sells for $4 billion. That’s the biggest sale in the history of sports. Now your investment of $0 and a lot of blood, sweat and no tears (because you are as tough as a bull on steroids and you don’t cry) has paid you half a billion. That’s the Dana White net worth tale in a nutshell. The UFC sold for $4 billion. He gets 9% of that or $360 million while the Fertitta brothers get $1.6 billion each.

Dana White Net Worth from Salary

Until July of 2016, the sole source of the Dana White net worth numbers was his salary. Some online estimates place that salary as high as $20 million a year while several others claim it’s more like $15 million. Since White and the Fertitta brothers don’t publish his salary, the real figure isn’t known. We took a rough average of the Dana White salary numbers published online to arrive at $17 million in 2016. White almost certainly wasn’t making that much right off the bat though. In the early days of the UFC’s ownership by Zuffa, he more probably made something like $500,000. We used the Google Trends analysis below to gauge the UFC’s popularity in the intervening years and estimate White’s salary growth as a function of his success. Note that in the image, we’ve compared the UFC’s popularity to that of singer Drake and Leonardo DiCaprio as a measuring stick. As White grew the UFC’s renown, we grew our estimates of his salary, ending at the media-consensus of $17 million today.

Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta Net Worth

• Lorenzo Fertitta net worth: $3.22 billion
• Frank Fertitta net worth: $3.22 billion
• Combined Fertitta brothers’ net worth: $6.44 billion

Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta own Zuffa Inc., the company that sold the UFC to WME-IMG. The Fertittas were casino executives when Dana White approached them about the opportunity to buy the UFC in 2001.

Related: Michael Phelps Net Worth

Dana White Net Worth Calculations

The table below shows Dana White’s total earnings from salary and the sale of the UFC, by year. It also shows the Dana White net worth adjustments from taxes, expenses and investments. That column is negative because even though investments put up a good fight, taxes and investments are a lot bigger and beat the number down.

If you liked reading about Dana White’ net worth, try this post about Kim Kardashian’s net worth or this one about Floyd Mayweather’s net worth. All Dana White net worth data in this article are based on our analysis of income streams, tax, expense and investment calculations, estimates and media reports and are provided here for entertainment purposes only.