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Dana White was born in Manchester, Connecticut, a state in the United States, on July 28, 1969. Dana, along with his sister Kelly, were raised by their mother for the majority of their childhood.
Young Dana never trained in MMA, but he seemed quite interested in boxing and had started training in the game at the age of 17. White also worked as a boxercise coach after dropping out of college twice.
Despite White having spent most of his years in Boston, the UFC boss left for Las Vegas after receiving threats from James 'Whitey' Bulger, an Irish-American organized crime boss who led the Winter Hill Gang in South Boston from the mid-1960s to the 1990s.
Recalling the incident during an interview with Fox Sports, Dana White said:
"He basically said, 'You owe us money.' It was like $2,500, which was like $25,000 to me back then, and said, 'You owe us money.' It was actually a guy named Kevin Weeks, who if you saw the trial, he's Whitey's right-hand man. I'm sure he's very prominent in the movie, but yeah basically said I owed him some money, and I didn't pay him. This went on for a while and one day I was at my place and I got a call and they said, 'You owe us the money tomorrow by 1 o'clock.' I literally hung up the phone, picked up the phone and called Delta and bought a ticket to Vegas."
After moving to Las Vegas, he once again started his business as a boxercise trainer.
During the same time around, White also started attending Brazilian jiu-jitsu training under MMA pioneer John Lewis. It was during this time that White met MMA fighters like Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, and eventually started working as their manager.
During his early managerial journey, White found out about the UFC looking for potential buyers. It was at this point that he joined forces with childhood friend Lorenzo Fertitta and his older brother Frank to purchase the promotion for $2 million.
The Fertita Brothers then appointed Dana White as president. With his business acumen and passion for the sport, White embarked on his journey to establish the UFC as the largest promoter of mixed martial arts.
Georges St-Pierre discusses who could be Dana White's potential successor
On a recent episode of the Patrick Bet David podcast, Georges St-Pierre suggested that Dana White is one of the best promoters the fight game has ever had. However, he noted that White will have to step down as UFC president at some point in the future to allow someone else to take over.
'GSP' believes that the successor must bring a distinct personality to the role, rather than mimicking the current boss.
"I don't think nobody can replace Dana White. I don't think so. I mean to be as good as he was I think someone can come and fill the hole, maybe not be like him but be better at certain things like sometimes Dana White is not very diplomatic so he could be more diplomatic but to be a promoter, to be as intense as him, there's only one guy, it's Dana White."
Watch the full podcast featuring GSP below:
