Sacrificing Family Time for 2 Months, Dana White Admits Tough Reality of Being UFC CEO

4 min read

In the world of MMA, the relentless demands of leadership often come at a personal cost, and it appears that UFC CEO Dana White is the latest victim of an immense workload. The 55-year-old has helped turn mixed martial arts into a global phenomenon, but success comes with sacrifices. In his quest to keep the UFC at the top, White may have overlooked the balance between his work and personal life.

Dana White took to his Instagram handle to share a story where he emphasized that he has been home only 11 days out of the first 54 days of this year. Despite the demanding schedule, he remains determined to push even harder. So far, 2025 has been phenomenal for the UFC, with the success of UFC 311, followed by UFC Saudi Arabia and UFC 312, further elevating the organization’s momentum.

Well, working day and night, Dana White has been able to pull the UFC’s fate from being on the brink of bankruptcy to becoming the pinnacle of MMA entertainment. However, many fans within the community believe that the UFC CEO might retire from the sport since his protege, Hunter Campbell has been managing the operations more and more. Well, that’s where the MMA community is wrong, as according to the UFC CEO, he is not retiring anytime soon.

LAS VEGAS, NV – March 4: Dana White meets with the press following the fights at T-Mobile Arena for UFC 285 -Jones vs Gane : Event on March 4, 2023 in Las Vegas, NV, United States.Photo by Louis Grasse /PxImages Louis Grasse / SPP PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxBRAxMEX Copyright: xLouisxGrassex/xSPPx SPP_157528

While having a conversation with Tucker Carlson, the UFC CEO revealed that he will not be retiring from the sport ever: “When we sold in 2016, 99 percent of the people said that I was going to retire and walk away. I’m not wired like that. I’m still out building new brands and doing s— that I don’t need to be doing. But I do it because I love it. Do you know how many people in a sale like mine in 2016, you never see that guy again? They’re done.”

He further added, “I will never retire. Ever. I will keep dogging this out until the day I drop dead. I love it, 100 percent.”  White’s words carry weight, considering that if the UFC CEO wanted to retire, he could have done so when the organization was sold to Endeavor for $4 billion. Instead, he chose to remain at the helm of the sport. Well, even at 55, the UFC CEO is not in the mood to halt his combat sports adventures.

Dana White and Turki Alalshikh are close to starting their own boxing promotion

“If you notice, as far as boxing goes, even as much money as Sheik Turki is throwing into this thing, television deals aren’t really abundant right now. There’s just a lot of things that I think I can do that other people haven’t done yet,” said Dana White as he updated about his own boxing promotion.  The UFC CEO gave us a sneak peek into his plans to embrace boxing, and it looks like they’re about to become a reality soon.

According to certain reports from ‘The New York Times’, Turki Alalshikh is in advanced talks with TKO Holdings, which is the parent company of UFC and WWE, to establish an Allstars boxing league that would be administrated under the parent company. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has been pumping in massive money to make the Desert nation a cradle of combat sports, Alalshikh has already saved boxing but what he needs is a boxing promotion that is regulated like UFC.

Alalshikh has long been an advocate for unifying the sport under a single organization, similar to the UFC’s structure, rather than having multiple sanctioning bodies like the WBA and WBO. Dana White held his first-ever boxing match in a UFC fight pass past September and since then he has been testing something big. Well, what are your thoughts on the UFC CEO’s persistence to work hard despite his old age? State your thoughts in the comments below.

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