During a new interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, Dana White reaffirmed that he’s still happy in his role as the UFC President well over a year since Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG) bought the company, and also indicated that Zuffa could now look to move into boxing promotion as well.
“This is what I love to do,” White said. “I’m 48 years old. This is what I jump out of bed every day and I love doing. I love working with [WME-IMG co-CEO] Ari [Emanuel]. Ari and I actually get along really, really well. And then his other partner Patrick [Whitesell] is the nicest guy in the world. I couldn’t be in a better position. I couldn’t be doing it with better people. I’m good.”
Contractually, White is still tied to the company, but he explains that there’s far more to it than just that.
“What people don’t understand is first of all, I’m still an owner. I still have an ownership position in the UFC. And yeah, I signed a contract, but no contract can keep you anywhere. I could leave tomorrow if I wanted to. I obviously couldn’t go work for somebody else, but I could leave when I want to leave. I don’t want to leave.”
What would White do if he wasn’t at the helm at the UFC though? The answer isn’t what you might think.
“If I stopped doing this, one of the things that I would focus on is making education better in Las Vegas,” White said. “I would like to work on the schools and break down the system that’s in place now, because it’s a mess.”
It doesn’t sound like that’s something he’d be looking to pursue anytime soon though, and his role at Zuffa HQ might become even more demanding as he told the WSJ that they could look to expand their reach into the boxing world in the future.
“I could see bringing boxing under our umbrella and trying to see what we could do with that,” White admitted. “I could see doing that.”
