Ultimate Fighting Championship
While working as a manager for Ortiz and Liddell, White met Bob Meyrowitz, the owner of Semaphore Entertainment Group, the then-parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). When White learned that Meyrowitz was looking to sell the UFC, he contacted his friend Lorenzo Fertitta (an executive and co-founder of Station Casinos, and former commissioner of the Nevada Athletic Commission), to ask if he would be interested in acquiring the company. In January 2001, Lorenzo and his older brother Frank acquired the UFC for $2 million (equivalent to $3.6 million in 2025); it subsequently became a subsidiary of Zuffa. White was installed as the company's president. He was also granted a stake in the company as a finder's fee and as sweat equity.
White said that when he and the Fertittas acquired the UFC, all they received was the brand name "UFC" and an old octagon. The previous owners had stripped the company's assets to avoid bankruptcy, so much so that the UFC.com website had been sold to a company named "User Friendly Computers". The first UFC cards under White's leadership, UFC 30 and UFC 31, were held in the Trump Taj Mahal, which led to the development of White's long-term friendship with Donald Trump. White re-hired Joe Rogan, who had previously conducted backstage interviews at UFC events; Rogan made his debut as a color commentator at UFC 37.5 in June 2002.
The UFC did not immediately have success after the Zuffa takeover, and by 2004 the Fertittas had invested over $40 million (equivalent to $68 million in 2025) into the company without attaining significant growth or reaching profitability. White, alongside the Fertittas and television producer Craig Piligian, developed the idea of an MMA-based reality series, The Ultimate Fighter, as an attempt to create interest in the sport. The company self-funded the show as television networks refused to pay for the cost of production. The Ultimate Fighter, particularly the finale fight between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin, is credited for having "saved the UFC". Under White's leadership the UFC subsequently developed into a highly successful business; in 2006, UFC 66 headlined by Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz generated over 1,000,000 pay-per-view buys, and by 2008 the company was valued by Forbes at $1.1 billion.
In 2010, Flash Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Government, bought a 10% stake in Zuffa for a reported $150–175 million, leaving White with a 9% stake in the company and the Fertittas with 40.5% each. In a 2011 street interview with TMZ Sports, White responded "never ever" to the question: "When will we see women in the UFC?" He later reversed this stance and in February 2013 the UFC held its first women's bout, featuring Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche. Rousey subsequently became one of the UFC's two main marquee stars in the mid-2010s, alongside Conor McGregor. The pair accounted for 4.6 million pay-per-view buys in 2015, 61% of the company's total buyrate that year, as the UFC's gross revenue reached $600 million in 2015.
In July 2016, Zuffa was sold to a consortium of investors led by WME-IMG for $4.025 billion. White owned 9% of the company at the time of the sale. White continued in his role as president, and was given a stake in the new business. In March 2019, White signed a new, seven-year contract to remain president of the UFC, as the UFC signed a deal with ESPN. In April 2023, Endeavor (renamed from WME-IMG) announced a deal that would see professional wrestling company WWE merge with UFC to form a new public company, TKO Group Holdings. White was subsequently given the title of chief executive officer of the UFC.
In August 2025, White stated the UFC had reached a seven-year, $7.7-billion broadcast deal with Paramount and CBS. Set to begin in 2026 when the ESPN contract expires, White said the deal would mean "[f]or the first time ever, fans in the US will have access to all UFC content without a Pay-Per-View model." In February 2026, White testified in Nevada Federal District Court as part of an anti-trust investigation into the UFC that he was no longer involved in negotiating contracts or matchmaking with fighters, stating that since 2017 this business has been handled by his delegates Hunter Campbell, Mick Maynard and Sean Shelby. Campbell testified that White is focused on the UFC's strategy and overall growth, stating: "I run the fight business, and [White] runs the entire company."
