Notes

It's difficult to discuss the future of the UFC -- or the UFC, at all, really -- without mentioning White, who has been the consistent face of the promotion since he and the Fertitta brothers purchased it for just $2 million in 2001. White is brash and foul-mouthed, and operates completely differently than any other head of a sports organization. But he's also the kind of bombastic, anti-hero figure who fits extremely well with a raw sport that features men or women fighting each other inside a cage.

White is extremely popular with UFC fans -- just listen to the reaction he gets from fans at news conferences, typically louder than the fighters -- and has his finger on the pulse of what they want.

"He is the culture of this company," UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell told ESPN in a recent interview. "And he is obsessed with greatness, and he is obsessed with being the best."

There is no official UFC succession plan after White. But White said in a 2022 interview with Barstool Sports that there is someone he believes could do the job after him. He's just not saying who it is.

"There's a formula to what we do and why we've been successful. And there is a guy, there's one guy," he said. "There are certain things that I do he wouldn't be able to do, but the important things that get done over there is what really matters. And this guy could absolutely, positively do it."

White added that "nobody would even know who the f---" this person is. One high-profile MMA agent speculated to ESPN that it could be Campbell, who is heavily involved with all the major UFC matchmaking and business dealings.

Obviously, there will also be input from TKO. In fact, that has already begun. White told Sports Business Journal recently that former WWE owner and TKO executive chairman Vince McMahon was the one who brokered the UFC's deal with Saudi Arabia. A UFC Fight Night card in Riyadh is scheduled for March 2024. It will be the UFC's first event in the country, while WWE has partnered with Saudi Arabia since 2018.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel is the big boss for both the UFC and WWE now following the merger, but he has been hands off with the UFC so far, letting White do his thing. TKO is publicly traded, too, which means shareholders and stock-price fluctuations will likely impact decision-making moving forward.

In any case, it's difficult to imagine the UFC without White as the frontman. But that day will come eventually. When is anyone's guess. White is 54 years old, yet, who couldn't imagine White in his 80s still yelling about what badasses his fighters are? Top Rank boxing founder and CEO Bob Arum is 91, after all.

"None of us are going to live forever," Epstein said. "And there's no replacing Dana White, that's for sure. But we've built a sustainable organization. This is an organization that's going to live on forever."