MMA

Dana White Has Made More Money Than All UFC Fighters Combined

MMA


We all know that the UFC takes gross advantage of their fighters. Only the most deluded, indoctrinated fans would disagree. Dana White’s net worth has been skyrocketing lately.




By Lorenzo Fertitta’s own admission, the UFC only pays fighters about 15 percent of the UFC’s annual revenue. That’s at LEAST three times lower than leagues like the National Football League and Major League Baseball. That has made Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta, the UFC’s longtime owners, billionaires at the expense of fighters. While fighters like NATE FREAKING DIAZ were making $20,000 a year before taxes, managers, coaches and training expenses, the Fertittas were making more money than could be imagined.

They weren’t the only one making ridiculous amounts of cash, though. Dana White has also made hundreds of millions of dollars over the years, and will be making nine percent of all the UFC’s profits (which is to say, he gets nine percent of all the money he doesn’t pay fighters). According to former UFC fighter, and current plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit against the UFC, Cung Le, Dana’s made more money than the entire UFC roster has combined in all of the promotion’s history:

“It’s just a matter of time. It has to happen. You can’t have promoters take advantage of fighters. That’s just wrong. The UFC sold for $4 billion, 4.2 billion sorry, and Dana White’s made more than all the fighters in UFC history combined. That’s just wrong. Good for him but it’s not right.”

Cung Le has done a lot for the UFC over the years, and they did him VERY dirty on his way out. Photo by Sherdog.

Cung Le has done a lot for the UFC over the years, and they did him VERY dirty on his way out. Photo by Sherdog.

Le has cause to be mad at the UFC. The fighter was a special attraction for the UFC and was a brand ambassador to Asia, headlining multiple shows in Macau, China and actually working as the star of The Ultimate Fighter: China, a show that had notoriously terrible production problems that Le saved almost single-handedly.

After his final UFC fight with Michael Bisping, however, the UFC announced that Le had failed a drug test for HGH and suspended him for 9 months, which was raised to 12 because Le plead innocent. The only problem (outside of how the UFC increased somebody’s suspension for back-talking them)? The drug lab they sent it to wasn’t equipped to test for HGH, and destroyed the sample after the test, violating WADA protocol.

Cung Le is repping the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association (MMAFA) these days.

Cung Le is repping the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association (MMAFA) these days.

The UFC lifted the suspension but, when Le demanded his release and took out a lawyer, he was “Frank Shamrocked” and completely erased from UFC history, getting pulled from the video game and having his name expunged from the record books. That doesn’t sit well with Le:

“Everything I do I work hard. Whether I get paid like shit which – Ultimate Fighter China, I wasn’t a coach. I was the Dana White over there. I held it down. You see Dana White talking on ESPN News that if it wasn’t for me that show would have went under, belly up. I got paid like shit…If you think about it, with my effort and what the UFC China crew did out in China, we created enough awareness to have a Chinese investor bid for $4 billion…If I was never in the picture, if all these different shows would have never happened, what kind of outcome would have happened for Dana and for the Fertitta brothers?”

Unfortunately for Le, the UFC has effectively ended his career by freezing his contract, preventing him from competing in Bellator or other promotions. He still keeps himself busy with appearances at events and acting gigs.


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