"He was the guy that I needed to find" - Dana White recalls how working for a Boston boxing icon changed his life
Dana White is undoubtedly the most successful promoter in the mixed martial arts space.
So how was he able to get to his status? According to the UFC boss, he too had a master, just like the fighters that compete in his promotion.
White recalled how meeting Boston boxing legend Peter Welch helped him learn the ins and outs of the combat sports business. During an interview with Grant Cardone, White said:
"If you wanna be a doctor or a f***ing lawyer or something, you go to school, right? There's only one way to go to school for this s***. So there was this guy in Boston named Peter Welch and he was street fighting and fighting legends in Boston. I'm like, 'I'm gonna find this dude, I'm gonna approach him, and I'm gonna tell him I wanna come learn under him.' I wanna work for him and have him teach me everything."
Fortunately for him, Welch agreed to take White under his wing. According to the 54-year-old promoter, his career took off after he worked for the former Golden Gloves boxing champ:
"He took me in and I started working for him and literally, the rest is f***ing history. From the day I got with him... Everything was going like this [points his finger upwards]. That's the way I looked at it... He was the guy that I needed to find at that point in my life."
Watch Dana White's full interview below:
Dana White's rags to riches story
As Dana White once revealed on TV, his life changed drastically when he became a hotel bellboy at the age of 19. This was when he met Peter Welch, who taught him every skill he used to ascend. Under Welch, White gained experience as a boxing coach, promoter, and manager.
Years later, while teaching a group of MMA fighters, White learned that the UFC was in financial trouble and saw an opportunity. He immediately reached out to Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who became his business partners when they acquired the UFC.
Check out the image below:
🤯 Seeing a young Dana White is more mind-blowing than seeing a young Michael Van Gerwen... https://t.co/gfktimAJc4
The rest, as White said, is history. The UFC took off under the new management and is currently valued at $5 billion.