Dana White vs Vince McMahon: Who’s the better promoter?
When it comes to promoting combat sports, the names Dana White and Vince McMahon stand out from all others in this day and age. McMahon made WWE and by extension professional wrestling a worldwide enterprise and a commercial product with its own household names and big-time annual events. White helped mold UFC, and the mixed martial arts sport more broadly into a mainstream sport, commanding huge numbers on PPV and cable.
And so, it’s natural for the question to arise—is White or McMahon the better promoter? Each have their strengths and a striking number of similarities to how they approach business. Of course, the two men are also operating in different spheres that may have overlapping fan bases and even athletes, but nonetheless, require different approaches to branding and marketing. This article takes a five-point approach to compare these two distinctive and iconic titans of the combat sports industry.
#6 Money
The bottom line in any business enterprise comes down to money. How much money is the company—or more to the point of this article, its promoter—dealing with, and what kind of revenue is being generated.
It’s a close race between Dana White and Vince McMahon in this regard. Reports generally cite UFC having around $700 million in revenue in 2017 in what’s generally regarded as the company’s most profitable year to date. Meanwhile, Forbes reports that WWE was pulling in around $500 million in 2013, but has bettered its fortunes with each year to follow, and in 2017 reported closer to $800 million in revenue.
There’s a degree to which we’re comparing apples to oranges, given that WWE has been around for quite a while longer than UFC, and Vince McMahon has had well over thirty years to grow his business, while White has only been in control of UFC for less than twenty (and the company had been around for less than a decade prior to that. Still, for sheer dollar amounts and growth under a single promoter’s leadership, McMahon ekes out the win in this category.