Love him or loathe him, Dana White remains one of the most important and influential characters in the entire sport of Mixed Martial Arts – but there’ll come a day when the UFC CEO does eventually walk away.
That day could come sooner than many fans realize after it was announced that Dana White had officially accepted a new job offer with Meta; but who could succeed him as the new head of the UFC promotion?
Dana White joins Mark Zuckerberg on Meta board of directors
Dana White has officially joined MMA superfan Mark Zuckerberg on the Meta board of directors, the multi-national technology company that operates Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus.
The announcement was made only a few hours ago, with White stating via a press release that he’d “never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta’s board.
“I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future… I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level.”
White had previously called on Zuckerberg to help him implement an Artificial Intelligence tool to aid with the official UFC rankings, with the tech giant being a long-time fan of both the sport and promotion.
“We have massive opportunities ahead in AI, wearables, and the future of social media and our board will help us achieve our vision,” stated Zuckerberg, adding that White has guided the UFC to becoming “one of the most valuable, fastest growing, and most popular sports enterprises in the world.
“I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”
Dana White’s UFC successor named by legendary former champion
When Dana White does eventually step away from the UFC, the promotion will need to have a trustworthy and well-connected CEO take over; and former double champion Daniel Cormier believes that’ll be Chief Executive Business Officer, Hunter Campbell.
“When was the last time you heard an executive’s name called as many times as Hunter Campbell?” asked Cormier via The Bohnfire.
“He has developed a way of relating to the athletes and their managers to make fights that seem like they won’t happen or can’t happen come together.
“It was only a few years ago that he took the lead in negotiations, and I can even go back to my last fight four years ago, he called – we had built a relationship over the last few years of my career – he called with two sentences, ‘We’re going to do this for DC’, and we were done, no negatives.”
With so many fighters and managers involved in fight and contract negotiations, Cormier noted that the whole process has been streamlined by Campbell over the past few years.
“And then you build an appreciation for making the negotiations easier because at times, they can be difficult – but just listen to the amount of fighters that not only tip their cap to Dana White but to Hunter Campbell.
“A guy like him usually stays behind-the-scenes but I bet that anyone that’s been to a [UFC] event knows who that guy is now.”
When asked whether it feels like Campbell is being ‘primed’ to take over as UFC CEO, Cormier simply said: “Absolutely, that’s exactly what he feels like.”