The 2020s have been a remarkable decade for the UFC and its CEO, Dana White. 2025 is gearing up to be a huge year for the sports mogul and the organization he’s built into a global powerhouse.
By pioneering live events under strict lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic, White catapulted the UFC into the mainstream at a time when live sports were scarce. Refusing to lie down led to a string of sell-out shows in the following years.
Now, White’s rubbing shoulders with President-Elect Donald Trump, and in a surprising twist, Mark Zuckerberg has appointed White to a director role at Meta – much to the bewilderment of tech enthusiasts and fight fans. Fortunately, Zuckerberg has addressed his decision.
Mark Zuckerberg credits Dana White’s ‘legendary’ business acumen as reason for Meta hiring
On The Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg clarified his intentions to hire White. What helped his process was not having to worry about being fired by his current board at Meta.
“I’m not worried about losing my job because I control a majority of the voting and the company,” Zuckerberg revealed. “So I actually get to use our board to have the smartest people I can get to have around me and work on these problems. … I just want like the best entrepreneurs, people who have created different things.”
Zuckerberg credited White’s “legendary” rags-to-riches story with the UFC as a core reason for hiring him.
“Dana [took the UFC] from being viewed as this pretty marginal thing – I mean John McCain was trying to outlaw it – I think [the UFC] and Formula 1 are the two fastest growing sports in the world. … What Dana’s done with the UFC is one of the most legendary business stories, and the brand is beloved.
“[…] He’s got a strong backbone, the conversation I had with him around joining our board was, ‘Okay, we have a lot of governments and folks around the world putting a lot of pressure on our company, we need some strong people who are gonna help and advise us on how to handle some of these situations.'”
How Zuckerberg-White could help the UFC
Nobody could have expected White to become a director at Meta, but the move isn’t entirely out of the blue. The UFC CEO and Zuckerberg were already collaborating in 2024 to address some key challenges within the UFC.
White proposed using Meta AI to overhaul the UFC rankings after his dismay at the media panel’s decision to leave Jon Jones as the No. 2 pound-for-pound talent after UFC 309.
White had already told TNT Sports a month before that he had spoken with Zuckerberg about implementing AI in the rankings.