Dana White’s contact book must read like a who’s-who of American film and TV superstars, with the UFC boss going back years with a host of silver screen icons.
Many of those connections go back to before White took over as President of the UFC in 2001, including a close friendship with Hollywood legend, Mark Wahlberg.
During a recent interview with Jackass star Steve-O, Wahlberg would reveal how he first met Dana White, and how the two quickly became roommates as he sought White’s tutelage.
Mark Wahlberg on boxing training with roommate Dana White
In 2022, Mark Wahlberg moved from his residence in Hollywood, out across the desert to Las Vegas; home of both the UFC and his old friend, Dana White.
“It’s a great spot,” said the film and TV star, explaining how “What I love is that it’s a safe haven for all my kids to go – my kids hang out with his kids and they’re all friends.
“It’s a small town so when I went to Vegas, Dana was the first person I called.”
Yet it turns out that they first met not through his MMA connections but because back in the late 1990s before White was turning a sweet $4 billion profit, he was one of the more well-known boxing coaches out in Las Vegas.
“You know he was my boxing trainer? Dana and I started our relationship before I did ‘The Fighter’, I was going to do this other boxing movie called ‘Out on My Feet’ about this fighter called Vinnie Curto, who was being trained by Angelo Dundee.”
“Robert De Niro was playing Angelo Dundee, and I was playing Vinnie Curto, and Dana was referred to train me as a boxer, so Dana came out to live with me and train [boxing].”
Unfortunately, just as Wahlberg and White began training in preparation for the movie, production sadly fell apart with a 1997 Variety article citing unpaid crew salaries.
Wahlberg would still put those training sessions with White into practice as he starred in the 2010 boxing movie ‘The Fighter’ alongside Christian Bale and Amy Adams; a solid watch, if you haven’t seen that film already.
“I think he was still training other people,” continued Wahlberg on White as a coach.
“I think he started training UFC fighters because they were all just wrestlers and stuff, so he’d be teaching them how to strike.”
Dana White’s UFC ‘successor’ named after he accepts new job at Meta
Sporting legends and Hollywood icons aside, White’s contact book also includes several tech giants – including Meta boss and UFC super-fan Mark Zuckerberg.
Last week, it was announced that Dana White had officially accepted a job offer at Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – with one former double champion revealing who he thinks will be White’s eventual UFC successor.
“When was the last time you heard an executive’s name called as many times as Hunter Campbell?” questioned Daniel Cormier on 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… Just listen to the amount of fighters that not only tip their cap to Dana White but to Hunter Campbell.
As aptly noted by the UFC Hall of Famer, “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 directly about whether Campbell is being ‘primed’ to take over as UFC CEO, Cormier simply acknowledged: “Absolutely, that’s exactly what he feels like.”