(UFC), a mixed martial arts
organization based in the United States
.
Born in Manchester, Connecticut
on July 28, 1969, White grew up in Las Vegas
, Nevada, Ware, Massachusetts
and Levant, Maine
. White is a passionate Boston Red Sox
fan. During his youth, he bounced back and forth between Boston and Maine. He attended the University of Massachusetts Boston
but did not finish; however, while there he did launch a boxing program for inner-city youth.
White has a background as an aerobics instructor.
Do you want to be a fucking fighter!?
Fuck. (Used in its raw form, or as part of an adjective [fuckin'] in almost every sentence spoken by White.)
Actually, the father of mixed martial arts, if you will, was Bruce Lee. If you look at the way Bruce Lee trained, the way he fought, and many of the things he wrote, he said the perfect style was no style. You take a little something from everything. You take the good things from every different discipline, use what works, and you throw the rest away.
I boxed in the amateurs before getting into submission fighting and got hooked. Actually, I owned three boxing gyms in Vegas. I trained and managed fighters and had a sports management company. One day I met Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell, who I started representing, and I got into this huge contract negotiation with Bob Meyerwitz, the former owner of Tito Ortiz’s contract. Through that, Bob and I developed a mutual respect for one another.
Lorenzo Fertitta was a good friend of mine since we were kids. He and I were going to do something together in boxing anyway, so I called Lorenzo - he was down in Miami - and I said, ‘You know what, I just found out the UFC is for sale. What do you think?’ And he said, ‘That’s interesting.'
No doubt about it. The reality is, there’s nothing fake, obviously, like pro wrestling|pro wrestling, and it is the most hard-core, full-contact event in the world.
UFC is also safer than boxing because of the tap-out rule. I'll give you an example: when Roberto Duran|Roberto Duran said, 'No mas' (meaning 'no more' in Spanish) because he couldn't continue and knew he was hurt, he was ridiculed the rest of his career. In UFC, a fighter can tap out if he's in a dangerous position or believes he's going to be seriously injured.