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 date 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 reportedly revealed how he first met Dana White, and how the two quickly became roommates when he sought White's custody.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Mark Wahlberg on boxing training with roommate Dana White
In 2022, Mark Wahlberg moved from his hometown in Hollywood, across the desert to Las Vegas; home to both the UFC and his longtime friend, Dana White.
“It's a great place,” the film and TV star said, explaining: “What I like is that it's a safe haven for all my kids to go to – my kids hang out with his kids and they are 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 White was one of the better known boxing coaches in Las Vegas in the late 1990s, before White made a tidy $4 billion in profits.
'Did you know he was my boxing trainer? Dana and I started our relationship before I did “The Fighter.” I was going to do another boxing movie called 'Out on My Feet' about this fighter named Vinnie Curto, who was trained by Angelo Dundee.”
“Robert De Niro played Angelo Dundee, and I played 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 film, the production fell apart with a 1997 Variety article citing unpaid crew salaries.
Wahlberg would still put those training sessions with White into practice when he starred alongside Christian Bale and Amy Adams in the 2010 boxing film “The Fighter”; a solid watch, if you haven't seen that movie yet.
“I think he was still training other people,” Wahlberg continued as a coach about White.
“I think he started training UFC fighters because they were all just wrestlers and stuff, so he taught them how to strike.”
Dana White's UFC 'successor' named after him accepts a new job at Meta
Aside from sports legends and Hollywood icons, White's contact book also includes several tech giants – including Meta boss and UFC superfan Mark Zuckerberg.
Last week it was announced that Dana White had officially accepted a job offer with Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – with a former double champion revealing who he believes will be White's eventual UFC successor.
“When was the last time you heard a director's name called out as much as Hunter Campbell?” asked Daniel Cormier about The Bohnfire.
“He has developed a way of dealing with the athletes and their managers so that fights that seem like they won't happen or can't happen come together… Just listen to the number of fighters who don't just tip their hat to Dana White taps, but also to Hunter Campbell.
As aptly noted by the UFC Hall of Famer: “A guy like him usually stays behind the scenes, but I bet anyone who goes to one [UFC] The event now knows who that guy is.”
When asked directly if Campbell is 'ready' to take over as CEO of UFC, Cormier simply admitted: “Absolutely, that's exactly how he feels.”
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